Little comment necessary

Canada's supposed natural governing party in action:

Party officials provided reporters with three different times and two different locations for a leadership candidates' forum on Monday night.

Leadership contenders were given only a few hours notice that they'd be given a few minutes each to speak at a party rally Wednesday night.

The rally turned out to be a cocktail reception and by the time the candidates were introduced, the well-lubricated crowd was so boisterous that contenders had to shout to be heard above the din.

Martha Hall Findlay issued a piercing whistle to try to bring the crowd to order. She was ignored, as were all the other candidates...

Mercer declined to comment on another, more serious foul-up which the various leadership camps blamed squarely on party headquarters in Ottawa: The release Wednesday of the latest lists of donors to each of the leadership contenders.

The party posted the lists late in the day on its website, pages of donations that were not tallied to provide totals for any of the candidates.

Reporters were in the midst of adding up the numbers themselves when the party shut down the website, having discovered that it had inadvertently posted the home addresses and phone numbers of the candidates.

Privately, senior organizers with various camps were furious that the party had not posted tens of thousands of dollars worth of donations which had not yet been processed by the party, through which donations are funnelled for the purpose of issuing tax receipts.

The party has been taking three weeks or more to process donations, a delay that most cash-starved camps find incomprehensible.

Moreover, some camps were irate that the reporting of donations was inconsistent from candidate to candidate. For instance, loans were reported for some candidates but not for others...

The confusion had senior organizers privately grumbling about the "incompetence" of party officials and demanding a thorough "house cleaning" at headquarters.

Several insiders suggested party officials know their jobs will likely be over once a new leader is chosen in December and are, thus, putting in only half-hearted effort now.