On animal instincts

The CP reports on this week's Ethics Committee hearings looking into Conadscam. And for all the justified talk about how the Cons still haven't come to terms with the fact that they're not currently in opposition, Lib MP Dominic LeBlanc offers a strong indication that the Libs still haven't come to terms with their change in roles either:

(D)espite Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent warning about "Kangaroo court" committee inquiries in the Commons, Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc says the opposition is prepared to go as far as it can in questioning the Tories over $1.3 million in questionable advertising expenses from the 2006 election.

LeBlanc noted Harper didn't object when one of his opposition Conservative MPs chaired another Commons committee during a highly charged inquiry into the sponsorship scandal under a Liberal government.

"When the chief kangaroo was the chair of the public accounts committee then, they didn't mind going to the zoo," said LeBlanc.

So what's wrong with LeBlanc's phrasing? Consider that it would have been at least as accurate for LeBlanc to do that by drawing a similar equivalence to the previous investigation of the Libs but on positive terms: "when they were in opposition, they were able to use the committee procedure to investigate government wrongdoing. Now, it's similarly in the public's best interest for us to do the same".

That would have the effect of reinforcing the opposition's role of holding the government to account, while highlighting the Libs' commitment to doing just that for Harper as the Cons did for them. But instead, LeBlanc's phrasing unconditionally accepts the "kangaroo court" description, hinting at apparent bitterness over the fact that the Libs were caught while in office. And his means of justifying an unfair process (as any actual kangaroo court would be) is the tired refrain of "but they did it too".

All of which serves not only to delegitimize next week's hearings, but also to signal to Canadians that the Libs still think they should be both in office and above the "zoo" of parliamentary investigation. And the fact that the Libs have managed to live through over two years of Deceivin' Stephen without even slightly cluing into the fact that holding the government to account is an essential function of opposition rather than a matter of entertainment shows that they're a long way from being fit to take power themselves.