Lest it be missed

I'm not sure how this mostly escaped notice in Kady's liveblog of Ryan Sparrow's appearance before the Ethics Committee. But it certainly seems like the punchline of the week at a meeting whose focus was Allegations of Interference in Access to Information Requests:

Sparrow has no compunction about acknowledging that he is "regularly" in touch with PMO -- coordinated governmental message, remember -- and with that, Valeriote's time runs out, which means it's over to Carole Freeman, who wants to know more about the 51 "alterations" - which works out to just over 20 percent - and whether it would be possible to table those particular media requests with the committee "so we can study them." Sparrow helpfully points out that they're available under Access to Information, but the chair, even more helpfully, reminds Sparrow that actually, the committee can order that he produce any documents...

The only crime is getting caught

Yessiree, Ryan Sparrow looks to be in a heap of trouble today.

No, not for his political interference with the release of information about Olympic ad costs, as nobody took seriously the claim that the Cons planned to change their partisan meddling. But to do so by e-mail the same week that other staffers helpfully mentioned that they were no longer going to commit their orders to writing? Now that's going to draw the Cons' ire.

Then and now

Then:

"The contents of the EI working group are confidential," Ryan Sparrow, the newly installed spokesman for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, said in a brief interview.

"We hope the Liberal party maintains that confidentiality as well."

Now:

The blue-ribbon panel on employment insurance reform that saved Canadians from a summer election is not going well.

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley emerged from a summer Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill today and went straight to the waiting microphone.

The minister responsible for EI suggested the six member panel is at loggerheads and blamed Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

“Over the summer we've been conducting meetings on EI and Mr. Ignatieff and the Liberal members have publicly stated they are not willing to move off their 360 hour entry point for Employment Insurance,” she said, describing the position as “academic fantasy land.”

She said the Liberals must come forward with specific, detailed proposals that won't require a raise in taxes.

Of course, a major part of the problem has to do with the fact that the Libs chose to put themselves in a position where they have to rely on the Cons' goodwill to accomplish anything - with results that were obvious from day one. But in case anybody was operating under the misplaced belief that the Cons were suddenly going to take the EI panel as an opportunity to try being reasonable for the first time, the answer is no such luck.

Attacking themselves

Ryan Sparrow's suspension has already attracted plenty of discussion. But it's worth noting that Sparrow didn't just attack the father of a deceased Canadian soldier; instead, he attacked the father of a deceased Canadian soldier for spreading a message which the Cons themselves have pushed. Here's Gordon O'Connor in the wake of another soldier's death in 2006 (and just before the first Afghanistan extension vote):

More than ever before, we must stay the course so that the sacrifices made by the members of the Canadian Forces are not made in vain.

As a result, the story isn't just another example of the Cons reflexively picking partisan fights with anybody who dares to say anything which doesn't suit their political purposes - though it works on that level as well.

Perhaps even more importantly, though, it also highlights how little grounding the Cons actually have in the principles and positions which they've tried to sell as part of their party brand. And the fact that the Cons now consider the same words they themselves used not long ago as justification for attacks today should make it clear just how little reason there is to take seriously what they have to say during the campaign.

On astroturf

Shorter Ryan Sparrow:
Sure, Con supporters are utterly incapable of thinking and speaking for themselves. But we believe they're much happier that way.