Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Stonewall

Justice Committee chair Art Hanger doing his best "I'm taking my ball and going home" routine, after the opposition (minus the NDP) challenged his ruling on Cadman. Hanger ruled Leblanc's motion to investigate out of order. When challenged, poor Mr. Hanger left his post as chair, stomping out of the room:
Hanger says he's stepping out of the room and—refusing to serve as chair?...

He's refusing to call the vote, which means the opposition has to fill his spot...

The motion will be first on the agenda when the committee meets again, although I'm not sure when that will be, what with the chair abandoning his post.

Discussions with someone far more knowledgeable than I reveal that the clerk may have made a critical mistake by allowing the chair to stomp off without dealing with the challenge to his ruling. Apparently, that renders everything since that point of somewhat dubious procedural legitimacy.

Like little children, the way the Conservatives react when they don't get their way. Mr. Hanger was last seen trudging through the snow, on his way home. What will his mother say when she learns he forgot his mittens?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sure that technique is in the handbook all the Conservatives get, teaching them how to stop committees which are not doing what Harper wants.

BTW, did you hear that Erza Levant has been accused of being the one to post the entire Cadman book on the web? Were you speculating that it might be a conservative? I was -- I thought it might be a strategy to get this whole thing to die quickly. Just get the stuff out there, kill off the avenues of investigation, stonewall on questioning. Check. Check. Check.

Steve V said...

clh

I hadn't heard that about Ezra, do you have a link?

BTW, I read your comment at knb's place about the timing of the offer, the election prediction link, very interesting indeed.

northwestern_lad said...

Didn't they use this same tactic last year for a while???? Geeze guys, gotta come up with tricks... gotta keep it fresh... lets have this election alright damn it

Steve V said...

cam

The funniest part, apparently before Hanger stormed off, he proposed they send the matter to that committee:

"the chair—thinks the motion really belongs at Procedure and House Affairs, which is probably true, but that committee is—let's just say experiencing some technical difficulties, what with the seven months of filibustering by the Conservatives, and the fact that the current chair was elected against his extremely loud objections. It's hopelessly broken."

Anonymous said...

Here's a link

I see the article makes it clear that they don't know that Levant was the ORIGINAL poster of the book. He might have copied it. I did notice a conservative blogger saying he was sent a copy (but he didn't post it).

Yes, I found that electionprediction interesting. A record of what some anonymous posters were thinking or knew during that time.

northwestern_lad said...

Sad, sad, sad... At least the Liberals are able to come up with different strategies and variations on those strategies when they're trying to avoid a topic. And on top of that, they don't even need a copy of a "playbook" to remember them.