Come On Now

I have this image of CTV's Bob Fife spending his entire day running around trying to find fresh Liberal dirt to talk about, in between telephone calls with Lapierre (is he the only Liberal source in Quebec?). This is just a whole lot of nothingness, made to look provocative:

CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said the Liberal party obtained the injunction Tuesday night, and will be in court with Montreal's La Presse newspaper at 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday to find out whether it can keep the list out of the public eye.


Fife, calling it a "bizarre" story, said Quebec Liberal boss Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette boasted recently there were 50 Liberal candidates, including 12 "star candidates" slated to run in the province.


However, the list, which was leaked to a La Presse reporter, only had 32 names on it. When the reporter called the party looking for an explanation, officials moved forward with the court action, Fife said.


"The explanation we're being told by the Liberals here is there are these great 12 star candidates, but they don't want their names released because it could affect their jobs," Fife told CTV's Canada AM from Ottawa.


"I guess that may be the explanation but clearly what's going on is this is more of the war inside the Quebec Liberal party in the federal wing."


He said Jean Lapierre, a former Liberal cabinet minister who headed the party's Quebec efforts, said the situation is unusual because the party usually rushes to publish the names of candidates as soon as possible, before they change their minds.

I guess that might be the explanation? Sounds pretty reasonable, at least enough of an explanation that Fife shouldn't immediately use it as further evidence of the "war" in Quebec. What Fife does here- and he uses the always mischevious Lapierre as cover- is he basically suggests that the Liberals are lying to him, there are no star candidates.

Yes, if there is one thing Dion is, it's a LIAR. I mean, look at all the examples, the man is clearly morally challenged. This is not "evidence" of infighting, as Fife suggests, in fact that is a stretch of the highest order, to fit into his lazy thesis. What a hoot, Fife finds ghosts everywhere on the Liberals, but when Cadman broke, a story with incredible implications, his first kneejerk reaction, "I don't see anything here".

The king of inference, the duke of doublespeak, the prince of unfounded inneundo, I give you Robert Fife.

UPDATE:

For contrast, here is a relatively fair report:

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are in a Montreal court Wednesday trying to block a newspaper from publishing a list of party candidates lined up to run in Quebec.

The party says some of its star candidates won't run in the next election if their names are prematurely disclosed by Montreal's La Presse.

Leader Stéphane Dion says some people who've agreed to run for the party don't want their names revealed until an election is called.

His Quebec lieutenant, Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette, says some of the would-be candidates are professionals and public office holders who can't announce their candidacies without jeopardizing their current jobs.

She says some of them have told her they won't run if their names are prematurely leaked.

That makes perfect sense- but don't buy it for a second. Did Iggy leak the list?