New Liberal smear attempt backfires (en francais)

Most of the Adscam scoundrels have been neutralized, but it seems they left their bag of dirty tricks behind.

Scott Brison began on Thursday with his attempted smear of Stephen Harper and the NCC. Now, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Paul Martin, Ruth Thorkelson and Liberal MP Judi Longfield have been caught out preparing for the next smear.

There's nothing more dangerous than a Liberal afraid of losing power.

You may remember Thorkelson. She's one of those lobbyists that Paul Martin and the Liberal's are so fond of. I guess some people are really starting to believe that the gravy train is about to end.

Edit: Stray e-mails outline Liberal plan to attack top Tories
Peter O'Neil
Vancouver Sun
Monday, November 07, 2005


Liberal e-mails misdirected
Man regularly receives detailed messages with inside information from government(subscription only)

Peter O'Neil
CanWest News Service

Monday, November 07, 2005

OTTAWA - An exasperated B.C. businessman has gone public with misdirected e-mails he regularly receives detailing inside information from the Liberal government, which included party tactics and sensitive data such as credit card numbers.

Bill Sadar's final straw, he said, was an e-mail last week outlining a scheme involving Ruth Thorkelson, one of Prime Minister Paul Martin's closest political advisers, aimed at discrediting two of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's star candidates.

Thorkelson, who left her post as Martin's deputy chief of staff in August, sent a message to Liberal MP Judi Longfield outlining plans to leak to "a friendly media outlet" accusations Tory candidates Jim Flaherty and John Baird are violating the Canada Elections Act. Thorkelson proposed that Longfield, whose Ontario seat of Whitby-Oshawa is being challenged by Flaherty, issue a news release the day after the leak to take advantage of the controversy.

The e-mail, however, ended up in Sadar's computer because Thorkelson copied her plan to John Brodhead, a political aide to Infrastructure Minister John Godfrey.

"Today I got some guy asking someone else for lunch. You know, I get a variety. I get baby pictures, I get jokes, I get lunch dates, I get Liberal announcements. I get all kinds of crap," Sadar said. "What pushed me over the edge was the Thorkelson thing. That was too much for me. I don't want to see that crap and I don't like it, because it sounded underhanded.

"I don't like the way they do business that way. I guess I'm slightly influenced by the Gomery thing that's going on."

The worst part it, the Liberals don't really see anything wrong with this. Thorkelson's major sin is that she got caught trying to do it.