Update on the Grewal Affair: The Grewal Pool
I asked Stephen Harper to come clean. It was free, non-partisan advice from a Dipper to a Con. Advice that could have saved us all from facing a bitter electorate, that could have helped restore some faith in our political system.
Stephen Harper chose not to listen to me (ok, I'm sure a lot of others gave him the same advice, but this is my blog!).
And now, it appears, there is growing evidence, even from those that support the Conservatives, that the tapes have been altered. Buckets of Grewal has a nice dissection of one bit. CFRA, the aforementioned Conservative-friendly source, has their own audio engineers stating that they believe the tapes have been spliced and altered, even calling it "Amateurish". As a former student of Carleton University's School of Journalism in the '80s, I can tell you, this kind of editing is easy to do - a few cuts with a razor and a bit of scotch tape and you're done. Despite what some of the CFRA callers would like to believe, VOX microphones and "speed" button miscues leave a completely different audio signature than an edit. When you do this for a living, its easy to tell the difference. And as a resident of Ottawa, I can tell you if the CFRA engineers thought the clicks could have been made by a different cause, they would be reporting that. This station has Lowell Green and Michael Harris (of the Sun Newspaper chain) as on-air personalities. Not exactly a Liberal-loving bunch.
And to top it off, Ujjal Dosanjh is claiming he has two other "independent experts" saying the same thing. Dosanjh is pointing a finger squarely at Stephen Harper as well.
While the Conservative are throwing around the same tired innuendo about "offers" and "integrity" to bash the Liberals, the Liberals seem to be coming back with physical evidence to show the same, if not worse, about the Conservatives. I mean, we can argue 'til the cows come home as to whether Tim Murphy or Dosanjh "hinted" at "possible" benefits "down the road" if Grewal switched and whether it was unethical, illegal or both. But it is getting clear that the physical evidence showing that at least Grewal (and possibly others) altered, tampered with or outright manufactured evidence against the Liberals.
Now, tell me again which is worse? Which side has now lost the "moral authority to govern?"
I suspect Mr. Grewal will have some more explaining to do very soon, and in the presence of his lawyer.
I'd like to start the "Grewal Pool." How long do you give Gurmant Grewal? Pick the date of his "retirement" from politics, the Conservative Party of Canada or both. Post them in the comments. Winner gets the accolades of all the Dippers and Progressive Bloggers.
I think he will be done everything no later than June 14th, 2005, after the Mounties forensic team gets through with the tapes.
posted by Mike @ 3:28 PM
18 comments
18 Comments:
The forensics may take a while since they have to analyze all the tapes - and they will INSIST upon the originals.
I say Grewal gets kicked from the CPC caucus by June 22.
I wonder what will happen to his wife?
Yeah, she is either another innocent victim in all this or the mastermind behind it all (Gurmant doesn't strike me as terribly bight). I can'tell which. I do feel bad - her name is being dragged through the mud and she can't (or won't) say anything in her own defence.
Pitiful
I'll take the longshot bet: Harper will lose the next election and then resign, and Grewal will win the leadership.
He's a perfect fit.
Regardless of the tape being edited, it does not discount the fact that the Liberals were engaging in a vote buying spree.
Furthermore, I doubt I would be giving any precedence to two radio hacks's opinion of the tape.
As most Liberals say 'let Gomery' decide...I think the same thing goes for this affair, let the RCMP decide.
Anon,
The RCMP don't even have an official investigation yet.
Listening to the tape 'edits', and knowing Grewal's history, and seeing that Grewal's claims of what he was offered aren't on the tapes, tells me that this is highly suspect.
Furthermore, if someone wants to cross the floor don't tell me that the the potentially receiving party won't sit down and talk.
I don't see a vote purchase here. Indeed, Grewal gave up because he couldn't get a decent offer.
I'm obviously buying less and less into this 'sting' argument. Why? I covered that on my blog.
Mike,
Go join Progressive Bloggers. Scott Tribe, one of the admin people there, is looking for you.
Email him at stribe at kelcom1.igs.net
Mark - Done. I've e-mailed Scott as well.
I don't think he will resign - this guy will go down in flames a la Jag Bhaduria.
Well, I actually didn't think he'd resign. But "retirement" can many forms.
Jag Bhaduria is retired.
Grewal could get help in his retirement from the RCMP, Stephen Harper and the voters in his riding. I would hope his wife would help him as well.
Which ever way he rtires, his days in the House are numbered. Feel free to guess as to when that last day will be
I think it will happen tomorrow (Friday) afternoon at 7 pm. (That is the point in the news cycle where it will do the least damage to the Conservatives.)
Grewal will quit before Tim Murphy or Dosanjh but really, they should all be going to jail.
I'm still not sure how the CPC is going to spin this yet. Their faithful lapdog Coyne was on the National tonight, still claiming that the tapes were unaltered and continued to criticize Dosanjh for what should now be obviously questionable dialogue. If they try to hold to this dubious approach, they could keep Grewal on as a backbencher until an RCMP investigation -- perhaps until much later this year.
But I find that to be such a highly questionable strategy that I don't think Harper would do that. At this point, Grewal stands little chance at retaining his seat so regardless of the RCMP investigation he is a liability to the CPC. With a Winter election still most likely, it makes more sense to replace Grewal sooner than later, and focus on criticizing the Liberals and Grewal together like they should have done in the first place. So I agree with buckets, I think tomorrow evening is a very logical guess.
Grewal is playing a game where the Liberals are the masters. TRhat is why the Liberals have stayed in power so long.
Now you can talk about vote buying etc. It has been done before many times.
Anyone remember Stockwell Day getting his shot at Parliament. That only cost the Alliance $50,000 for the MP to resign.
Well, it looks like Grewal survived Friday night. If he makes it through tomorrow, it might not be until new revelations come in.
i don't think he'll go anywhere. that party has a history of hanging on to the dopes long after the rest of the world has written them off.
I give him till June 10th. I also predict that he will be pushed out instead of leaving on his own accord.
I agree with Robert, I don't think Gurmie is going anywhere. This is a party that has Rob Anders, Stockwell Day, and a plethora of MPs who should've been turfed long ago. Short of Grewal being tossed in jail he isn't going anywhere until the electorate toss him out on his ear.
I'm going for this week still. Surely the 'smoking transcript' at my bucketsofgrewal.blogspot.com (in which we find him bragging that he would be "easily" elected as a Liberal in his election, nakedly asking for a senate seat for his wife and a cabinet post for himself (both refused), and declaring that he would not cross because he would be a cabinet minister in the Conservative government.
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