Can anyone here play this game?

If the federal Tories' intention was to turn a potential scandal into a major scandal, well, mission accomplished:

Political parties try to control media coverage, especially when there's bad news. But rarely do high-level briefings end with senior officials running for the fire escape.

A comical scene played out in Ottawa on Sunday after a Conservative party spokesman invited select members of the press to a secret meeting in a downtown hotel to discuss allegations the Tories violated elections law. The party wanted to release documents relating to the RCMP search of Conservative offices last week.

The party is accused of exceeding the limit on national advertising by $1-million.

Ryan Sparrow, a party spokesman, sent out e-mails on Saturday inviting some media outlets to a private meeting with him, Tory campaign organizer Doug Finley and a party lawyer. News outlets were given specific meeting times at the Lord Elgin hotel.

Ottawa is a small town where nothing is a secret for long and word leaked out. By Sunday morning, the Liberal party had the hotel name, boardroom and times of the Conservative press briefings. Details spread to media outlets deliberately not invited.

[...]

Uninvited reporters were asked by hotel management to leave the building, but they refused to go. Party officials claimed yesterday the CBC and other outlets had been practically "breaking down the doors" trying to get in.

The meetings eventually broke up early before all the intended reporters had a chance to see the documents.

The Conservatives fled using the fire exit, saying they had nothing to hide but were blocked by the media scrum.

I hate to say it, but this guy has a point:

...a top Liberal Party guy was actually criminally charged on Friday in Montreal. That, too, is news - but it has completely disappeared in the wake of the Tory election fraud stuff. Interesting, that.

What does it all mean? Well, I'd venture there are a couple cautionary lessons, here: one, like Mr. Clemens once said, don't get into a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. The Tories did, for two years, and now they're paying for it. Big time.

I'm not sure this mess is enough to oust the Tories from power - the Liberals are certainly in no position to benefit from a Conservative spending scandal, and Tory voters are unlikely to migrate to the New Democrats or Greens, even as a protest vote. (In Quebec, unfortunately, "soft nationalist" Conservative voters may go to the Bloc.) But it could make all the difference between a Harper majority and another minority government.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at April 22, 2008 12:56 PM