In Saturday's Halifax Daiily News, the Canadian Press reports that beleaguered, half-dead and senile Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has a case of Rona Ambrose.
CP alleges that O'Connor has the telltale symptoms: the low- level rumblings in the Defence department, the spreading speculation around Parliament Hill, the wounded aura that sends the Opposition into full-on kill mode. In short, he's got a bad case of Rona Ambrose, symptomatic of a cabinet minister on life support.
Ambrose was shuffled out of the Environment portfolio in January when it was perceived she was mishandling a file that was a priority for voters.
O'Connor's missteps and failed communications strategies have built up steadily, including:
- Telling the Commons that the Red Cross was monitoring and reporting on the welfare of detainees handed over to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops. He had to apologize for misleading the House.
- Telling a parliamentary committee that his government had negotiated a deal with the Afghan government on the treatment of detainees. Harper contradicted him a day later, saying the agreement was being negotiated.
- He blamed departmental officials for not raising the reimbursement for funeral expenses as he said he instructed. That last gaffe was very badly received within the Defence Department, where one military source said staff were "shocked and disappointed" O'Connor laid the blame on his own people.
Now I can see the comparison on the basis of incompetence, but come on.
O'Connor is a shell-shocked former General who doesn't remember what war we're fighting and has absolutely no fashion sense. Whereas, Ambrose has great hair and was voted second sexiest and second best-dressed female MP in today's Hill Times survey.
OK - maybe they both have that same deer in the headlights thing going on afterall.
No comments:
Post a Comment