Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Libranos

I think the Star lead to this story says it all:

Toronto MP Joe Volpe's rocky campaign for the Liberal leadership just keeps getting more bizarre.

posted by calgarygrit at 12:51 p.m.

33 Comments:

  • This is such an embarassment for the party at a time when we don't need such negative coverage of the Leadership race.

    People will get mad at me for saying this, but Volpe should drop out of the race. He is bringing down the quality of news coverage, when we should be focussing on positive aspects of the excitement and ideas the race is creating, rather then hearing about these silly squabbles and children donating.

    Carolyn Bennet was right when she wrote her article to Globe and Mail: There is an Elephant in the Room.

    By Blogger Joshua Fraser, at 1:15 p.m.  

  • People will get mad at me for saying this, but Volpe should drop out of the race.

    I'm absolutely furious by your comments. Volpe needs to stay. He's dragging the Liberals down with him and it's absolutely delightful to watch.

    By Blogger What_The_Puck?, at 1:47 p.m.  

  • Please, please, please don't kick Joe out of the leadership race. We love him and hope he wins.

    By Blogger Intcord, at 2:02 p.m.  

  • So people that just join the party to run for the leadership is ok.

    I'm sorry whoring out the party is far worse then this.

    Now I'm not defending Volpe, but he is a long time liberal which is more then I can say for a few of the leadership contenders.

    As for Bennett comments like she hasn't. She did it for Martin.

    By Blogger Davenport Liberal, at 2:03 p.m.  

  • Ah, yes. What matters is how long one has been in the party, not the quality of their politics.

    I sure wish that Trudeau and King had put in 15 years of playing ethnic politics before they decided to run for the leadership; that would have equipped them much better.

    By Blogger Peter Loewen, at 2:20 p.m.  

  • The Elections Act is very clear about who is and is not allowed to commit leadership campaign funds for expenses such as a lease. See, for example, S.435.22(3) and (4) of the Act.

    This would tend to dispute the suggestion that JK had his name on the lease.

    By Blogger Paul, at 2:34 p.m.  

  • I find this comment by Toronto Liberal to be even more interesting. His insider information makes me wonder as to his involvement in the Volpe camp.

    By Blogger Liberal Fortunes, at 2:39 p.m.  

  • Ideally, Volpe will stay in the race and Jimmy K will hold a press conference next week announcing his support for....Jason Cherniak!

    Who needs American Idol when we have this sort of infotainment to get us through a long hot summer?

    As an aside, has anyone thought about collecting all of "Toronto Liberal"'s frothing posts about how Joe Volpe was going to be the next leader blah blah blah? As a compilation, it might make an excellent coffee table book. Just a thought.

    By Blogger Scott in Ottawa, at 3:20 p.m.  

  • Whatever.

    This is being blown way out of proportion by a media hostile to Volpe and clearly cheerleaders for the Liberal establishment that Volpe is challanging.

    By Blogger A Toronto Liberal, at 3:33 p.m.  

  • As if the Ken Dryden campaign could get any more in the muck with people like Reg "Bigman" Alcock and his former staffers already fooling around with the leadership in Manitoba, the most recent news is that Jimmy "The Greek" is now on board with Ken Dryden.

    Look for Ken Dryden (AKA: The most boring man in Canada) and his camapign to desend into Volpe level hilarity with Jimmy K on his team. Also in order for Dryden to secure Jimmy K's support I wonder if he has to spray paint a Synagouge?

    By Blogger Manitoba Liberal, at 3:46 p.m.  

  • In honour of the slow motion train wreck that is the Volpe campaign, I think we should all take a moment to pause and marvel at the wonderful contributions made by his blogosphere doppelganger over the last few months.

    Top Ten Posts by Toronto Liberal (aka Uncle Joe Volpe):

    10. “Volpe is going to surprise so many smug Liberals and the media as well. He has the organization to go along way.”

    9. “The days when elitist snobs like Calgary Grit and Paul Wells can play in the backrooms to get stuffed suits like Kennedy or Ignatief elected are over. Joe Volpe is going to be a fresh breeze for the Liberal Party.”

    8. “Joe Volpe is the man to beat in this race!”

    7. “Ignatieff might as well just give up, he has no future in a Volpe lead party”

    6. “To all the haters. You will be surprised.”

    5. “Mr. (Paul) Wells. STFU”

    4. “As a proud Volpe fan I will admit that he does not have a lot of strength in the rural, backwards part of the country.”

    3. “Fuck You and Fuck the entire province of Alberta.”

    2. “Volpe is going to crush pinko leftist Kennedy.”

    And the number one post from Toronto Liberal is:

    1. “I wonder if you will find me funny when I have a job in Joe Volpe's PMO and little punks like you have to come and beg me for a job.”

    By Blogger Scott in Ottawa, at 3:49 p.m.  

  • Thank you Scott.

    I like #4:

    4. “As a proud Volpe fan I will admit that he does not have a lot of strength in the rural, backwards part of the country.”

    So proud in fact that he remains anonymous!

    By Blogger Ted Betts, at 4:48 p.m.  

  • Toronto Liberal is glad you find me so worthy of a internet crush.

    It shows how worried a lot of you are about the Volpe team across the country.

    By Blogger A Toronto Liberal, at 4:55 p.m.  

  • it sickens me to see people like bart and toronto liberal in my party. stop talking poorly about other candidates as the two of you have done for the last few weeks, and talk about your candidate. negative campaigning is not going to win it for anyone, including your candidate bart.
    clearly, our party just like other parties has many people playing dirty politics, just like Ignatief's team did when they feared Volpe's strength, and leaked a story on him about the child donations. It would be nice to see all candidates in this race (and the conservative party too) declare what donations they have accepted from those under 18.

    By Blogger kenlister1, at 5:00 p.m.  

  • Yes.

    Clearly Bart and Toronto Liberal are one in the same in terms of their attacks on other candidates.

    :rolleyes:

    Grow up.

    Joe Volpe deserves every attack he gets. It's not dirty politics when all you are doing is reporting the truth. To ignore Volpe and his scum supporters as an issue of party unity would be doing a diservice to the Liberal Party and our honest members.

    By Blogger Manitoba Liberal, at 5:06 p.m.  

  • Hey don't bash Bart.
    He may be suppoting Kennedy and be promoting his candidate a bit but he is one of the most fair bloggers out there. When he critisises it is fairly done. He has gone after my candidate but never been unfair.

    KTR, nice smear of iggy by accusing him of releasing the kiddie donation story, of course you realize Volpe himself put it out on the web, you do not deserve to lick the screen that Bart's writing appears on.
    Josh Fraser: right on Volpe has no chance of winning and if he really cared about the party he would quit before he hurts us more.

    By Blogger Aristo, at 5:26 p.m.  

  • Whoa now - Bart doesn't deserve that kind of treatment. He never has, and doesn't today. He's made very gentle fun with Volpe, and Volpe's missteps have earned him that gentle fun. John Stewart doesn't have the restaint that Bart does - I don't see people "sickened" at Stewart.

    Bart, in the style of Stewart, has never said anything malicious or cruel or ignorant about Joe Volpe. As a blogger and not a professional comedian, Bart's known his place isn't jokes, and has stuck to a very, er, "measured" tone of gentle fun.

    He's a good guy who is balanced and cool, and no one should talk like that to or about him.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 5:43 p.m.  

  • This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 5:44 p.m.  

  • ok fine, he has been fair and wonderful. everyone else who has a blog should stop writing about candidates they dont like, and start talking about the issues, and what they like in their candidate. Personal attacks will get us nowhere.
    I am not supporting Iggy, but i will not bring up arguments why people should not support him. the comment about his camp leaking the story was factual though. that is what we dont need in our party.
    FYI: Volpe submitted the names and amounts to elections canada, as did all other candidates. age and parent occupation was not released by any campaign our required by elections canada. that was leaked in order to smear.

    By Blogger kenlister1, at 6:11 p.m.  

  • ktr: what proof do you have about that leak.
    None?
    I thought so.
    You are the one who should stop posting since you are the liar and smearer

    By Blogger Aristo, at 6:15 p.m.  

  • I agree with "no personal attacks", but here's the thing: Bart hasn't really made any of what I would call "personal attacks". He's kidded.

    A personal attack is rooted in anger, not in jest.


    *IF* that donation info really was leaked to the press - thank fucking god for it. That was dishonest and disgusting. I wouldn't accuse Volpe of personally being aware of it - it's very possible he wasn't. But big business cheating on campaign donations isn't what Canadians want, and if it's around, it should be outed.

    Whoever leaked it - good on them. And if anyone else in the campaign is doing the same or a similar thing - they should be outed, too.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 6:35 p.m.  

  • Attacks are rooted in lies. ie "Paul Martin wants homeless people to die".


    When you are scum sucking dirtbag like Joe Volpe and people just report the facts that confirm your scumsucking dirtbag status that is not an attack, but a helpful reminder to the voting public.

    By Blogger Manitoba Liberal, at 6:38 p.m.  

  • I personally have no problem with people bringing up reasons why we shouldnt choose a particular leader (ie Volpe is sleazy, Ignatieff spent too long as an ex-pat and supported the Iraq war, Rae cant win Ontario). If we dont do it now, THEY (the other parties) will do it later.

    By Blogger KC, at 7:08 p.m.  

  • I think there are a lot of fair criticisms people can make about candidates and it doesn't hurt to say them now. If you think Dion's female representation policy is bad, say so. If you think Kennedy's french is bad, say so. If you think Ignatieff's foreign policy views are bad, say so.

    And the Volpe stuff...well...I think he kind of brings it upon himself.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 9:08 p.m.  

  • ktr:

    It's not mean if its true.

    Manitoba,

    Jimmy K is not on the Dryden team, that was a joke post on Fuddle Duddle written by Alex, who works for Iggy in Montreal.

    By Blogger S.K., at 9:36 p.m.  

  • There's nothing wrong with accepting donations from children.

    There's everything wrong with laundering campaign donations by passing it from a corporation to parents to children.

    By Blogger matt, at 12:45 a.m.  

  • Wow, another anti-Volpe post on calgarygrit. *rolleyes*

    He leads in memberships. Period. Yo guys are going to have to do the math at some point and face the fact that there are 4 campaigns with a chance, and his is one.

    The fact that Jimmy K is gone bodes well for him.

    By Blogger RedMapleLeaf, at 12:49 a.m.  

  • Go Hey!!!!


    GO Joe!!!~!!\

    Sytncro

    By Blogger syncrodox, at 2:21 a.m.  

  • I agree Bart has always said he disliked Volpe.

    I do have a problem when we keep feeding a Harper PMO the info their going to beat over the head with in the next election.

    And Well, Kyles' post makes it offical the Kennedy Camp is on the attack.

    What the hell?

    Well,

    By Blogger Davenport Liberal, at 5:31 a.m.  

  • Man Lib et al: Not that I'm defending Volpe or the Apotex scandal, but personally, I'm far more concerned about Ignatieff's cryptic support of torture and the justification for the efficacy of war as a means of democratization than anything Volpe's done.

    In the end, all this stuff is relatively minor. Bad blood between Jimmy K and Volpe? Minor. Karygiannis misrepresented Volpe's foreign policy views, caused a minor firestorm over it, and was relieved. All the story Bart links to was showing is that there's fallout from that; it's no different than when Joe Trippi and Howard Dean parted ways.

    That said, let's be honest here; a LOT of the calls for Volpe to drop out of the race are coming from loud supporters of other candidates that Joe is unlikely to hand off his candidates to. Thanks to that delegated convention the Liberals are using, Ignatieff's supporters have every reason in the world to yell for Volpe to quit; it could well be that Volpe's support ends up putting someone else "over the top". With it becoming increasingly unlikely that Ignatieff is going to be anybody's second choice, this matters a great deal.

    (As for the Kennedy supporters...damned if I know. Maybe they want to scoop up Volpe's immigrant support.)

    By Blogger Demosthenes, at 10:09 a.m.  

  • I hope Harper attacks the Joe Volpe and Jimmmy K as much as he possibly can.

    If we can't get rid of our scumbags Liberal MP's in the nomination meeting, than I would rather have a Tory in their seats for an election than either of them sullying the Liberal brand.


    Sheila Copps got booted after running for leadership last time, it would only be fair to return the favour to Joe.

    By Blogger Manitoba Liberal, at 2:36 p.m.  

  • And Well, Kyles' post makes it offical the Kennedy Camp is on the attack.

    I dont speak for the Kennedy campaign. I speak for myself, and I think that if there are liabilities for the various candidates they should be aired now so we consider them when we choose our next leader. We can either air our concerns now, or the other parties will later. Its not like the baggage carried by the various candidates are secrets that, if we are quiet enough, the other parties wont know.

    By Blogger KC, at 3:45 p.m.  

  • Too many options... all of the tory moles are now conflicted. Volpe, Hedy, or Jimmy the K? Decisions, decisions, decisions!

    Have fun all, please keep up the circular firing squad!

    By Blogger Hey, at 4:11 p.m.  

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