Posted on 03/07/2003 11:15:14 AM PST by quidnunc
Foot-in-mouth disease is a common political affliction that, while often embarrassing both to the individual and the political party in question, doesn't necessarily indicate government policy.
Except when it keeps happening.
The latest gaffe by Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish "Damn Americans, I hate those bastards" goes beyond a slip of the tongue. Despite her attempts to soften her remarks, they're probably an accurate reflection, not of the attitude of Liberal MPs (backbench "nobodies," as Pierre Trudeau called them when he was PM), but of Jean Chretien, arguably the most petty and vindictive PM in our history.
Parrish was not just chastising American policies, nor only President George Bush, nor the U.S. military.
Not even the looming war against Saddam Hussein.
She was was referring to all American "bastards."
(She later suggested on Open Mike With Mike Bullard that next time, if there is one, she will aim her criticism specifically at Bush and a few of his top officials.)
The effect in Washington is not so much outrage or anger as resignation and disappointment.
It's what's expected from Canada these days.
It was bad enough when Chretien's communications director Francoise Ducros called President Bush a "moron" and wasn't immediately fired or reprimanded.
In fact, Chretien tried to excuse her, saying she often called him a "moron" and that Bush couldn't be a moron because he was a "friend."
Some friend! Ducros eventually resigned, which ain't the same as being fired.
Another Liberal MP, Bonnie Brown, still presumably thinks attacking Saddam is the equivalent of Hitler invading Poland or Japan attacking Pearl Harbor.
The PM himself, in the wake of 9/11, is on record as downplaying the terrorist threat and suggesting the U.S. is "arrogant, self-satisfied, greedy and with no limits," and therefore partly responsible for the terrorism that now threatens the civilized world.
In other words, all these anti-American sentiments emerging from the Liberal party are not individual indiscretions, but a depiction of what the government feels.
-snip-
While the view of the NDP's Bill Blaikie is that Bush is "planning every minute of his life to kill as many Iraqi children as he can," and Parrish's damn Yankees remarks "aren't great statements," Etzinger thinks the Americans are more understanding than we sometimes give them credit for being. This may well be, but patience, if not tolerance, is wearing thin.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at canoe.ca ...
The Alliance is the kind of Party that Bush & Co. would instantly like, and make Chretien look like a nightmare......okay, a really scary freakin nightmare. Yeah...that's more like it.
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