The Decency Deficit of George W. Harper

He's studied the Republican play book, memorized every paragraph in the section on slime and imported it directly into Canadian politics. Stephen Harper has shown that he can be just as morally bereft as his American Idol, the now thoroughly discredited George Bush.

One of the lessons Harpo has mastered is that war is good. Not for the troops, perhaps, and certainly not for civilians who happen to live within several hundred feet of the arrival of a 2,000 pound aerial bomb, but, damn, it can be real goooooood for a good old boy politician. Get yourself in trouble, botch everything up, to the point where there is no handy excuse or explanation - why then use the war, use the troops, use their sacrifice, exploit the hell out of all of that to smear your critics, turning your failures into an attack on their patriotism. This is pure Bush/Cheney 101. It has no place in decent society.

Bill Graham took this to the Tories yesterday in the House of Commons, "The consistent approach" of Harper and the government is "to stifle legitimate debate about this mission (and) impugn the motives of members of this House who are every bit as patriotic as the Prime Minister and every person sitting over there."

Which prompted Tory house leader Peter van Loan to roll himself in a fresh coat of swill and reply, ""When it comes to consistency, the people of Canada know where this government stands. We stand firmly, clearly behind our troops and behind their mission."

At the end of the day this is all about decency and a basic respect for all Canadians. Harper and his gaggle of sycophants just keep showing us they have no sense of either.