Saturday, October 19, 2019

Oh, So That's the Burr Under Warren's Saddle



Our friend wrote a cryptic post this morning, "The Source."

It seemed to attack CBC and the Globe for using an unnamed source who allegedly is/was anti-Semitic and light-fingered. Apparently WK had a falling out with a Daisy staffer who, on his way out the door, made off with a few documents.

Hard to make any sense of it but it did invite a visit to the CBC and Globe web sites. And there it is.

Our friend's Daisy Group, it is claimed, has been working for Scheer's Tories to derail Maxime Bernier's PPC campaign.

Both news outlets report having received a raft of Daisy Group documents laying out the plan, one being an invoice for services rendered.

From his start as a Liberal stalwart, WK has become, in recent years, politically promiscuous. Business is business. He's not the first to play the political field nor will he be the last. I wouldn't read much into that. But there was this part from the Globe story that caught my eye:
A Daisy Group document describing the project says “Daisy’s war room campaign goals will be to place Bernier and PPC on the defensive” and to “work to attempt to ensure that Bernier and the PPC are not included in national leaders’ debates. If unsuccessful in blocking his participation, Daisy will work to ensure that Bernier and his party are weakened to the point of being ineffective.” 
Senior Daisy Group employee Rob Gilmour outlined the plan in the document. 
He noted that Daisy Group’s role could meet Elections Canada’s definition of third-party activity, a move that would require the filing of disclosures on its political activities. “Daisy will create an arm’s-length organization that cannot be linked to the client or any participating organization,” he wrote. He later added, “If possible, Daisy will work to ensure this campaign is not named as a third party.”
What this means I surely don't know. It could be nothing more than innuendo and who knows better on that score than our friend. Still it raises some interesting questions that could use some answers.

We may get those answers before long. CBC reports that Maxime Bernier has filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Elections Canada to get to the bottom of this. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier has filed a complaint to the Commissioner of Canada Elections to get to the bottom of what he called a "secret" smear campaign waged against him. 
During a news conference Saturday, Bernier said the party will retain legal advice and will use all tools at its disposal to get answers on the Conservative Party of Canada's potential role in that campaign.
I'm not sure what just happened but WK has announced that he's quitting twitter and facebook. He says he's ill but that could mean anything. Most of the folks I know who reach a certain age have some sort of condition or illness. That's life.

What I found curious was his contention that he can't respond to questions about the controversy lest he be disbarred. He seems to be raising the defence of solicitor-client privilege but this hardly seems to have anything to do with rendering legal services. Serving as a political operative through Daisy, a public relations firm, is a very far stretch from a legal relationship. It seems that he's reaching. It sounds seriously contrived.

As the day closes, my take on this whole thing is that, providing Daisy did not run afoul of our election laws, it's really not a big deal. Trudeau's fan boys are gushing in delight that their guy's tormentor has perhaps been brought low. WK has earned their enmity with his over-the-top campaign against JT. It concerns me that he is raising this solicitor-client confidentiality business. That sounds a bit desperate. From Scheer's remarks, Daisy was at best a "vendor" and that's far from being counsel.

Let's not kid ourselves. Nobody cares about Bernier. He's an odious character and his operation attracted a core but limited group of sordid followers. If he's got a grievance the commissioner can sort it out. All we know is that Daisy et al set out to derail Bernier's campaign but what they actually did in furtherance of that remains to come out. That could be interesting. It might not be.

As for our friend and his pull on our heartstrings - ditto. He too is an odious hack, a shameless tout, utterly undeserving of compassion. His pity party is abhorrent. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

19 comments:

rumleyfips said...

Poor ol Wornout . Having to resort to the same old excuse every bullying , low talent manager has ever used: it was disgruntled employee. Doesn't he realize that using that old canard shows his own failure ?

Ben Burd said...

I just hope that this episode will put the boots to the idea that Kinsellashit is a 'guru' I notice, as you did, that he slagged off the source but failed to refute the story. With his tendency to sue everybody in sight the offends him I though that was rather strange.

It is going to be fun watching this odious thin-skinned reptile try to claw back his reputation as an unbiased intelligent pundit. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

WILLY said...

Finally recognition for my astute reporting back in March 17th.

https://justanotherwillyloman.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-conservative-war-room-for-hire-has.html

Thank you, thank you very much :D

The Mound of Sound said...


Willy, you're so welcome. Bask in your belated glory and rejoice.

Jim Parrett said...

To anyone sued by or settled a suit with the litigious Kinsella for saying exactly what everyone now is realizing is the truth, the outpouring of outrage over WK's lack of integrity is sweet justice indeed.

The Mound of Sound said...

I don't know what he realizes, Rumley. I really don't even know just what he's done. As I mentioned, there's an element of innuendo to the reportage which, ironically, happens to be the Fenian's stock in trade.

The Mound of Sound said...

Ben, this may give us something for our amusement in the post-election letdown. Let us pray. Wait, I don't do that.

The Mound of Sound said...

Well Jim, what a blend of Schadenfreude coupled with backpfeifengesicht.

Anonymous said...

This story is BIG. But too late in coming.

Unfortunately, a LOT of damage has been done over the last 12 months or so. I've complained to the organizer of Progressive Bloggers that he's far from 'progressive', but the site owner has yet to bump him from the site.

This latest news makes me sick. If it's true, how much to sell out Canada? It begs other questions, especially about #LAVSCAM !!!! and his relationship with JWR and others. And how and why he kept that story going.

Maybe all of the ProgBlog members should pull out of the site as a in protest?

Anonymous said...

So am I to understand that this unethical sleazeball was already under contract to the Conservatives when he accepted business from the Greens? Working for two competitors at the same time? I trust that’ll put a dent in future business.

UU

Anonymous said...

Want to read how Kinsella was operating a decade ago? There's a pretty nasty Macleans article from 2009 on the man. I was searching to see if anyone had been brave enough to criticize him and leave the criticism up online as it were. Being sue-happy, there's bugger all out there that anyone has left up just in case the man sues you just for his own reasons. But there's this one!

Note, this article takes a while to load from the archives, but don't despair, it'll happen eventually. Of course a decade ago, WK was a Liberal man although he had an ongoing suit directed at Paul Martin. And the Cons hated his guts. I found it delicious reading. And then today happened.

https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-prince-of-darkness-is-back-in-the-liberal-fold/

BM

The Mound of Sound said...

Anon 3:20, I wouldn't get too exorcised about ProgBlog. It's been handy to keep an eye on our friend's obsession with JT. Better that stuff is out in the open where we can find it.

The Mound of Sound said...

UU, it's not clear whom he was working for and when. I expect the details will emerge in due course. It should be interesting.

The Mound of Sound said...

Thanks for the link, BM. I haven't had that good a laugh for a while. Precious.

Anonymous said...

Ironically, a couple of Saturdays ago, WK's spidey sense was tingling about the Globe about to publish an expose of JT banging an underage student, and we waited all weekend while it did not get published, then we heard they were paid off when in fact they had investigated and found it not true.

Now we see the star and post have published their endorsements, but we're still again waiting for the Globe. With this story still on the front page, it's hard to just follow the owners' orders and just say vote CPC anyway.

the salamander said...

.. my impression from 'The Statement' was that Mr Kinsella was 'sick'' of the political lunacy and how he and everyone close to him is now emeshed... And that he knows now this dreadful misadventure or business is about to collapse all over him. He appears to be crashing suddenly.. snd far harder than Kouvalis before him.. I suspect he will 'disappear himself' .. watch and wait

In reality though, its Scheer, Hamish Marshall & the entire CPC who are about to suffer the Kinsellla Boomerang phenomena.. a new malady that comes with the reveal that your political party is actually a gathering of diseased dirtbags.

The whole enterprise reminds of the Kenney 'kamikase' leadership scandal. Not content to 'win' .. a Party or Faction must 'crush or destrop' an opponent, by sny mesns possible.. salt their fields, poison their wells, burn their crops.. Now we see how Scheer gets crucified for his disgusting defense.. or evasion.. of a basic simple question, repeated and repestedly asked.. ie.. Hkw could you be so stupid or mslignant ??? Did you actually pay to try and crush Bernier and the PPC ???

The Mound of Sound said...

Scheer is looking a bit of a creep. Whether that has more or less impact given that we're nearing election day is, I suppose, anyone's guess.

As for Kinsella you would think he would take pride in his skulduggery. Isn't that what he so boastfully sells?

I want to know whether WK's relentless attacks on JT were part and parcel of his services to Scheer's Tories. If they were then he really abused his privileges at ProgBlog.

Purple library guy said...

Perhaps WK means that he has performed actions that would get him disbarred, and talking about the subject might involve admitting to them . . .

The Mound of Sound said...

I can't reach that level of speculation, PLG. To me it came across as someone struggling to come up with an excuse, anything that might plug the hole. After all, he compared his legal exposure to that of JWR where it was pretty clear to any legal mind. In WK's case there's nothing as yet that would suggest it's not just a contrivance.