"Velvet Touch"? Oh, Come On.

When I heard about Jack Layton getting smeared about getting an innocent massage at a Toronto rub'n tug nearly twenty years ago, I thought it was just that - a smear.

I didn't know it was true until Jack's wife, Olivia Chow, told reporters that Jack had told her about it and his run in with police at the time, way back when.

That's when I began to wonder about this massage parlour.   When I practised in Vancouver there was one of these joints above a nearby restaurant we often frequented.    As I recall it went by the name of "Swedish Touch" and nobody remotely sentient had any doubt about what sort of touching went on in there.

Now there are plenty of legitimate massage therapists in Vancouver and, if they have a trade name at all, it's usually the therapist's own.  So that got me wondering just what was the trade name of the spot Jack frequented.  According to the Toronto Sun, the establishment went by "Velvet Touch."

Oh, come on.  Layton is allegedly caught in the room with an "attractive, 5'10" Asian woman" in the Velvet Touch?  Bringing it up at this point is a blatant smear job but, in my opinion, the ever sanctimonious Jack is as much to blame for that as anyone else.

Layton Attacks - Brace Yourselves, There'll Be More

Layton and the NDP haven't wasted a minute airing their first round of attack ads. Nothing surprising there, Ignatieff practically wrote them himself.

Jack is now positioned to do what he did so effectively to Stephane Dion; paint the Liberal leader as a feckless stooge of Stephen Harper. He can already make a plausible argument that there exists a Tory-Liberal coalition, that Steve and Mikey are peas in a pod.

The NDP attack ads are just the beginning. Secure in their third party status, the New Democrats have everything to gain and nothing to lose by depicting Harper and Iggy in bed together and then positioning the NDP well clear of them.

All you Liberal strategists who claim that Iggy's propping up Harper's pathetic stimulus/recovery budget somehow positions Ignatieff to hold the whip hand over the Cons, to simply pull the pin at a moment of his choosing, miss the point. To bring down Harper, the Libs will need the support of the NDP and the Bloc and I think Ignatieff has given them solid grounds to refuse, saying "you made your bed, sleep in it."

What was supposed to be a three ring circus is a thing of the past.

It frustrated me to no end to watch Jack Layton repeatedly out maneuvre Stephane Dion, something that damaged the Libs in the last election and really helped out Jack. Now I fear Layton is going to be able to effectively depict Michael Ignatieff as just a continuation of feckless Liberal leadership.