Some Friendly Advice (AKA: Why Harper is Nixon)

Really? Really?? Isn't this a little creepy?

Let's concentrate on the best part of that article - the opening sentence:

"A Conservative staffer is being paid through the House of Commons budget to shadow Liberal leader Stephane Dion."

Brilliant! So let me get this straight - it's an unforgivable sin if taxpayer dollars are used to fund Liberal political activities, but it's just fine for Conservatives to do it. I do just want to make sure we're all on the same page here - this is the standard being set by the government of Canada, after all. We should be perfectly clear on what they think is okay and not okay. Okay?

Well, after all he was doing "opposition research." You know who else was doing "opposition research" when he was arrested? G. Gordon Liddy. Now, I'm not saying that this is Watergate and that Harper is Nixon (well, Harper may be Nixon...) but what I am saying is that this isn't too many steps away from Watergate.

So just some friendly advice to the Conservative Party, unsolicited, 'cause I'm giving that way:

1) If you are going to recreate the scandal for which all scandals since have been named, get a better spy. Maybe whoever the mole in the Liberal camp was/is; that guy's pretty clever, and I'm sure someone inside the Big Blue Machine knows who it is.

2) Avoid recording audio evidence of your involvement in the scandal. (The question here is, is Harper as paranoid as Nixon? Well, given that he doesn't allow his MPs to go to the bathroom without his permission, I'm gonna guess that he's pretty damn paranoid.)

3) Regardless of point 1, don't hire a psycho like G. Gordon Liddy. (Seriously, Harper and Nixon are both uncharismatic, incredibly secretive old-fashioned conservatives with massive chips on their shoulders who pretend to care about the environment because it's the fashionable thing at the time but they really don't give a shit about it at all, or as Nixon put it, "I'm so sick of the goddamn environment I could die." Harper is Nixon.)