Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Dean Del Mastro Might Want to Change the Record

De Mastro's little hissy fit here is rich. These Reformers are guilty of the some of the worst sexist and racist comments ever, but more importantly, they actually act on them.

Well I guess he had another blowhard blowup yesterday because an MP twittered that he was ... hmmm ... rotund. Her tweet was actually about Del Mastro's outburst over so-called criminal activity that is discrediting Parliament. He might want to cool it. The "In and Out" court case starts Monday. Del Mastro is also in trouble at home over a little (alleged) scam he was running.

"With the air of a grievously wounded martyr, del Mastro read the text of the tweet from his BlackBerry, accusing Simson of "discrimination" -- not just against him, but every Canadian whose body shape falls outside the approved Liberal standard, (approved Liberal standard?)and even suggested that it was this kind of elitism that will keep the party from ever returning to its previous strength.

It was a masterful performance, really -- del Masterful, even -- given the fact that it was coming from a member who, just a few hours earlier, had repeatedly refused to withdraw the potentially unparliamentary comments that he made at the very committee meeting to which Simson's tweeting referred; a meeting that, as luck would have it, I was able to witness firsthand, what with liveblogging it and all."

While ostensibly questioning the witnesses -- a pair of senior PCO bureaucrats, who were there to discuss accountability for the ethical conduct for ministers -- del Mastro veered off into what can only be described as a rambling diatribe about his very favourite topic in the world, the sponsorship scandal.

No, it wasn't even close to being relevant to what was actually being discussed, but that didn't stop the honourable member from waxing indignant in retrospect over the whole affair. He did, however, manage to work the final sentence into the form of a question, demanding that the luckless bureaucrat concur that the trust Canadians have in their political institutions will continue to deteriorate until Liberal members "are held accountable for their crimes."

Given his peevish response to what was not, as far as I can see, a terribly unreasonable request to temper his words for the record, it's hard to work up much righteous outrage on del Mastro's behalf over a tweet sent by another backbencher on the other side of the parliamentary aisle, no matter how clumsy and devoid of actual wit.

And as blogger Impolitical points out, these kinds of outbursts are business as usual for this blustering fool. I wonder if he and John Baird hold contests for the most ridiculous look.

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