Categories: Andrew Coyne, Capital Read

Liberals' new unity!

by Andrew Coyne on Thursday, December 11, 2008 6:10pm - 29 Comments

Lawrence Martin reports from Camelot-on-the-Rideau:

He is lacking in a common touch, as most patricians are, and in a party that needs mending, this will be a problem. Some Liberal MPs find him coldly arrogant. They cite his performance at a caucus meeting last Friday where he warned, perhaps wisely, against being gung-ho on a coalition. “Michael got up and did a rant and it was a disaster,” said one participant. “His finger was jabbing at us. He was saying, ‘Don’t you assume that if we bring down the government that the Governor-General will let us govern.’ Well, we weren’t assuming that anyway.

“So then he keeps going on and his damn finger keeps jabbing at us and he’s well over his time limit. People are shouting, ‘Time! Time! Order! Order! Sit down!’ But he just kept going. And when he finally left the microphone, no one stood up for him. Not even his supporters clapped.”

Tags: Liberal party, Michael Ignatieff

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Patrick

I used to really enjoy your reporting and analysis… but this has become the same mindless drivel that iIve been trying to avoid in the msm
http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

It’s been just over 24 hours and the leaking has begun.

However, Iggy does have some influence with the caucus because they were all parroting the “a coalition if necessary, but not necessarily a coalition” yesterday.

The expectations of Libs/libs/msm that all is well with Lib party once again is laughable. Just because the Libs got rid of Mr Bean a few days ago, it does not follow that Libs will once again become the natural governing party without some serious work.
Mike T.

He may point his finger, but does his hair stay in place despite any force of man or nature? This may be the other side’s weakness, if it can be properly exploited.
http://coyne kc

AC
Are you trying to be deliberately provocative? You’ve taken this out of cotext. I urge anyone who is interested to read all_ of lawrences article. I’m a fan AC, but i don’t like being spoon- fed
http://coyne kc

meant context of course
D

Party unity does take some time after a leadership contest (just ask the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives). Particularly since it has been, what?, two days since Rae pulled out of the race.

Apparently some reporters and pundits don’t have a lot of patience, and they take the easy (lazy) path of writing about unsubstantive dross. That includes this particular Martin column, and you Coyne whenever you start spouting invective about the Coalition. It’s enough to make a reader wax nostalgic for when your blog postings were more infrequent (and better thought out)…
Moe Unting

I think Rae, being more personable and an experienced politician, should have been given a chance to lead, this report/leak being an example of why making another socially inept academic the leader. Did they learn anything from Dion?
http://deleted Sandi

Oh brother, one of those secret sources that may be in a snit because they were a Rae supporter?

Coyne – I thought this kind of reporting was beneath you…..sigh
Christoph

I think Ignatieff was asserting himself against the stupidity of the coalition. Since everyone signed on to it that can’t have been popular, but over the long run I think it’ll help him.

The coalition is mindboggingly stupid… more damaging than one blunt meeting in caucus.
Steve Wart

It’s a good article, insightful and disclosing some interesting and useful information that’s not publicly available.

I don’t think AC reported it, he just gave us a link and provided some context – what some people call a blog post.
http://www.macleansfordummies.wordpress.com Maclean’s for Dummies

I like it! The Liberals are a big family full of all kinds. The small groups of nodding heads around Harper and Layton are not an audience to master! Ignatieff will find his way with them, his personal audience of party members who have to follow party discipline as never before. If he had to wag his finger til it hurts this week, he’ll soon find a gavel for next.
http://coyne kc

Why label this the’ liberal’s new unity!’ The article was a pretty innocuous look at Iggie, not a shocking disclosure of lib disunity. I don’t ike being spoon-fed.
Blues Clair

King Ignatieff, mind those leaks. Tous Ensemble! Tous Ensemble!
Kay

Every organization has their own personal brand of know-it-alls who think they could do a better job. The Liberal caucus is no different (nor, for that matter, the Conservative, NDP or Bloc caucuses). Let’s not read too much into this and chalk it up to an organizational issue that needs to be resolved instead of some kind of national caucus crisis. I’m sure the individual who leaked this will be found out relatively quickly and hopefully he or she will be given a good lesson in loyalty and party discipline.

Andrew, you really need to stop being so dramatic when it comes to every tiny blip in the Liberal caucus. Iggy has barely been in power for 2 days yet you’re acting as though he’s been ruling the country for the past three years. No one is touting him as the messiah of the Liberal party, so you need to get off your high horse and give the man a bit of a chance to show us who he is before you jump down his throat for wearing the wrong tie.

There are much bigger issues we need to be concerned with right now. But y’know, on those issues, you seem more than willing to “cut Stephen Harper a little slack.”
archangel

Mike T.,

“He may point his finger, but does his hair stay in place despite any force of man or nature? This may be the other side’s weakness, if it can be properly exploited.”

Which hair — the hair on his head or the hair immediately above his eyes?
Critical Reasoning

The coalition is dead, but most of its members don’t realize it yet… kind of like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. The likely outcome of a non-confidence vote at the end of January is an election, not a coalition government. Ignatieff is too smart to risk the wrath of Canadian voters. Much of his energy during the next 6 weeks will be spent persuading Coalition true believers to adopt his pragmatic approach.
sf

Andrew Coyne, one thing is for sure, criticism of the anointed one (the latest acclaimed anointed one) puts the Liberal commenters in such a snit that they attack the messenger (you) for reporting something from another messenger (Martin) that he reported about the anointed one.
http://andrewcoyne.com Andrew Coyne

I just thought it was funny! Yeesh…
http://www.sensnation.com/talk Darrell

Viktor Frankl revolutionized psychiatry by changing its focus from trying to get the patient to say things they might not want to say to a Doctor, to a Doctor telling his patients things they may not want to hear but might nonetheless need to.

I don’t doubt that a few of Frankl’s first patients walked out of his office saying ‘who the hell does this guy think he is, anyways? Sigmund Freud?’

Those were likely the patients that needed to hear what he was saying the most.
Ti-Guy

I just thought it was funny! Yeesh…

It was. I laughed until I coughed.
dan in van

Hey andrew’s finally got Flanagan’s message. The best way to promote Harper is not to look, scower, even plead for something positive to right about the emperor penguin, but to throw knives and spin the carnival wheel in an effort to blot out the other choices. Nothing like inspiring writing than a 10-second honeymoon… Mind you, at some point after Andrew’s helped Harper out of this crapfest of self-creation, he’ll mumble and bumble on about the CONs non-conservativism…
Bill D. Cat

Tickle them , maybe then they’ll feel funny . If that doesn’t work, slag all things right , works every time .
archangel

Darell,

“Those were likely the patients that needed to hear what he was saying the most.”

Cognitive dissonance.

“When you start feeling uncomfortable, stop and see if you can find the inner conflict. Then notice how that came about. If it was somebody else who put that conflict there, you can decide not to play any more with them.”

– ChangingMinds.org
Tintin

Mr. Coyne,

Never has one blogger written (or cut and pasted) so much that amounted to so little.

I thought I’d welcome more writing from you, thoughtful incisive opinion and the such. I was wrong. Kind of like you and the economy.

Are you even trying anymore?
http://coyne kc

sf
i have no objection to criticism of iggie. I do have a minor objection to how AC framed this. He did provide the link – a person could check for themseves. Perhaps i over-reacted. Still don’t like being spoon-fed.