03 April 2011

Kremlinology 34: The enemy of my enemy and other weekend amusements

Danny Williams sat in his office in the Paramount Building – converted from an old movie theatre where the roof collapsed in the 1970s – and shot a video message he intended the Dunderdale Party to show at a dinner on Friday night during their two day coronation of a new leader.

They didn’t show it.

Timing problems they claimed.

So Danny’s people “leaked it” to CBC who duly posted it and have made it the centre of their weekend online coverage of the Dunderdale Party coronation.

With the story out there, Dunderdale party organizers claimed the thing was intended for a closed-door party meeting on Saturday or that it would be shown there instead, depending on which version of the story a reporter got.

Note the reference Danny makes to a similar weekend convention where he can show his appreciation.  That plus the party makeover will give you good clues to the problems Dunderdale and her handlers likely had with the idea of Danny being around.

Then think about her dismissive line from earlier in the week about the rift between Danny and his hand-picked successor: something about how transitions can be hard sometimes. The picture should be getting clear to you now as to what this has been really all about.

The leak to CBC is interesting because when Danny tried to slip out of the country for secret heart surgery, his fans attacked CBC for daring to report it.

Only problem was, someone dropped a quarter on Danny and leaked the story to NTV who dutifully broke it.

Not CBC.

NTV.

That didn’t stop the Danny Boys – what do you call members of the Dunderdale Party? – from lacing into the Mighty Ceeb anyway and any time they could.

Now CBC is Danny’s bud for pushing out stories that cause some grief for the Dunderites. 

Dunderheads?

Whatever.

Speaking of that period of great unease with Tory circles that culminated with the secret heart surgery debacle,  wasn’t it interesting to see Trevor Taylor hosting the coronation supper Friday evening for Kathy Dunderdale?

Trevor’s sudden departure and the reaction within provincial Tory ranks are what triggered the series of posts in the Kremlinology series on what seemed to be some pretty significant problems within the provincial Conservative party machinery. 

Turns out that Tony Ducey had a right to be worried.

And if all that wasn’t enough for you, just look at the line from Dunderdale’s speech as teased out by the CBC at the end of their video post.

Talk about your tells.

"Whether you're from Port aux Basques or Cartwright, St. Anthony, Port de Grave or Quidi Vidi, your district is one we are targeting in 2011 and we need your help to make that happen," Dunderdale told delegates, identifying the five areas of the province currently represented by Liberal or NDP members of the house of assembly [lower case in original].

With Danny in place, the provincial Conservatives could be on the offensive in the five seats they didn’t already hold.

With Danny gone, they don’t have that political luxury any more.  The Dunderdale Party doesn’t have Danny’s polling numbers.  heck even Danny didn’t have Danny’s polling numbers, last going off for sure.

The Dunderdale Party is likely going to be on the defensive in a dozen to 15 seats this fall.

You can get a good clue on that by the nasty reaction in some quarters this past week and this past weekend to Dunderdale and to the Stephen Harper visit.

Dunderdale likes her brave talk but how she delivers her lines tells much more.

That will have to wait for another kremlinology instalment.

- srbp -