Anyone who has been following the Fair Deal campaign on Loyola Hearn and Norm Doyle will see that the Connies have pulled out all the stops in an effort to blast him with their own messages.
The whole thing has caught Paul Wells' attention.
As of about 8:00 AM this morning, more than 5, 000 e-mails have gone to Hearn and Doyle encouraging them to vote for the budget and then bring down the government later. It's a sensible idea, especially since the Connies like to tell us that a separate bill could pass quickly. Well, N & L, try voting with NL.
Much more interesting though are the comments posted to Kevin McCann's blog itself. While there are a few Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, there are way more mainlanders criticising the campaign, pointing out - mostly backed up with complete nonsense - that the offshore money isn't in jeopardy, Harper is the only way to get the money, Harper proposed the deal first etc. etc.
One post from a woman named merely "Julie" advises that we should vote Conservative down here because of all the money stolen from us by "Liberal governments" over the past 50 years. Talk about someone spouting prepared talking points, Julie: the original offshore accord was a Tory deal, clawbacks and all. She pressed the lever and earned her little pellet, though. The end of her post is a link to the CPC national website.
Then there's the mainland Connie nomination-seeker who claims he supported this deal the last time. Here's a link to his own website.
As if that wasn't rich enough some guy with the pseudonym "springer" is also wading into the discussion and lambasting us all for being weak. So some guy who feels inspired by - presumably - the daily trailer-trash parade on the TV show of the same name is presuming to lecture others. Oy vey!
My personal favourite is the e-mail from Paul Brown - Loyola Hearn's aide or former aide - although Brown doesn't identify himself.
It's a lovely long-winded post as to why Hearn and Doyle shouldn't be getting e-mails. He uses the word disingenuous, yet proceeds to be the most disingenuous poster of all. (Most of the CPC posts are long; one cut and pasted Hansard!!!) After all, if Paul has to answer those e-mails his opposition to getting them is more about self interest and typers' cramp than anything else.
UPDATE: Paul finally posted back to the Fair Deal site to say he actually works now in the private sector. So let's update that lil tidbit.
My all time favourite mainlander post is from some woman named Michelle. She was succinct in her dismissal of us all. She just called us "whores".
Scan the postings, especially the mainlander ones. Lots of talk about corruption. Lots of use of the word "whore". Lots of anger.
There are some very angry people out there and they sure don't like it when you oppose them.
After Michael Harris' column on Friday, and then this, I wonder what the Open Line crowd will do as they return to the airwaves tonight?