In politics, they call it changing the channel.
That's when an incumbent is taking a few smacks in the skull without let up. So he starts talking about something else entirely.
It's especially important when the provincial pollster is in the field.
Like right now.
After all, this Premier does nothing if he doesn't try to goose polls to demonstrate how much support he has. He needs those numbers to dazzle people, like say a columnist for the Globe.
The provincial government issued 55 news releases last week in an effort to change channels from the by-election loss and the ongoing spending scandal in the House of Assembly. That's the latest aspect of the spending scandal, which of course is different from the previous scandal, as Danny Williams will tell you.
It is different of course since this aspect of it happened since he became Premier and despite earlier assurances that all inappropriate spending was stopped on 22 October 2003.
But I digress.
Let's put that 55 releases in a week in some kind of perspective.
Since the government started it's online news archive in 1996, last week was the seventh heaviest week of releases.
Those 55 releases are the second highest number for Danny Williams' administration. Only Budget 2005 beat it out, but only but two releases.
The typical number of news releases for February over the past two years is around 34. During the same week in 2004, the provincial government issued on 19 releases.
Yessirreee Bob, that's a serious effort at changing the channel.
