23 June 2007

Backuppable Tom strikes again

labradore wades into the controversy which your humble e-scribbler has aroused over the House of Assembly's decision to implement Chief Justice Derek Green's Rules but not until after the next provincial election.

labradore systematically demolishes the logic - or is that illogic - in claims made by the provincial government's man of a thousand titles Tom Rideout, right in an immortal picture from cbc.ca/nl, and by Paul Oram, cabinet-minister-wannabe.

There are so many choice quotes from Rideout and Oram, both of whom appeared to be scrambling to cope with the unexpected issue, but the best of all was Rideout's comment to VOCM:
Look that's all poppycock nonsense and dribble from people who don't know what they're talking about. Members have to concur with the, with the ban on donations. Members have to concur with the fact that discretionary spending is gone. All of these matters that was in the rules as brought forward by Judge Green have been accepted and implemented. There's the matter of some mechanisms that can't be put in place overnight.
Given that "all of these matters that was in the rules as brought forward by" Chief Justice Green have been accepted but won't actually be implemented until October 9, Rideout's comments are about as accurate as Jim Flaherty claiming that the Atlantic Accords haven't been changed and that the era of federal-provincial bickering is now over.

Those "mechanisms" Rideout refers to in the last sentence are actually all the rules "as brought forward by" Chief Justice Green.

Like the one that says a member of the legislature is personally liable for overspending on his or her expense account.

or the one that says a member of the House of Assembly cannot make donations using public funds.

Not in force.

Until October 9.

Mark it on your calendar.

You can bet every sitting member of the legislature running for re-election has it red-circled.

-srbp-