So Walter Noel wants the Liberal nomination in St. John's east for the upcoming federal election.
And he's indignant at the Auditor General's recent report on inappropriate spending by members of the House of Assembly.
better to suck it up, Walter, and stop whining about reporters showing up at your house.
Settle the whole matter toute de suite and without hiring an expensive solicitor.
If one of the self-described moving forces behind the Vic Young mythology committee wants to re-enter elected politics, he's only got to pass a simple test:
Reveal the names of all the people who received gifts - both in cash through donations and in the various items described by Noel and the AG - which Noel claimed from his public expense accounts both as a minister and as a member of the legislature.
Tell the voters what he bought, where he bought it, who he gave it to and how much it cost.
Noel's original story was that he had handed out gloves and scarves. Now it's supposedly women's golf shirts and jackets. See, if there had only been a couple of gifts, it's hard to imagine how gloves and scarves could be confused with golf shirts. Since Noel served as a cabinet minister for much of his time in the legislature he had access to two expense accounts. Maybe he was getting the two confused when he made his original comment, but since he was able to tell CBC radio on Friday what the invoices said that accompanied his expense claims, that tell us that Noel has a set of copies. So let's see the whole schmeer, Walter.
Send the information to bondpapers at hotmail dot com, Walter, and we'll be happy to tell taxpayers how you spent their money.
Better still, make photocopies of the receipts and claims available and Bond Papers will gladly post scans of them.
Under the circumstances, when you've already spent public money, Walter, and want another shot at spending it, you have an obligation to disclose exactly how you spent the money of a half million other taxpayers the last time you sat in a legislature.
-srbp-