What with the official government pollster in the field and what with a video taken at the Provincial Conservative $500 a plate fundraiser circulating (who paid for the video gig, guys?), don't believe for one second that it hasn't gone unnoticed among the thumb clickers on the Hill that the initial "Danny did it" spin on the Inco smelter story is pretty much dead.
It wouldn't be surprising to find that one entire office-load of Blackberries has been sent back for replacement what with the buttons pressed through the casing from all the frantic texting that is surely going on. It's not like they didn't organize one of the most intense pitcher plant deployments in over a year to try and forestall any possible slippage in the numbers collected by the official government pollster.
The pitcher plant story line got right down to Bill Rowe and the infamous Tony sharing their beliefs that had the entire Voisey's Bay deal from start to finish was, in point of fact, due entirely, solely, totally and utterly due to the singular magnificence unprecedented on the planet of the guy who paid Bill Rowe's tab in Ottawa.
But no matter how hard they tried to drown it, the truth about Voisey's Bay surfaced and people acknowledged that the Voisey's Bay was a good thing and the Premier really had very little to do with it then or now.
Even Roger Grimes got in a few licks of his own in the process:
"It was a good deal for Newfoundland and Labrador from start to finish, regardless of what the Opposition was trying to say," he said.
"Mainly, Danny Williams [was] trying to suggest it was full of loopholes and so on, which has proven so far definitely not to be true," Grimes said.
Not true?
That's putting it mildly.
The better part of seven years after he first started talking about loopholes and problems neither Danny Williams nor his deputy nor anyone else has shown the loopholes, problems or other weak spots in the Voisey's Bay deal Danny Williams claimed were there.
That's because - evidently - they don't exist.
If they did, Danny Williams would produce them.
Ultimately, that is the giant bluff that wound up being called this week much to the chagrin of Bill, Tony and bunch of others.
And all those thumb clickers, they discovered that no matter how hard you press those keys, eventually the truth gets out.
People understand that stuff you pay for that says you did a good job is nowhere near as persuasive or gratifying as having people - of their own accord - tell you that in hindsight you were right and they were wrong.
They can press your thumbs as hard as they like and you can't change that.
-srbp-