Angry in the Great White North

As we all know, Liberal MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj was forced to resign from his post of Associate Critic for Foreign Affairs over comments he made in support of Hezbollah.

In turn, interim Liberal Party leader Bill Graham called Conservative MP Jason Kenney a hypocrite because Kenney appear at a rally put on by a group agitating for democracy in Iran. As it turned out, that group, the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (the PMOI), was on the government's terrorist list, but used a different name for the rally.

Liberal interim leader Bill Graham, who accepted Wrzesnewskyj's resignation, condemned Kenney's actions on Thursday.

"I think it's so hypocritical when you heard the words that came out of his mouth a couple of days ago about the observations made about one of our members and then you find he himself is standing there embracing a terrorist group."

But scratching a bit deeper, this blog revealed that two Liberal MPs, Alan Tonks and Derek Lee, wrote letters to Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs, urging him to help the PMOI. This time, though, there was no name change.

What I want to know is why Bill Graham didn't know? If he had shared his plan to call Jason Kenney a hypocrite for having once appeared in front of the PMOI, don't you think Tonks and Lee would have piped up and warned Graham about their own letters of support? Lee is the Associate Critic for Public Safety, and described the Liberal Party as a "national security expert", so wouldn't he have been in the meetings. His letter made reference to Tonks' letter, so he could have warned Graham about both.

On the other hand, maybe Graham didn't reveal his plan to attempt to embarrass Kenney. I suppose in that case, Tonks and Lee would lie low and hope no one made mention of those letters.

Which brings me to another point. A blogger did not have to reveal these letters. Both letters were sent to Peter MacKay. When Graham started attacking Kenney, why didn't the government trot out these letters? Did they forget they had them? Or was there another reason?

Who knew mudslinging could be so subtle and complicated?

[Of course, maybe the letters weren't considered by either side is that, with some extra thought, it becomes clear that they weren't wrong, or at least, not obviously so.]