By arthur Weinreb
Friday, October 27, 2006
It seems like only yesterday when U.S. President Bill Clinton looked straight into the camera, wagged his finger, and said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky". The one thing about Clinton; he always looked the most believable when he was lying like hell. The former president was found not only to have lied about his relationship with the intern but had lied under oath.
During a session of Question Period last week, while Environment Minister Rona ambrose was asking a question, Liberal MP David McGuinty began to heckle Foreign Minister Peter MacKay. Regarding the environment, McGuinty asked MacKay, "Don't you care about your dog?" Mackay is alleged to have pointed to the empty seat of former girlfriend, Liberal MP Belinda Stronach and to have said, "You already have her." MacKay has denied making that remark and gesturing. When the Minister returned from spending a few days in Hungary, he again denied that the incident ever happened. The exchange between McGuinty and MacKay was not recorded in Hansard and can only be deciphered on an audio tape of parliamentary proceedings by those who clearly hear what they expect to hear. Some Liberal MPs who were sitting close to McGuinty have signed sworn affidavits attesting to MacKay's words and actions.
Let's assume that Peter MacKay said what the Opposition says he did and is now lying about it. No one is even remotely suggesting that MacKay's actions were solely as a result of Belinda Stronach being an Honourable Member of an opposition party. His words and actions were as a result of being a spurned lover, not a result of political party differences. Belinda dumped Peter as unceremoniously as she dumped the Conservative Party to cross the floor to sit in the cabinet of Paul Martin. His insults were directed not at an opposition Member of Parliament but at an ex-girlfriend.
Now, although this is technically not "sex", the principle is the same.The basis for the comment and gesture was the previous relationship between Stronach and MacKay. Lying to Parliament is a serious matter, much like lying under oath is. So you would think that those on the left; the ones who are always saying that lying about sex is no big deal, even if the lying is done under oath, would utter a little tsk tsk about Peter MacKay and move on. Wrong!
On Wednesday, the day that MacKay returned to the House after his visit to Hungary, Liberal MPs Ralph Goodale and Marlene Jennings continued their attack on behalf of the "it's okay to lie about sex" crowd. Goodale accused MacKay of lying, using indisputable evidence -- an editorial from the Montreal Gazette, to prove his point. and Jennings accused not only MacKay but Prime Minister Stephen Harper as well of disrespecting "all" women. Jennings referred to a long list of women's groups to prove her point. according to Jennings, MacKay is "contemptuous" of all women.
There is, of course a double standard here and it's not the double standard of women being treated differently than men. When a man is a good liberal like Bill Clinton and gives feminist groups everything their little hearts desire, it is perfectly okay to lie about sex or in Clinton's case, get away with more serious actions such as unwanted groping. But when a conservative, whose government has cut funding to feminist groups, gets caught lying about sex it becomes, as singer arlo Guthrie said of his offence of littering, "the biggest crime of the last 50 years and everyone wanted to get in a newspaper story about it." Suddenly it's not okay to lie about sex. It's serious. Members of Parliament and the liberal media can't condemn it enough.
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee has come under attack by Canadians for an attack ad that they funded against Harold Ford, the Democratic Party's candidate for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee. In the spot, a supposed Ford supporter says, "Canada can take care of North Korea. They're not busy".
We're not busy? Wherever did they get that idea from?
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