December 2, 2002
One of the segments of CNN’s Crossfire that aired on November 25 was entitled "Should U.S. examine some Allies?" The two allies involved were Saudi Arabia and the neighbour to the north, and the part about Canada revolved around the remarks made by Jean Chrétien’s former Director of Communications, Francoise Ducros. Ducros was overheard at the NATO summit in Prague describing President Bush as a "moron" in a conversation that she had with a CBC reporter. Chrétien refused to accept Ducros resignation and the controversy escalated. The remarks made the American media and the day after it was featured on Crossfire, Ducros tendered a second resignation which was accepted by the prime minister. He probably didn’t want to accept it, but being neither a slave nor a government backbencher, Ducros couldn’t be forced to stay on the job.
The format of Crossfire consists of two moderators, one "on the left" and the other, "on the right". In this program the left and right were represented by James Carville and Robert Novak. The two guests were Ken Rockburn and Jonah Goldberg. Rockburn is the host of Talk Politics, a program featured on CPAC while Goldberg is a syndicated columnist whose work appears in National Review. Goldberg had recently written a negative article about Canada for an issue of the magazine whose cover contained a picture of four Mounties with the word "Wimps!" emblazoned on it.
The only thing that Rockburn accomplished on the program was to confirm a previous statement made by Novak in which he called Canadians "wienies". Rockburn was really into the entertainment mode of the show and came off as a buffoon. He gave flip answers like "The prime minister didn’t say it. So what’s the problem?"
and then told the panel to "lighten up". Even the PMO came up with a better defense of the indefensible. When Novak quoted a journalist from the London Free Press, Rockburn smugly stated that he had never heard of him--as if anyone outside of his immediate family and the three people who watch CPAC have ever heard of Ken Rockburn. With two panelists criticizing Canada and a third who could be aptly described, in the words of a famous Canadian, a "moron," that left James Carville to defend Canada in the debate.
And defend us, he did. While making the point that many Americans have called Bush much worse so what’s the big deal, Carville used expressions such as "I love Canada" or derivatives thereof, six times. The "Rajun Cajun’s" picture made the front cover of the National Post the next day with the caption "Former spin doctor to Clinton defend’s Canada’s honour on CNN." But spinning for Bill Clinton is only one postion that Carville has held during his illustrious career.
Carville first achieved fame in the United States when he worked on the campaign of Harris Wofford who ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Wofford came from behind to defeat his Republican opponent, former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh. Carville then went on to manage Bill Clinton’s successful presidential campaign that reduced George H.W. Bush to one term.
After the 1992 election, Carville went into business as a foreign political consultant and has an impressive client list which includes Britain’s Tony Blair and former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak. And last, and probably least, James Carville worked as a paid political consultant to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Ethically, he should have disclosed his work for the party that was at the centre of the Francie Ducros affair before he staked out his position on Crossfire. His remarks that calling President Bush a moron was no big deal, were hardly those of an objective American observer.
Barbara Walters was severely criticized in 1997 for an interview that she did with Andrew Lloyd Webber prior to the opening of his play, Sunset Boulevard. Walters heaped praise on Lloyd Webber without disclosing the fact that she had invested $100,000 in the play. Carville, like Walters, should have disclosed his financial relationship. James Carville, was not defending "Canada’s honour" as the National Post put it--he was defending a paying client.
Arthur Weinreb is a lawyer and author and Associate Editor of Canadafreepress.com
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