Be careful what you wish for ... you just might get it

Could it be that calling Gomery in the first place was Paul Martin's biggest mistake?

Imagine how easy the wool could have been pulled over people's eyes if there wasn't an inquiry reminding us all day after day after day that there was an organized kickback scheme. This would all be ancient history.

If it was Chretien, he would have easily brushed this off by just shrugging his shoulders and saying, "Hey, I love Canada and I'm not going to apologize for it." Throw in the hidden agenda card and voila ... majority, baby.

And what does it say about Paul Martin if we're saying he's no Jean Chretien?

From Reuters:

In a bid to clear the Liberals' name, Martin called an official inquiry into the kickback scandal in 2004, but all this did was fill the news with endless lurid tales of how party members had illegally funneled money to allies.

This, critics say, badly tarnished the Liberal brand and made it very hard to recover from the revelation a few weeks ago that police were probing a possible leak of sensitive tax policy information from the finance minister's office.

"That is the danger that was always there and that was probably the single biggest catalyst that brought everything back," said one veteran party member.