Holy fuck, Stephen, but you're a whiner.

Blogging Tory co-founder Stephen Taylor is sure that everybody's out to pick on his precious Tories:

... First Jason Kenney gets rebuffed by CTV and then Craig Oliver mistakes the Liberals for the government (and Stephane Dion as the Prime Minister by extension)

Oh, nooooeezzz!!! Whatever will we do now that Craig Oliver mistakenly, and in the heat of the moment, referred to the Liberals as "the government?" We must, of course, ascribe nefarious and sinister purposes to this since it's inconceivable that, given Oliver's history of being a reporter under several straight years of Liberal rule, it might have been just a slip of the tongue. Hell, no! Fucking liberal bias! Burn the heretic! But Stephen's indescribable dumbshit idiocy doesn't end there:

ADDENDUM: Why wouldn’t Jason Kenney be permitted to speak for the government? After all, he was the first one quoted on the Conservative “Will You Be Tricked” ad campaign in Sun Media. He’s been quoted in just about every Conservative Party press release attacking Dion’s Tax Shift plan. Kenney has also been the government point man in QP answering all of the questions put forward by the Liberals on the topic of the environment during this latest Tax Trick/Green Shift arc. Kenney also had a press conference at the National Press Theatre to give the government’s reaction to Dion’s plan. It sets a horrible precedent for journalists to choose who can respond on behalf of the government.

No, it doesn't, Stephen, you snivelling pissant, and this is why:

11:06:52 AM
Ooh, apparently this stems from an injunction request, filed this morning, ordering the Liberal Party to stop using the tape.

More clips from [James] Moore—who I can’t see, because the room is so full of cameras. The tape was allegedly “doctored” more than once. He claims that the tape has now been “thoroughly discredited” before going back to his usual spiel...

11:13:48 AM
Questions! First, from a French reporter: Did they use the original tape? They used the tape provided by Zytaruk, Moore says.

How did the tape change the meaning of what the PM said? Hm, not really an answer there—reporters pressing him on it. The gist: it was a longer conversation, and the tape was doctored. Doctored! ...

11:17:59 AM
More questions. The Toronto Star wants to clarify whether the words “financial consideration” occurred—no yes or no answer, just that “the tape was doctored.” That’s the line they want us to leave with—not how, or why, or what it changes as far as the actual conversation.

Another attempt to get Moore to explain how it was manipulated, and he suggests that we go through the binder. But how? How?

I’m not sure if this was such a good idea...

11:26:47 AM
And—there goes James Moore, leaving a roomful of vaguely hostile journalists in his wake, all asking much the same question of each other, now that he’s gone: How does this change what the Prime Minister allegedly said? What was added, or taken away, or otherwise “manipulated” so as to alter the meaning of his words?

That's what you get when you allow the show to be run by someone who doesn't have a goddamned clue as to what's going on -- half-assed answers, followed by fleeing in abject terror for the exits.

If CTV wants to do something specifically on the environment, then they have the right to demand that the Cons put their minister of that portfolio into the ring, and not substitute someone who then has the option of weaseling out of tough questions with something like, "Well, I haven't really examined the material, so I can't answer that." Or something equally sleazy.

For fuck sakes, Stephen, John Baird is the Minister of the Environment. Why are you tap dancing so hard to protect him and keep him out of the limelight? Or do we really need an answer to that question?

God Almighty, Stephen, but for someone whose party ran on a platform of transparency and accountability and stuff like that there, you people sure are a bunch of pants-pissing cowards.