02.01.2011 11:00 AM

Benedict Baldy: in his own words

I never called him a lying, duplicitous, good-for-nothing scumbag, who this morning has continued a failed political “career” marked by bizarre and erratic behaviour. I never said that.

I did, however, receive lots and lots of emails from Liberals. Some of them have passed along examples of what Benedict Baldy used to say about Conservatives. A sampling is below.

Have fun, Timmy!  We certainly will!

  • Rocco Rossi, June 1, 2009: “Following a week of bad news for Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, today it gets even worse. His one hope to divert attention away from his government’s incompetence—the personal attack ads against Michael Ignatieff—can be completely neutralized. We need your help to do it, it doesn’t take much effort and it won’t cost you a penny.”
  • Rocco Rossi, February 23, 2009: “The greatest strength of the Liberal Party has always been the people who come together under its banner.”
  • Rocco Rossi, March 2, 2009: “With this Conservative government, old habits die hard. Stephen Harper is back on familiar ground and announcing new attack ads aimed at the Liberal Leader while the economy slips farther into recession. At a time when Canadians are worried about their jobs, their pensions and about putting their kids through school, the Conservatives are back with their old tricks in order to divert our attention from rising unemployment rates and the highest rate of job losses on record.”
  • Rocco Rossi, September 16, 2009: [Email to me, in which he urges dirty tricks against a Conservative Party communications effort] “Would be good to mock or mess up in some way.”
  • Rocco Rossi, August 25, 2009: [Email to me, in which he suggests Jack Layton performs sexual favours for Stephen Harper] “Jackie wants to be a political star, so he goes in the backseat of Stephen’s car…suckin on…”
  • Rocco Rossi, August 12, 2009: [Email to me and an OLO official, urging a smear campaign against one of his political enemies.] “Might want to have a boo at it by someone who speaks good French.  Exotic dancers, visas, passports, false documentation.  A little smear stuff…but with the addition of terrorist overtones…..Might just be a crazy woman, but stuff have been spun out of worse.”

…meanwhile, he’s got lunatics over on Small Dead Animals defending his honour. Perhaps we’ll hear from him next time Kate mocks the Holocaust.

52 Comments

  1. Brian says:

    Sure, but most of those shots are clearly directed at the federal conservatives. And the federal conservatives and the provincial conservatives are *different.*

    For one thing, there’s more Albertans in the federal version. 😉

    (PS: I am enjoying this, I admit)

    • Warren says:

      Oh, he said things about the Hudak Cons, too. Just wait.

      • Brian says:

        Come now, you’re angry. This is no time to be a tease.

      • Steven says:

        Expect to see some Ontario PC spin about Winston Churchill having switched sides, not to mention use of quotes by Bob Rae in his NDP days.

        If things get desperate for RR as they did in his mayoral run, maybe he and the Hudak Braintrust will spin references to another famous left to right opportunist: Benito Mussolini. RR is certainly no stranger to cringe-inducing ads relating to his Italian heritage.

        P.S. Easy on the “baldy” stuff! I’m one of many!

  2. Martin says:

    You seem angry???

  3. Harith says:

    Politicians are opportunists? Never!!

  4. Bruce says:

    Hey Warren,

    Well done! Please continue to get even. People who show that they never had any real principles in the first place deserve to be defeated, and badly. Here’s to another single digit showing!

  5. Maybe forward these e-mails to Tim Hudak?

    • Warren says:

      Oh, Timmy’s Timbits are on this website 24/7, don’t worry. I don’t think they do anything else, actually. So they know.

      And I despise them with a passion that is deeply personal.

  6. Sean says:

    from today’s Globe… “Ironically, it was Mr. Rossi who over lunch several years ago suggested to Mr. Davey that Mr. Ignatieff, then a Harvard professor, was a potential Liberal leader. Mr. Davey followed up on that advice with Alfred Apps, the president of the party, and Dan Brock, a Toronto lawyer, and persuaded Mr. Ignatieff to give Canadian politics a shot.”

  7. WesternGrit says:

    Always sickened me how many pure opportunists there were “volunteering” and working as “backroom boys (and girls)”. They would be all about themselves working on a campaign, preaching a party gospel, then a few years later you find them working for the PCs in a neighboring province – or sitting as MLAs for that party… Thing is, we always knew they were only in it for themselves… Those of us working hard for change, or to push ideas across, were waylaid by these clowns who were merely there to get their own name out. Rossi seems like one of these now… Every party has them, but being at the center – the “crossroads” – of Canadian politics means that we see more “slip through town”. They are almost always volunteers. They often question basic party ideology. They don’t last – but after they break everyones’ collective trust.

    • Phil in London says:

      I can see how you must feel, of course, socialist Pierre Trudeau, opportunits Belinda Stronach, Scott Brison, Buzz Hargove, and others like Bob Rae, David Kilgour, Garth Turner, Andre Harvey, Diane St. Jacques, David Price, Joe Peschisolido, Keith Martin, Jack Horner, John Herron, and Ujjal Dusanjh are all converts to the one true religiion right?
      I guess Liberals like the dirty traitors to be right out front for transparency reasons?

  8. Vishal says:

    Can’t wait to start volunteering for Mike Colle or any other Liberal he’s running against!

  9. james Smith says:

    Loosers of a feather flock together.
    Don’t know the demographic make-up of this riding but I’m guessing given it is north Toronto there might be some voters of Italian ancestry there. Remembering how he succeeded in turning off Italian voters with his bizarre ads, and scaring away brain owners with his Tunnel to Nowhere goofy idea the margin of victory for the Liberals in this riding will be somewhere north of 2700 votes.

  10. Brian says:

    Come to think of it, Warren’s reaction reminds me of how the NDP must have felt when Bob Rae… well, you know.

  11. Peter Macquarie says:

    He’s up against Rob Davis, another failed pol, who has the backing of Karen Stintz and John Tory. What are these people thinking? Cricket is over and Mike Colle has an even stronger team now that Josh is under the dome.

  12. Dan says:

    Turncoats always get whats coming to them.

    Just curious because I have ltitle to no insight into this matter, but was he offered to run for the Ont. Liberals?

    Either way I’m pissed off that I voted for the fool

  13. Feyenoord says:

    The Globe claims that he recruiting Ignatieff was his idea.
    How long was he with the Tories?

  14. David says:

    Recall the Winston Churchill quote about an MP jumping in the other direction (from Tory to Liberal): “The only recorded instance in history of a rat swimming towards a sinking ship.”

  15. bc says:

    Hell hath no fury like a Warren scorned.

  16. So he is no longer a federal Liberal?

  17. Do you agree with someone being a provinvial Progressive Conservative and a federal Liberal?

  18. jon evan says:

    Warren, this is what you said:
    “He’s super smart, he treats all people with respect — and he’s fiscally conservative and socially progressive. He’s a good man.”
    You are a man with good judgement and intuition regarding people. Therefore, it follows that what you said is true about him.
    Conversions happen all the time. To question motive and decide on a bad one is a very serious thing. Unless you know for sure then this is just ugly on your part and will do you no good. Just sayin…don’t bite my head off.

    • Warren says:

      I believed it.

      I was wrong, however. He fooled quite a few of us, but we won’t be fooled again, per the song.

      His” conversion,” as you put it, would have been irritating – but acceptable – if he’d made it, and stayed on the sidelines for a while. But this was done simply because Rocco is all about Rocco. And his suggestion that we “courted” him is a lie. What seat, Rocco? When? Who said it to you? No one in our party courted you.

      And that was the problem, from Rocco’s perspective. He felt we should be chasing him. When we didn’t, he was outraged.

      Anyway. He’s the Refomatories’ problem, now. They deserve each other.

      • Leon Brule says:

        Rossi’s EGO is very fragile. I’m wondering if he is mentally/emotionally stable. My doubt of his mental/emotional stability first arose when I read his “blog” on the Huffington Post. I personally don’t think he is stable. He has some serious unresolved issues. I suspect the “devout practicing Catholic” is carrying a LOT of guilt for his past actions. Wonder how many people he has stabbed in the back? Is Rocco Rossi a Judas Iscariot?

      • MCBellecourt says:

        Boy, that is a familiar feeling. I understand how you feel about it, Mr. K. Rest assured, it’ll come back and bite him in the a$$.

        It always does.

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