via Eddie G. Griffin
Mr. Brodie, apparently seeking to play down the potential impact on Canada, told the reporters the threat was not serious, and that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign had even contacted Canadian diplomats to tell them not to worry because the NAFTA threats were mostly political posturing.
The Canadian Press cited an unnamed source last night as saying that several people overheard the remark.
The news agency quoted that source as saying that Mr. Brodie said that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign called and was "telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt."
The story was followed by CTV's Washington bureau chief, Tom Clark, who reported that the Obama campaign, not the Clinton's, had reassured Canadian diplomats.
Mr. Clark cited unnamed Canadian sources in his initial report.
PM's top aide set off storm with Obama NAFTA leak
Source of initial tip revealed after Harper vows to investigate 'unacceptable' act
CAMPBELL CLARK
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
March 5, 2008 at 10:38 PM EST
OTTAWA — The leak of a confidential diplomatic discussion that rocked the U.S. presidential campaign began with an offhand remark to journalists from the Prime Minister's chief of staff, Ian Brodie.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed yesterday to use whatever investigative means necessary to find the source of leaks that, he said, were "unfair" to U.S. Democratic candidate Barack Obama and may have been illegal — although opposition leaders insisted the Conservatives cannot be trusted to investigate political players on their own team.
But the story that reverberated through the U.S. presidential campaign began as a terse, almost throwaway remark that Mr. Brodie made to journalists from CTV, according to people familiar with the events.
Mr. Brodie, during the media lockup for the Feb. 26 budget, stopped to chat with several journalists, and was surrounded by a group from CTV.
The conversation turned to the pledges to renegotiate the North American free-trade agreement made by the two Democratic contenders, Mr. Obama and New York Senator Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Brodie, apparently seeking to play down the potential impact on Canada, told the reporters the threat was not serious, and that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign had even contacted Canadian diplomats to tell them not to worry because the NAFTA threats were mostly political posturing.
The Canadian Press cited an unnamed source last night as saying that several people overheard the remark.
The news agency quoted that source as saying that Mr. Brodie said that someone from Ms. Clinton's campaign called and was "telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt."
The story was followed by CTV's Washington bureau chief, Tom Clark, who reported that the Obama campaign, not the Clinton's, had reassured Canadian diplomats.
Mr. Clark cited unnamed Canadian sources in his initial report.
There was no explanation last night for why Mr. Brodie was said to have referred to the Clinton campaign but the news report was about the Obama campaign. Robert Hurst, president of CTV News, declined to comment.
The Prime Minister's communications director, Sandra Buckler, has said that Mr. Brodie "does not recall" discussing the issue.
On Tuesday, Mr. Harper denied that Mr. Brodie was a source of the leak — but he appeared to be referring to a diplomatic memo that described the key conversation between an adviser to Mr. Obama and Canada's consul-general in Chicago, Georges Rioux.
Although Mr. Harper has for days brushed aside allegations that his government interfered in the U.S. presidential campaign, yesterday he promised to "get to the bottom" of the matter and said laws may have been broken.
"It is not in the interest of the Government of Canada, and the way the leak was executed, Mr. Speaker, was blatantly unfair to Senator Obama and his campaign," the Prime Minister said in the Commons.
"We will make sure that every legal and every investigative technique necessary is undertaken to find out who exactly is behind this."
But opposition politicians accused Mr. Harper of hiding behind artful denials — ignoring the verbal leak, while denying that the diplomatic memo came from his top aide.
However, Mr. Harper did not appear to be distinguishing between the two leaks yesterday.
Yesterday, he said he had asked the top civil servant, Clerk of the Privy Council Kevin Lynch, to call in an internal security team, with the help of Foreign Affairs.
Members of the opposition asserted that an internal inquiry is unlikely to look seriously at Mr. Harper's own high-level political aides and appointees, such as Mr. Brodie, or Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to Washington.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said it is time to call in the RCMP.
The first leak sparked stories that Mr. Obama had privately delivered a message through an aide to Canadian diplomats that the stand against NAFTA was more political posturing than a real policy plan.
The Clinton campaign seized on the stories to argue that Mr. Obama was making promises that he did not mean. The Obama campaign sputtered after this and other attacks on his experience and integrity.
Days later, the leak of the internal Canadian diplomatic note revealed that Mr. Obama's adviser, Austan Goolsbee, spoke to Mr. Rioux on Feb. 8.
In a summary of the meeting written by Canadian diplomat Joseph de Mora, Mr. Goolsbee was described as indicating that Mr. Obama's NAFTA stand "should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans." Mr. Goolsbee denied using those terms.
Mr. Clark of CTV says he called Mr. Wilson for reaction.
The next day, the embassy and Mr. Obama's campaign denied the story. Since Mr. de Mora's memo was leaked to The Associated Press, the Canadian embassy in Washington won't respond to questions about "NAFTA-gate," as the issue has been dubbed.
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This is an extremely
This is an extremely interesting development!
BTW, I have just circulated
BTW, I have just circulated this article to more than 400 Obama supporters in the Seattle area.
Holeee Shoot!
The Mounties? P6, let us know if you see some guy in a red jacket and a funny hat snooping around.
On the serious side, I think this unnamed person...
...is probably this guy:
Heard any more about him?
Forget for a moment about de
Forget for a moment about de Mora and Goolsbee. If the Prime Minister's chief of staff made the remarks, as reported in the story, then why was the initial story only about Obama and his representative? Somebody at CTV needs to explain this discrepancy.
I'm very confused. Can
I'm very confused. Can somebody give me the dummies version?
That's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying, ptc. I think CTV reported the story the way they got it. Brodie talked to reporters in Ottawa--but the story developed out of the Washington bureau.
I think the Ottawa reporters tipped Tom Clarke at the Washington bureau. When he starts running down the story, somebody feeds it to him as involving Obama's team instead of Clinton's. I think that "somebody" is de Mora.
Okay, but I couldn't pick
Okay, but I couldn't pick that up from what you wrote.
Solar Soul
Unfortunately, it's hard to boil it down much more than the article P6 provided above. I'll give it a shot, tho:
Ian Brodie is chief of staff to the Canadian prime minister. During a budget session, he made a remark to Canadian TV reporters, saying "Don't pay any attention to all that talk about doing away with NAFTA--the Clinton people told us it's just talk."
Nevertheless, a Canadian TV reporter in the Washington bureau reports the story, but moves it over to the Obama team. He says he got it from "unnamed sources" in the Canadian government.
Joe de Mora apparently leaks a memo--a summary of his own account of a meeting with Austan Goolsbee from Obama's team.
The story catches fire. Goolsbee says de Mora's account is bogus.
The Canadian press follows up and the remarks from Brodie resurface--and all the reporters say "Obama? No, he said Clinton."
At that brings us up to today.
Yes, it appears that de Mora
Yes, it appears that de Mora leaked the confidential memo but I find it hard to believe that Tom Clark, CTV's Washington bureau reporter, was not aware of the comments made to his CTV colleagues by Ian Brodie, the Prime Minister's chief of staff. Given the nature and potential impact of the story it seems odd that CTV's editors let the Washington bureau run with the story when the primary souces were in Canada.
Thanks QB.
Thanks QB.
Clinton
I think it is time to gather all the black bloggers around a statement. Namely this:
(1) The Democratic party base has spoken. The numbers show that Mrs. Clinton has lost this race for the nomination.
(2) Mrs. Clinton's increasingly shrill attacks against Mr. Obama have taken on the airs of racism.
(3) That is regrettable because via the candidacy of Mr. Obama for the first time in the electoral history of this nation, the vast majority of African-American stand united with untold millions of white Americans and Americans of all colors.
(4) It appears that Mrs. Clinton is about to shatter this historic unity.
(5) We therefore call on Mrs. Clinton to face the reality of the numbers, concede defeat and thereby heal this wound which she has opened and continues to widen.
(6) It is clear that Mrs. Clinton can not be considered for the Vice-Presidential slot on the Democratic ticket. Mrs. Clinton has denigrated Mr. Obama to the point that any possible praise she would heap on him as a member of the Democratic ticket would ring hollow and hypocritical.
(7) If the Democratic Party leadership were to nullify our votes by giving Mrs. Clinton the nomination despite the popular vote, we call on all African-Americans to withdraw their support from the Democratic Party and to stay at home. We have survived eight years under President Bush, we will survive four years under a President McCain. We will NOT survive the nullification of our most hard-fought for right - our votes.
Pass it on...
Please don't take this
Please don't take this personally but I think that black bloggers need to avoid making any special pleadings to Hillary Clinton or anybody else in the Democratic Party. We are not slaves. We are free men and women. Free to make our own decisions and accept the consequences of those decisions. Folks should worry less about what you refer to as the "historic unity" between black folks and the Democratic Party and more about analyzing and understanding this current situation and what it portends for the future of the black electorate. Getting Obama in the White House is not the prize here.
I love it
Couldn't have said it better.
Here's Something For Black Bloggers To Do
For those who are so inclined I suggest going out into the streets of black communities across this nation and asking black Obama supporters and only black Obama supporters how they feel about Hillary Clinton's campaign tactics and statements about Obama. I would suggest they videotape these sessions and post them on YouTube and then begin to cross distribute them among black bloggers. In short, we need to create our own broadcast network because our views are not going to be aired on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC or NPR.
We should call it the Pullman Porter News! PPN.
BTW, I am willing to act as the "clearinghouse" or "organizer" for this task although I don't own a blog or know any black bloggers personally save for P6.
Pullman Porter News!
Excellent!
There ya go.
Yep. That's the one that doesn't add up. And Clarke isn't talking, last I heard.
Here are two things that are certain:
1) Somebody from the Clinton campaign talked to the prime minister's office.
2) Goolsbee took a meeting with the consulate in Chicago.
Apparently both campaigns took the trouble to explain what their candidates were saying about NAFTA to the Canadians. That's a smart move--NAFTA is important up there.
Here's what I think: I think Clarke--maybe tipped by the reporters who heard Brodie's remarks--stumbled onto a different story. He got ahold of de Mora's memo (or talked to de Mora directly) and received an inaccurate account of the meeting. de Mora's memo takes Goolsbee's careful statements and boils them down to a plain-English (and exaggerated) nut.
Remember, Clarke is in the Washington bureau, so covering the election is part of his beat. He goes with the story he has uncovered.
Meanwhile, the Brodie remarks haven't rated a mention on TV in Canada--at least until Clarke's story comes out that's way different from what the reporters heard Brodie say. That's when they speak up and the "Wait-a-minute-it-was-Clinton" revision comes out.
What really stinks is what happened between the two stories coming out. Somebody in the Clinton camp had already contacted the prime minister's office to soft pedal the NAFTA talk. That's the kind of contact that would take place at the very highest levels of the campaign--Penn, Wolfson, Ickes, or Clinton herself. And Ms. Clinton would have to know about that. Nevertheless, she hammers Obama in the last debate over this?
Sweep!
Now we have a clean sweep!
For those keeping track at home, I think the official Canadian story is "We didn't see nothin', we didn't hear nothin', and we're sorry we ever heard of you."
Well, shiiiit
Based on the questions asked, I'm sure that Ms. Buckler is telling the complete truth. No one OUTLINED HER PLANS.
"King and chief probably had a big beef; 'Cause of that now I grit my teeth." - Chuck D.
So Ian Brodie, the Prime
So Ian Brodie, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, was mistaken when he told a group of reporters gathered around him that someone from Clinton's campaign called and was "telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt?"
Is this what Sandra Buckler's denial means? Seems odd for the Prime Minister's man to make things up.
I can't find the damn book
The book's title is The Global Class War, and if I remember correctly it said a suspiciously similar conversation took place just prior to NAFTA's initial approval. Took place in Mexico too.
Maybe they got their decades crossed.