The Architect of Liberal Disunion Speaks

There was a time, where mostly by brute force and 20 hour days, former Liberal powerhouse organizer Mark Marissen could lay claim to any bounty inside the Grit’s national tent, regardless of whom was toiling away to gain said riches.

Marissen, no fool, was incredibly foolish. Never a man to shy away from a fight, he demanded a brawl every time. Finesse to him, was rather like what an amorous encounter might be for a bull moose in heat.

He wrote a ‘special’ for the Vancouver Sun yesterday, that, to the uninitiated, might be described as a comprehensive plan to successfully retreat on the abundantly clear, but thoroughly embarrassing, fondling of the NDP by the Liberals. It might also be said, that Marissen was simply trying to rejig his waning influence in a party whose flag he burned–twice.

But it was neither. What Mark Marissen wrote in yesterday’s Sun was one of the shoddiest pieces of revisionist claptrap that I think I might have ever read.

To begin with, he embraces the tact of being the apologist for the successive failures of the once-mighty Liberal machine–but appears to, without explicitly saying so, leave the blame open to interpretation.

When, in point of fact, Marissen is the chief architect of the Liberal destruction and, in large part, their current lot of no less than five distinct and impossible camps (although there are others to blame, but lesser players). It was not enough that his virulently ham-fisted ways wrecked havoc throughout the time he was leaving bodies strewn across the Liberal landscape to get Paul Martin the keys to 24 Sussex–he had to have Jean Chretien’s guts spilling on to the floor. Bludgeoning to death (or attempting to) Chretien’s vast and still vital constituency intra-party was as much a priority as electing Martin.

But not if you read Marissen’s scribblings from yesterday. He’s talking “big-tents” and prudent directions; flowers and blue sky. This, incredibly, from a man who, at the exclusion of all others, anointed one stunned dimbell in Stephane Dion and proceeded to run the most directionless and divided campaign in Canadian history. Dion’s plan, Marrisen approved and fueled, would have crippled our economy and shattered our balance sheet.

And I note for the record, perhaps with some momentary bemusement, that Kim Campbell might have been significantly more coherent–and that’s saying something.

Reading Marissen’s thoughts yesterday, on unity and purpose is like what I would expect from Tiger Woods if he were extolling the virtues of family values.

It wasn’t enough that Marissen brought Indo-Canadian political factionalism to Canadian shores by systematically exploiting and enflaming their differences, but he layered such a raging ethnic bonfire by mining that community for the most malleable and compliant organizers possible–and then he trained them to be unscrupulous and cruel . No greater or more despicable example can be cited than the night Ujjal Dosanjh was installed (during the lead up to Martin’s election as leader) over Herb Dhaliwal, the latter of whom was tending to his wife–literally on her deathbed. It was entirely unnecessary to attain those numbers as Martin’s ascension was a sure coronation, but that was not good enough to Marissen. They had to pummel anyone of the same skin as Chretien.

Later, in his rewriting of Liberal history–particularly in B.C., he attempts to sugar-coat his own bare-knuckled efforts in this province. by running down a list of impressive people he claims were recruited for office by his Grit machine and that this is clear evidence of how Martinites reached out to B.C. What a load of thick a foamy hogwash! Other than David Emerson, not one of the rest mattered or has proved a responsible and reasonable MP, including Dosanjh, who floats from steady and clear-eyed, to shrill and incomprehensible (he was one of three Liberal MPs, without a sniff of evidence, to suggest Canadian Forces had committed “war crimes”–this from a lawyer no less!)

My favorite part of Marissen’s screed, though, was this:

“And let’s remember that Liberals are already a “coalition” of sorts — a coalition of people who reject rigid dogma and want balanced, fair government.

Think about who Liberals attracted in the past decade: Outside B.C., people such as former NDP premier Bob Rae, and former Conservative MPs Belinda Stronach and Scott Brison.”

Mark must have hit the bar at the Hotel Vancouver with his pal Miro Cernetig of the Sun, before having the temerity to write such outrageous nonsense.

Bob Rae destroyed Ontario. Scott Brison’s sole, but indeed, incredible accomplishment as an MP is to consistently tell anyone who’ll listen that he’a gay, and did they know, and Stronach won the award for most expedient and breathtaking destruction of a political career, now only eclipsed by the busty hookered dinners of Helena and Rahim.

There’s a growing coalition for you, Mark. I hear Ms. Guergis is looking for a new home.

You can suffer through Marissen’s folly, here.

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