The rest of the audio tape

Can the late Chuck Cadman do what Stephane Dion can't, and end the Liberals' annus horribilis? Liberal MP Garth Turner thinks so. He is even talking about bringing down the government. (But then Turner does that from time to time.)

Sometimes an oasis in a desert turns out to be a mirage, though. This passage in a news story caught my eye:

In an e-mail to The Canadian Press, Sandra Buckler said the tape - which the publisher of the book was selling for $500 a copy - is an excerpt of a longer interview between the prime minister and Zytaruk.

"We are deeply concerned that an edited excerpt of a taped conversation between Mr. Harper and the book's author is being bootlegged for five hundred bucks a pop by the author. We call on the author to provide Canadians with a complete, unedited audio copy of the author's conversation - from start to finish - with Mr. Harper."

Those facts should be ringing alarm bells. An edited clip of a longer tape? We've seen how that can end. And the $500 a pop cash grab for that clip should be a flashing light. We all have to make a living; that's part of book-selling hype. But for a journalist to sell audio clips for $500 seems a touch like, well, selling stereo equipment out of the back of a van. If there's nothing fishy here, why the hurry?

It was odd to hear the radio interview with author Tom Zytaruk -- he didn't have basic facts about his own allegations. He seemed wobbly and unprofessional and unbriefed; surprised, even. He looked the same on TV. And that was before I'd thought of the rest of the tape, or heard about the $500-a-pop, get-it-while-the-getting's-good action. I'd sure like to hear the rest of Zytaruk's tape -- not just of the rest of his conversation with Stephen Harper, but his conversation with Mrs. Cadman, the source of the rumour. For that is another piece that doesn't quite fit here: Dona Cadman is herself a candidate for Stephen Harper's Conservatives. Why would she run for a party that had tried to bribe her late husband?

Believe it or not, when I was working for Stockwell Day and the Canadian Alliance was descending into its civil war, it was Warren Kinsella who gave me a minute of good advice while we rode an elevator together. It was a simple rule: get all the facts -- all of them -- in front of you before you start communicating in the middle of a crisis.

That clearly applies to the Tories here -- it sounds like no-one in the party has yet had a calm, friendly talk with Mrs. and Ms. Cadman, to really get the facts. What exactly did Chuck say? When did he say it? Did Mrs. Cadman really read the draft of the book carefully? Is the draft she received the same as what was actually published? What is the nature of her deal with Zytaruk? How does he get paid? How does she feel about running as a Tory candidate? Who suggested that Paul Martin write the introduction to the book? Why? What editorial input did he or other Liberals have? Who decided to leak that sexy tid-bit to the press? Who made the decision to do so the day after the budget, when the Liberals were in the soup? Do the Cadmans have any e-mails or other communications from Zytaruk? Do they have an recordings of the interviews themselves? Did they say anything to reporters in the heat of the moment, out of pressure -- that is, did Zytaruk write something that wasn't true, and did a reporter surprise them with it, and did they agree with it just not to embarrass Zytaruk and the book, and themselves, and Chuck's memory? Just the facts.

But I think the Liberals, and their chorus in the mainstream media, don't have all the facts in front of them either -- facts about the tape, and Zytaruk's motivations, and the nature of the book -- a vanity biography, apparently commissioned by the family, and blurbed by Paul Martin -- and other things that seem a little out of place.

Given the success of recent Hail Mary passes by the Liberal opposition, big, small and just plain pervy, it wouldn't shock me if this silver bullet ended up blowing up in their faces, too.