Liberal Party's Catscam enters its third week

Catscam, the kerfuffle over the Liberal Party's anti-Chinese slur, is entering its third week.

Here is Alice Wong, Conservative MP, talking about it in the house: 

And here is the Vancouver Sun report on her comments. An excerpt:

A Richmond Conservative MP called on Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to apologize to China's ambassador for 'hurtful' comments by Ignatieff's aide Warren Kinsella.

Alice Wong said Monday that Kinsella's joke that Chinese restaurants serve “barbecue cat" is quickly becoming an international embarrassment for Canada.

"During these economic times, we cannot afford to needlessly offend a billion potential customers," she told the House of Commons. "We do not need to offend the world's most populous country.

"The Liberal leader should immediately write the Chinese ambassador to apologize and affirm that Canada respects China, and the Leader of the Opposition must finally act and fire his top political strategist, Mr. Warren Kinsella."

Kinsella meanwhile, continues to do what the Chinese language press -- both here in Canada and in China -- call an "ironic apology". He says he's sorry, but then he lashes out -- especially at Wong.

Here's the funny thing about that. It keeps the story alive, because Kinsella's reaction gives the story more fuel. But the story really isn't getting much play in the English language press (though I did talk with Corus radio's Dave Rutherford about it for 15 minutes today.) But it's getting big play in the Chinese language press. And Kinsella, who is thoroughly discredited in that media already, now thinks that flinging mud at a Chinese-Canadian MP -- a source of pride for Chinese-Canadians of any political stripe -- will somehow win the Liberal Party some points. Again, his torrent of insults against Wong isn't getting any pick-up in the mainstream media -- the only people still watching his antics are Chinese-Canadians who are already mad at him. It's just fascinating that the master war-roomer thinks that he's doing his party any favours this way.