The latest political wisdom from Brian Lilley

Who writes about the Frank Graves controversy (click on over for the whole report):

Here is what Graves is quoted as telling the Liberals in his column last Wednesday, “I told them that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don’t like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin.”

Now to the party faithful living in Toronto’s Annex or Montreal’s Westmount neigbourhoods, all of this likely sounds like just the ticket. Then again, those people are already on your side and casting their ballots for you. Will it work for the rest of the population? Will it bring enough voters over to your side to make your team the one that wins the election?

The answer here is a clear no.

While Lawrence Martin appears happy to declare that Ignateiff is finally tacking left, the populace remains in the mushy middle, a spot the Conservatives have moved to without losing their right-wing base, at least not yet. If the Ignatieff Liberals move too far to the left they will, barring any major mistakes from the Conservatives, cede the middle ground to Harper and Co. and fight for the left-wing vote with the Bloc, NDP and Greens.

Meanwhile, Ezra has gone ballistic.

And Globe columnist John Doyle has noticed the Culture War is on in Canada but the lefties seem unwilling to engage:

What I saw was cowardice, a failure to engage with the outrageous rants of Levant. Wells mentioned with disdain that Levant had recently referred to Irwin Cotler, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, as “the Liberal Party's porch Jew, Irwin Cotler.” Levant promptly repeated the phrase. It was a “come on, buddy, let’s rumble” attitude. No rumble ensued, mind you.

On TV panel after TV panel, from CBC NN to CTV’s Question Period, debate is dreary, if it exists at all. What’s happened on TV is that the Conservative party and its representatives grasp this, and take advantage. On CBC, the recent addition of former Conservative spokesman Kory Teneycke is a fascinating development. Teneycke is sharp and very, very good at pushing the Conservative agenda. Whip-smart about TV, he never hides his allegiance and is adept at gazing-directly-at-the-camera sincerity. His opposite numbers are amateurs in comparison and seem utterly unwilling to stand for any principle.

Interesting.