Rae takes over the big-red machine

[d_rawk]

As interim leader.

“The people of Canada gave the Liberal party a very clear and tough message in the last election,†Rae said. “We simply have to, if I can coin a phrase, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again.â€

I am not at all sure how that amounts to 'coining a phrase', but this is no time to quibble. Congrats on your winning the position, and sorry about your (permanent) leadership ambitions which are now quelled.

“We’ve gone to 19 per cent of the vote. I don’t think that’s a floor. I think there’s a risk that if we’re not smart, if we don’t act well, we could go even lower,†McCallum said. “We have to put our strongest person on the ice, someone who can take on Layton and Harper in the House, someone who can give good sound bites to the media; somebody who can speak with passion and with humour and someone with experience and political instincts to respond to a fluid situation.â€

Indeed.

I'm interested to see Rae act in this capacity. I think he will do a fine job.

Rae’s big strength will be that he wants everyone to do well, says Bennett, and that he may be able to rein in the Liberals’ instincts to undermine each other.

If one could damper the temptation of one Liberal to eat the other Liberal's babies, one would be doing quite well for the Party. I wait with baited breath. Sincerely.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

Are those quotes from the Ottawa Sun?

[Booche]

and sorry about your (permanent) leadership ambitions which are now quelled

I could be wrong but I was under the impression he didnt stand much of a chance with regards to permanent leadership because his french skills arent up to par.

But I agree in that they need someone to help steady this sinking ship now and that someone should have experience.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

...maybe he's retired though, dunno

[Jaimoe]

My mom tells me that Milliken has retired to his house on a quiet steet in Elginburg. Rae's probably the right guy for the job.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

...for the interim

[d_rawk]

I was shocked that you didn't follow up with a joke about Jaimoe's mom

[d_rawk]

Gotta love The Post for sticking their fingers directly in your eyes and unapologetic self-righteousness:

Barbara Kay in Montreal: I think the key words here are, in Kelly’s blunt words, “core Liberal values, whatever those are.†Values-wise, the Libs have been on automatic pilot for a long time. They’ve been politically correct in their deferral to certain interest groups – feminist women, aboriginals, immigrants, and any underdog du jour, but not out of conviction, as a strategy and people understood that — and the sponsorship scandal took the wind out of their self-righteous sails. They didn’t pay attention to the honest party lovers who got together and wrote a report on renewal, and I know a few of the people who worked hard on that in good faith. They were crushed when it got the back of the hand. I agree with Matt that a new broom would have been symbolically persuasive, while Bob (yeah yeah, very good guy and all that) was there sitting around letting the party slide into disaster. So not good optics.

But Bob could surprise us if he wants to, and the first thing he should do is take the purge survivors to the woodshed, spank them and tell them they’re worthless losers. Like they do in marine training. They have to feel truly humiliated. He should make them cry a little. Then he has to make them do the kind of exercises corporations are made to do when they have consultants in to turn their failing businesses around. The consultants set up a blackboard and go around the table and say stuff like, “Okay, imagine there is no such thing as the Liberal Party, but you have to create one. What would such a party look like in terms of its core values? Ex nihilo. Next, they have to disassociate themselves from the NDP big time. Like move rightwards in important ways for a start. And yes, Kelly is absolutely right. They have to prostrate themselves before the West and rural Canada and beg for forgiveness. That would be a good start.

Barbara Kay: So adding to these lugubrious scenarios, when we factor in the federally-funded cut to their war chest (should we start calling it a “protest chest†– “war†seems dissonant with their present situation), are we looking at the actual demise of the Libs and the beginning of an “American-style†two-party system? You wouldn’t find me bewailing such an outcome. In politics, more parties is definitely not merrier. If the Libs were absorbed into the NDP, and were able to soften up some of their extreme leftiness (union-worship, foreign policy infantilism), we would have two very strong parties and both with well-defined values. Frankly, even though I am really trying hard, I can’t figure out a middle ground between the NDP and the centrist niche the Conservatives now own that would be capable of whipping up much enthusiasm amongst a wide swathe of Canadians. So my vote is for the Libs to throw themselves on their swords and, hat in hand, petition the NDP for an eventual union. Sure, the NDP can afford to laugh them off now, but in four years, when this freak success dissipates, they will welcome the idea.

[edit to add: she is wrong about that last point, to be certain. She miscalculates just how deep the rift and the hatred - it is hatred - runs between the Liberal faithful and the NDP faithful. There may end up being a marriage of convenience, but it won't be particularly 'welcome' on either side.]

But then Rex:

Politics is not a generous game. Ambition almost, by definition, demands selfishness.

The career of Bob Rae, at least the latter day portion of it, inclines me to think neither of these observations apply to him.

Recall when Michael Ignatieff, or his backers, finessed the capture of the Liberal leadership, getting their guy past all challenges and past a real leadership race. Bob Rae, who alone could have kicked up a really justified storm over the matter, quietly and without public rancor put aside his own interest, and accepted Mr. Ignatieff as leader. Can’t think of very many who would have done the same.

And now – now that the Liberal party is no longer the sleek hip convertible that drives straight to 24 Sussex – now that it’s pretty close to the political equivalent of a write-off and a wreck, who volunteers for the job of taking it over, re-engineering it, and standing up for it in its worst days. Well, Bob Rae.

This is as much generosity as politics is likely to demonstrate.

Rae was twice – twice – turned down for the leadership of the Liberals. He was, in contrast to Stephane Dion or Mr. Ignatieff, the only one with real and tested political skills. Certainly he had more to offer that the latter in real world experience, and the former in political intuition and sheer mastery of communication. He’s one of the few natural Parliamentarians, knows Canadian politics from both the provincial and federal level, and has wandered through defeat to a larger view of the politics and the country.

But, Rae, having been turned down by the party, still agrees to take on the now unglamorous, largely thankless task of interim leadership. He could simply have walked off stage. Others have and would still.

It would have been interesting for Justin Trudeau, say, to have given it a whirl. If he really wanted to demonstrate how deep his commitment to the party is, and how it’s more than a mere inheritance. Picking up its leadership at the lowest point would have been — dare I say it — a challenge worthy of his father. But then, most of those Liberals who would have run for leader in a trice in happier times, are only too eager to hand over to the reins now that it’s shrunken, demoralized and on the ropes.

There are more ironies here than we can count. Rae would easily have done better than Ignatieff in the last election. If he’d been picked in the first post-Martin convention he might even have toppled Stephen Harper. The Liberals declined his skills when those skills would have been of maximum advantage. But he – with a sense of duty that almost seems old-fashioned – is here to pick things up again.

Such a rare thing in politics – I thought it worthwhile to underline it.

[Esau.]

Ha! Made me look. "Big Red Machine" refers to something entirely different around these parts.

[d_rawk]

I'll bite ..

[Thorgnor]

For my two cents, Rae is the best option, and it is in all of the ways that Rex points out, the most heartening example of behavior I've seen in Canadian politics in a very long time.

I always knew that I liked Bob Rae, in spite of some serious political mistakes in the past, but now I actually admire him.

[Esau.]

I'll bite ..

Hell's Angels have had that nickname for decades.

[hamilton]

I bet Bob Rae would make an excellent leader for the Hell's Angels!