Angry in the Great White North

Michael Ignatieff is the Liberal Party's toughest leader...ever!

Conservative ads are showing Michael Ignatieff make a heartfelt plea to Americans, claiming to be an American as he did.  The clip came from C-SPAN.  There is evidence to suggest that the ad is having an effect, and Michael Ignatieff won't have any of it:

Speaking in Gander, N.L. Saturday, Ignatieff said the prime minister must learn, "If you mess with me, I will mess with you until I'm done."

I know a lot of people giggled at the Massachusetts Mauler, but really, I was waiting to see what Michael Ignatieff had in mind.  You don't want to underestimate people.

Now we know what Michael Ignatieff had in mind.  He was going to snitch on Stephen Harper.  You know -- squeal, tattle, rat.

Actually, Michael Ignatieff doesn't even do his own snitching.  He has lawyers who do the snitching on his behalf:

C-SPAN's corporate vice president and general counsel, Bruce Collins, said Canada's Liberals called to alert him to the use of copyrighted footage of leader Michael Ignatieff in a Conservative attack ad. Collins added he doesn't believe the short segment amounts to a copyright violation.

Collins says he was contacted by a lawyer who said he was representing the Liberals after the ad came out.

"He wanted to know if we were aware if our video was being used in this way," Collins said. "If our rights were being violated, he wanted us to enforce them."

Please enforce them?  Come on.  Be a pal.  Pretty please?  It would really help us out.  Did I mention that Michael Ignatieff taught at Harvard?  Huh?  Huh?

I mean, really, it just sounds pathetic.  Not the issue of intellectual property rights, which is important (and for what it's worth, Bruce Collins dismissed the Liberal whining by pointing out that the material as used clearly fell into the fair use provision of copyright law). 

What is funny is the gaping chasm between Michael Ignatieff's words and his, well, total lack of real honest-to-goodness messing action.

Ignatieff says he is going to mess with Stephen Harper until Ignatieff is done.  Grrrrrrrrr!

Ignatieff actually gets a lawyer to call Americans to plead that they to do his messing for him.  Meow!