Travers Makes Himself Useful

In the OLO War Room, columnist James Travers must have seemed an inspired choice. He can turn a purple phrase with the best of them. He stands foursquare against troops, widows, and orphans. He's for plummies, toffs, and pointyheads. He's short on guts and glory, long on assay. He has an ego as big as the Ritz, and fragile as a Gruyère Soufflé. To receive a document drop on a Matter of National Importance would be sweet validation, which most likely happened under Liberal governments.

So the Ignatieff Liberals—someone in the OLO—got the brilliant idea of having Travers write about a trove of Richard Colvin’s long-sought emails from Kandahar, the same documents three esteemed generals had justlaid wayside with their testimony.

This is a standard bit of hardball damage control. Refute damning facts, testimony, and documents to anyone who might review them with credibility, pass them instead to a compliant journalist—a “high-value third-party,” in PR lingo—who can be counted on to convey their content with opposition-friendly gloss.

Travers did not disappoint. His piece in Saturday’s Star is replete with snide references to the Pm and three generals, who did not spend more than enough time outside the wire for his liking to be able to state the facts. Apparently volunteering to step into the shoes of the highest ranking military personnel ever to be on the front lines in Afghanistan isn’t sufficient for our Liberal leaning scribe.