Touchy, touchy (III)

Continued from here.

 

So, when it comes to using their totally non-partisan, professional civil-service communications staff for partisan sniping, which Ministers are the worst offenders?

 

Since the nominal change of Premiership in 2011, Susan Sullivan and Clyde Jackman have accounted for just over half of all the partisan snot-o-grams issued by provincial government departments:

 

And who have been the targets? The two opposition parties are almost evenly matched, though with a slight shift of late towards the NDP. Twenty-seven snot-o-grams have been directed at the Liberal caucus generally, or a Liberal MHA particularly; 24 have been aimed at the NDP or an individual NDP Member, and seven have been aimed at legislative "opposition" generally, without names or party identifiers. (Not included here are a very small handful of partisan snipes at federal political actors.)

Broken down further, there were thirteen totally non-partisan civil-servant missives directed at the Liberal caucus generally, and ten at MHA Jim Bennett. On the NDP side of the chart, twelve were directed at the NDP, often with sneering, government-professional impartial references to the "third party", with St. John's North MHA Dale Kirby taking most of the individually-named fire.

Touchy, touchy (II)

A quick reminder that, a few weeks ago, Jerome Kennedy, Minister of Whatever Jerome Kennedy is Minister of, reminded the sad-sack provincial legislature:

I do not think I need to remind the member opposite that communications personnel in government are not political staff; they are members of the public service. They are not involved in political events such as fundraisers, and they are not involved in political speeches.

Public servants are politically neutral and non-partisan.

As per the Billy Hickey Rule, government communications staff are public servants.

Politically neutral, non-partisan, public servants.

You can stop laughing now.

On Thursday, Susan Sullivan, who is rapidly revealing herself to be among the most viciously partisan members of an utterly talentless provincial cabinet, issued yet another press release, via her devoted, politically neutral, non-partisan public servant, Scott Barfoot, which took a pointed and partisan swipe at an individual opposition MHA.

This was the eighth such partisan jibe issued by a politically neutral, non-partisan public servant for the month of May, and the twenty-fifth so far this calendar year.

May is the fifth month of the year. In all of 2012, there were "just" 31 partisan snot-o-grams issued by politically neutral, non-partisan public servants against named opposition MHAs, named opposition parties, or the opposition in general. And 2012 was the all-time record year for such hair-trigger defensive partisan buffoonery.

Why, you'd almost think the crumbling, talentless, directionless Progressive Conservative government of lame-duck Premier Kathy Dunderdale was worried about something.

Or something.

For the record, the year-over-year tally of partisan snot-o-grams, current for 2013 to the end of May, now stands as shown in this chart:

A/political

Jerome Kennedy explains the role of Dundergov comms staff during Question Period on Monday:

I do not think I need to remind the member opposite that communications personnel in government are not political staff; they are members of the public service. They are not involved in political events such as fundraisers, and they are not involved in political speeches.

So, Mr. Speaker, this is a function within government that deals with a division that is important, and it was simply a review to see if we could better deliver services.

Public servants, for the record, are neutral and non-partisan.

So, if the comms staff are non-partisan, apolitical public servants, why, this corner must ask again, are they involved in producing and disseminating partisan-politically charged press releases such as this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, or this?

And those are just from this calendar year.

UPDATED TO ADD: They just can't help themselves, can they?

Oh happy joy!

It's baaaaaaacck. The ludicrous, obscene, laughable, taxpayer-subsidized personality cult is back:

Patient Care Improved Through Funding for Clarenville Health Care Services

The Dunderdale Government continues to invest in a strong healthcare system for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians with funding of more than $1.9 million announced today for health care in Clarenville. Funding is being provided to the Dr. G.B. Cross Memorial Hospital for infrastructure upgrades and medical equipment, as well as for site work for the new protective care residence that will be built in the community.

This corner, for one — especially his snarky side — couldn't be happier.