Explaining the uproar

Occam's Carbuncle (temporarily out of hiatus) clearly demonstrates what all the fuss is about.

Too many conservatives (in their sincere attempt to be principled when they saw their party as unprincipled) failed to check their premises.

Odd that me and OC, two guys who aren't even that partisan in their allegiance to the Conservative Party are far more capable than many others (including plenty of intense partisans) have been at seeing the Emerson affair for what it was. The optics (the politics) of it might have been poor, but the defection itself was based on merit. Stephen Harper didn't owe David Emerson a damn thing. He brought him in for his expertise and for his knowledge of the softwood lumber file, the Olympics, and the Pacific Gateway initiative.