PLENTY OF ANSWERS, BUT LITTLE SUBSTANCE

There's Still A Mystery About The Different Treatment Of The Two
Assistants

Politicians usually like to leave the impression they are savvy,
in-the-know people who have a vague idea of what's going on.

Unless the topic is some kind of weird, organized crime drug
conspiracy that has brought police knocking on the door of the
legislature armed with two search warrants.

Then the more appropriate attitude is to have not the faintest clue
what on Earth is happening.

It's a topsy-turvy kind of approach to things, but Premier Gordon
Campbell did a magnificent job on Wednesday of establishing a
meaningful rapport with everyone else out there who is completely in
the dark.

First of all, he walked up to the microphone at his nationally
televised news conference and had nothing to say. Turned out he didn't
have a statement, he was only available to answer questions. Or
non-answer them.

"I don't know a lot more than I did on the 29th," he said at the
outset. "I don't think I know very much ... I can't tell you what's
involved in the search warrants ... I haven't seen the search warrants
. I don't have information on what was being searched ... I don't
know everything."

At one point he even denied knowing that fired ministerial assistant
David Basi was even a federal Liberal party big shot, which is
ridiculous, since Basi has been firmly established for quite a while
as one of the key people to know in the federal Liberals' B.C. operation.

Not knowing Basi's track record is almost as absurd as Campbell's
effort to find the good in all this: "We should recognize that we live
in a country where police can do that."

However uncomfortable it leaves the premier looking, this facade of
decisive ignorance is actually a good thing. The alternative is to
have him fully briefed and up to speed on the case, which would leave
every move the government makes as it waits for this situation to
clarify open to questions of exerting political interference.

As Campbell said: "The last thing I want to do is to inadvertently say
something that might jeopardize an investigation and have you come
back to say to me: 'Because of you we just lost 20 months of
investigation into a very serious matter.' "

But where the premier's story of being in the dark starts to look a
little suspect is in the different treatment given the two MAs whose
offices were raided. Basi, in Finance Minister Gary Collins' office
was fired, Bob Virk in Transportation Minister Judith Reid's office
was suspended with full pay. What's the difference?

Campbell stuck to the line that Collins first used: It's because Basi
assisted with Collins' house leader duties, was active on a wider
scale and therefore had to go.

But that is wearing thin, particularly in light of the few gleanings
of new information that Campbell was able to provide.

He said Solicitor General Rich Coleman briefed his chief of staff,
Martyn Brown, on the Sunday the raid took place. Then Brown and
Campbell -- on Maui -- conferred and agreed on a course of action that
involved firing Basi instantly.

Whatever was said, the briefings raise curiosity. Campbell said
everything that Coleman did on this case was done with the approval of
the RCMP. The solicitor general, with political responsibility for the
police investigation, briefed the premier's chief of staff in some
fashion just prior to the government's only reaction to the story to
date. It leaves the impression that they acted on more than differing
job descriptions in firing one target, but not the other.

Campbell also illustrated that the government is making another
distinction on this case. There's "inside government" and there's
"outside government."

Said the premier: "The public understands the job we have to do. They
also understand this is something that is outside of government that
unfortunately for all of us brought the investigation into the offices
of the legislature ...

"This is not about government, this is about outside of
government."

The Campbell government may soon start leaning heavily on this
distinction.

Drugs, organized crime and commercial crime are "outside of
government."

And cabinet ministers -- who police assure everyone are not involved
- -- are inside of government.

But it's still the legislature that was searched. And that's as
"inside of government" as you can get.

Just So You Know: In defending the integrity of the police investigation,
Campbell paid a back-handed sort of tribute to past governments in B.C.'s
scandal-plagued history.

"One of the things we've done in B.C. relatively well is that we've
set up a process where these sorts of investigations can take place
and where there is no political interference."

Well, practice makes perfect.