Kinsella @ Gomery via Coyne & Spector

A rather fiery exchange began yesterday afternoon in the blogosphere as a spillover from the Gomery Commission. Norman Spector's column in the Globe and Mail brought Warren Kinsella's name (mentioned here last week regarding his undermining campaign against the Commission) to the fore. "It was Mr. Kinsella who wrote the letter to the deputy minister that landed Chuck Guite his job, an act that the present Clerk of the Privy Council said was "not appropriate." The assertion appeared in the Ottawa Citizen and the Toronto Star last September.

Considering that Chuck Guite was part of what Le Devoir's Alec Castonguay calls the "political triumvirate of the sponsorship program," the link may be significant, if not just interesting. Also, in Saturday's National Post Andrew Coyne launches a series of questions. The question concerning Kinsella reads as follows:

We are asked to believe, likewise, that Mr. Chretien was so concerned to remove any partisan taint from federal advertising practices that he assigned the task to David Dingwall, his first Public Works minister; and that Mr. Dingwall and his executive assistant, Warren Kinsella, were so seized with non-partisan zeal that they went to unusual lengths to ensure Chuck Guite was put in charge of the program. Mr. Guite has testified that Mr. Dingwall explained his decision to keep him on, notwithstanding similar activities on behalf of the previous Conservative government, with the words: "You won't rat on them, you won't rat on us."

Kinsella, who has already testified before the Gomery Commission, seems concerned about the connection between his name and Chuck Guite. He has sent a terse letter threatening to sue Andrew Coyne.

Guite was placed in charge of sponsorship, as I understand, by Ran Quail and Diane Marleau, around the time that I was living in Vancouver. If you had bothered to pick up the phone to speak to me, or done the barest amount of research, you would have known that. Instead, your partisan rage about golf balls, I suspect, persuaded you to publish a lie. That was a big mistake.

In addition, Kinsella has written in his blog a series of intemperate insults against Coyne.In language not approved by the Canadian Bar Association, here is part of Kinsella's reply:

I will give Andrew Coyne the benefit of the doubt, and not immediately conclude that he is a goddamned liar. I will merely assume, at this stage, that he is goddamned sloppy, lazy and blindingly partisan. You need to pay to link to the offal he passes off as an opinion column in today's (fabulous-looking) National Post. So my column below, invited by Coyne's editor seconds after I objected to what Coyne wrote, will have to suffice. Am I sick of the bullshit? Damn straight. And me - along with plenty of others - are going to start hitting back harder, starting right frigging now.

Coyne wrote a polite reply in his blog, citing the documents that linked Kinsella to Guite from reports in the Star and the Citizen.

Elsewhere in the Shotgun, Kinsella was being taken to task for his (mis)understanding of democracy. But the Monger was much less diplomatic, referring to him as a "bore" and a "flea." If what one of my friends says about publicity is true, that all that matters is if they spell your name correctly, Kinsella has had a good last 24 hours in the blogosphere.

Kinsella has a healthy reputation for being a bully, but he is not likely to intimidate the likes of Coyne or Spector. Spector seems to be having some fun with this thing. In his post to the Shotgun yesterday afternoon, he said: "Anyone who hasn't already should dash post-haste over to his site to see a celebrated kick-asser in full meltdown." The story will continue.

In the meantime, the Gomery Commission will resume with its phase B at the end of the month. This time it will be looking at the trail of money out of the government "program" leading to the agencies in Quebec and the boomerang donations to the Liberal Party of Canada.