Stephen Harper: Strong Leader. Big Thief. (Or Washington Flunky)

There are only two ways to take the news that Stephen Harper delivered a speech that was almost word-for-word a copy of one that John Howard gave two days before:

Either he (or one of the minions he's responsible for) stole the speech wholesale from Howard; or both Howard and Harper were handed the speech by Bush and his cronies, which they proceeded to deliver word for word as they were instructed.

He's either a thief or a tool. Either way, he's clearly unfit to lead.

Edit: It gets better. From (of all things) the National Post:

Mr. Rae said a number of the lines from Mr. Howard’s speech “were also duplicated in guest editorials that Mr. Harper submitted to the Toronto Star, National Post and Ottawa Citizen which were published under his byline on March 21, 2003, and in a guest editorial published on March 29, 2003, in the Wall Street Journal under the byline of Mr. Harper and then-foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day.”

I missed that in my rush to post what I was reading. Plagiarism while delivering a speech is bad enough. Plagiarism while submitting editorials under your own byline is, if anything, even worse.

Unfit to lead.

(By the by, I'm quite happy that a google search for "stephen harper thief" sends people to this page.)

(If you want a source on the actual charge that isn't from Harper's obedient little press minions, try The Star. They aren't Dion minions, either: kind of Hebert minions I suppose. And if you want the video, hit the Liberals' web site.)