The Mole

Several people have been wondering what happened to the former prime ministerial communications director, Scott Reid, since Paul Martin handed in his resignation. Where has he gone?

Remember you heard it here first -- he hasn't left. Scott Reid is still working at the PMO, but now in an undercover capacity, determined to break the system from within. Or maybe he was part of a package deal with Liberal defector David Emerson, the new Tory international trade minister.

How else to explain the many ways in which the new Conservative government is going out of its way to offend, insult and frustrate the national media? Whether it's Harper's motorcade fleeing a cameraman in a wacky car chase or arranging NOT to tell the media about the Prime Minister's activities, there's only one way to explain it -- a Liberal is telling the Conservatives how to win friends and influence people.

Today's favourite tactic, courtesy of Reid, obviously: announcing that David Emerson would talk to reporters, then keeping reporters on hold for a half hour, then the announcement that Emerson was "stuck in traffic" and would be available some other day.

Perhaps Emerson is living up to his pre-election, when-he-was-a-Liberal promise to be "Stephen Harper's worst enemy."