Lift the Covers, Jack

The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. -- Shakespeare

In his open letter to NDP supporters, Jack Layton defends cozying up with the Liberals saying:

"our responsibility is to make the budget better and ensure this minority Parliament gets something done."

Today Layton chastises Stephen Harper for having a position (defeating the government) which by coincidence, rather than design, is the same as the Bloc's: Harper risks `getting into bed' with Bloc if election forced: Layton

About his own dubious and very deliberate deal with to support the Martin government, yesterday Layton said:

I know that there will be people who will say, 'Ah, yeah, that's Layton. He loves corruption. The NDP, they just love corruption. They're really corrupt themselves because they support the Liberals.' That's a totally ridiculous accusation. We're helping people. We're opposed to corruption," he said.

And of course altruist that Jack is, he didn't make that deal to help his own fortunes:

"We'll say [in an election] that we worked for the people while all the other parties were just taking care of their own business to their own advantage. Ordinary people will make their own decisions and I'm quite confident that what we're doing now will help us," he said.

How's that for a double standard?

Cheers,
canadianna