F. James Sensenbrenner's son involved in Canadian NAFTA memo leak scandal

[sybylla]

from the post in LBN

OTTAWA–Fingers are pointing at Conservatives close to Stephen Harper for leaking a diplomatic memo that badly embarrassed Barack Obama and put Canada's vital cross-border interests at risk. Multiple sources say the Canadian note questioning the Democrat frontrunner's public promise to reopen NAFTA was leaked from the Prime Minister's Office to a Republican contact before it made American headline news.

Their claims come days after an internal probe threw up its hands at finding the source. Contradicting Friday's inconclusive report, they claim the controversial memo was slipped to the son of Wisconsin Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner. Frank Sensenbrenner is well connected to Harper's inner circle and, at Ottawa's insistence, was briefly on contract with Canada's Washington embassy to work on congressional relations.

Contacted yesterday morning, Frank Sensenbrenner did not seem surprised and agreed to an afternoon interview. But he did not call at the agreed time and did not respond to repeated emails.

snip

That badly misses the point and obscures the motive. Identifying the information as more sensitive would not have stopped the leak as long as Conservatives in high places were willing to help soulmate Republicans by rolling the dice on Canada's most important relationship. Getting the diplomatic memo to the U.S. media was pivotal in amplifying a small Canadian story into big American political news. The interpretation by Canadian diplomats that Obama was speaking out of both sides of his mouth on free trade is widely believed to have damaged his prospects in the Ohio primary and distracted Democrats to Republican advantage.

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/News/USElection/article/431367

Another embarrassment for Wisconsin's 5th District. Nice of daddy to get him a job working on congressional relations in the "Washington" Embassy in Canada.


edited to add link to story in LBN: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3326989

[midnight]

1. How odd that Sensenbrenner's son Frank would involve

himselve into an interview about this situation, and then not follow through. Even more odd is the fact that this Republican would care about two Democrates?

[dragonlady]

2. I'll bet he was too dumb to know that he shouldn't comment on this

Then Daddy or one of his aides got wind of it and set Frankie straight. This shows he has no natural talent for politics, and that's probably a good thing. (I guess he didn't pick up much from growing up in a politician's home and serving as a leader in the College Republicans at Stanford.) :rofl: