Political Campaigning 101: They have staff too

In response to the Harper plagurism charge, the NDP of all people have come to Harper's rescue: the Liberal website apparently cribs the Dippers.

Now here's the lesson this post title alludes to. When you are running a major political party's warroom, and you are told that rumour has it an opposing party is guilty of something, you do two things.

1. Pick a team of people to verify if its true and seek out additional examples of the enemy doing wrong.
2. Pick another team of people to seek out examples of your own party doing the same wrong.

If team #1 reports back positive and #2 reports back negative than you let the accusations fly as Bob Rae did earlier this week. If team #1 reports negative (and especially if team #2 finds positive) you quietly forget you ever heard a rumour (and defend the opposing party in the press while you're at it since you know its not true). However, if you find yourself in the Liberals' shoes, where both team #1 and team #2 report back positive, you sit on the story and keep it in reserve in case the opposing party decides to make a stink on the issue.

What the Liberals did was just sloppy.