Liberal "Smokes for Votes" Staffer Resigns

Ontario Liberal Party apparatchik Nikki Holland was caught on tape regaling other Liberals with tales of her time in the trenches. In one anecdote, hearkening back to the bad old days when a vote could be bought for the cost of a brewski, she recounted how, on election day, she had rounded up voters of no fixed address and enticed them into marking an "X" for the Liberal candidate by promising them free smokes post-vote.

Initially, the Ontario Premier tried to downplay the vote-buying (this is from the Ceeb's account):

When asked about Holland's comments earlier on Friday, McGuinty called them "completely unacceptable," but said he didn't ask her to step down. "It was a bad joke in poor taste," said McGuinty. "She apologized for it."

McGuinty also noted Hudak was one of six MPPs who voted against the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, the anti-smoking legislation that went into effect in 2006.

As if that somehow mitigates buying votes with Export A's (or whatever brand she lured them with).

Since that lame explanation obviously wasn't going to be enough to satisfy the Sun media "meanies,"  and since there's an election in the next few days, Holland was persuaded to hang it up:

Holland characterized her comments as a "stupid mistake." In announcing her resignation, Holland said she did want the comments to be a distraction to the election campaign.

She did want them to be a distraction? Surely not.