"Calling that inquiry into place was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do then and it is the right thing to do now."
  -- Paul Martin, April 11, 2005 Ottawa, Ontario

How ironic that the one thing Paul Martin has done right since his first day in office is what's sinking his party faster than a head-on collision with a North Atlantic iceberg. With fresh, post-revelation polling numbers from the weekend having knocked party hacks into high gear manning the political bilge pumps while the good ship Liberal takes on water faster than an ocean-going cheese grater, it's amazing to watch how one act of integrity can torpedo a party when a thousand acts of stupidity and dithering can't.

Crippled, rudderless, she's an easy target for someone with the guts to pull the trigger.

But you see, the Liberals aren't exactly locked in battle with Admiral Nelson, or even Captain Stubing, for that matter. When they faltered last year, handing Stephen Harper and his happy gang of reformed Reformers a signed, sealed, and postage-paid care package in the form of a minority government ripe for the picking, the Conservatives not only fed their dying foe more ammunition than they needed with loose-canon rhetoric, but proceeded to shoot themselves in the feet with musings about everything from ending bilingual services to the Prime Minister's affection for kiddy porn.

Yet, here we are a year later, the Great Red Machine broadside in the crosshairs, and everyone is wondering when Commodore Harper will take his shot.

The smart money is on the latter part of May, after British Columbians finish tearing a chunk out of Gordon Campbell's hide at the polls, after the Queen drops by for a little hand wave and a smile on the prairies, and after Justice Gomery wraps up his vivisection of the Liberal Party. With no one but an obscenely rabid Gilles Duceppe being particularly eager to hit the campaign trail when there's still more juicy bits expected to come from the inquiry that only two months ago was knee-deep in golf ball discussions, many will be urging Harper to wait and see if the Liberals can sink themselves.

But while crippled, the former glory of the Canadian political seas is not completely broken.

Should Harper wait too long, any of a number of things can, and probably will happen. The Liberals, armed with an agenda that would choke a small army of horses, will be quick to distract the public with a raft of good and righteous works they have planned for the Canadian people. From big plans with Foreign Affairs and National Defense, to daycare, Kyoto and environmental reform, the opposition will be flooded with more impressive legislation than you can shake a notwithstanding clause at.

And, despite the indignation that comes with knowing your government has not only the chutzpah to funnel tax dollars into party coffers, but the utter stupidity not to cover their tracks any better than a two-bit thief with no legal education, memories are short, and tempers need stoking. By the time the Queen is done inspecting the Saskatoon Kindergarten Choir, people may not give a fig about much beyond where they're vacationing this summer.

Of course, there's also the fact that time is much like a rope to the Conservatives: give them enough of it and they'll eventually hang themselves...I mean, wasn't that Harper we heard trying to link same-sex marriage with Liberal corruption on the weekend?

Never the twain shall meet, Stephen, no matter how hard you try, but I guess you just can't help yourself, can you?

So, while it might be tempting to wait and see if anyone turns up in front of Justice Gomery waving nude photos of Chrétien and Martin playing a round of golf in their birthday suits with Groupaction Marketing tattooed on their backs, it may be time to risk being branded "Separatist Lovers" and bow to Duceppe's eagerness to wipe Quebec free of Liberals and bring down the government for an early spring election.

The prize is yours for the taking, Mr. Harper...just point and shoot. It's that simple.