Jean - le crocodile désolé

To weep crocodile tears is to pretend a sorrow that one doesn’t in fact feel, to create a hypocritical show of emotion. The idea comes from the ancient belief that crocodiles weep while luring or devouring their prey. However, crocodiles can’t cry, because they have no tear ducts—they would be useless in an animal that spends so much time in the water. The eyes can produce secretions to moisten the lids if the animal is out of the water for a while, but these are hardly tears.

So it is with the reptilian Jean Chretien, who on April 29 made his first public statement on the Adscam furore since he testified at the Gomery commission in February.

Chretien said that he was "sorry", but only "if mistakes were made":

Recalling his appearance before the Gomery inquiry, Chretien said: "In my statement, I said I was sorry if mistakes were made and I said I have to take the full responsibility of what's good and what's bad when you're the prime minister."

"And I said if mistakes were made, these people have betrayed the nation, betrayed the government and myself and (through) due process, if found guilty, they should be punished," said Chretien, who was in Philadelphia to accept an award from a U.S. gay-rights group.

And that was basically it.

But you don't get the real picture unless you watched the video footage of Jean crying his crocodile tears it was instantly evident that he was very reluctantly mouthing the words. He was hostile, abrupt and terse. His body language screamed "f*ck you"!

At the same time he again defended the sponsorship program, saying it was "good for the country."

Yeah. And for a lot of Liberals.