The Adscam hearings have had what one must imagine was their desired effect: It is no longer news when Liberal cabinet ministers are caught lying or otherwise implicated in the scandal. Not even if the minister in question is the Prime Minister. Item: Yet another senior civil servant in charge of the sponsorship program, Isabelle Roy, tells the committee that Alfonso Gagliano, contrary to his own testimony, was intimately involved in the running of the program, deciding which projects should get funding in regular meetings with Chuck Guit�, the program's director. The Star runs the story page 6; the Post, page 10. The Globe runs the story off front, but leads with the RCMP telling the committee not to call certain witnesses because it might interfere with their investigation. Item: Another memo surfaces accusing officials in Paul Martin's office at Finance of rigging the bidding on communications contracts to favour Earnscliffe Strategy group, where many of his senior advisers were -- and are -- employed. To compound the embarrassment, the scolding is at the hands of Warren Kinsella -- the conscience of the Liberal party, then executive assistant to Dave "Stonewall" Dingwall at Public Works -- in a memo to that crusader against misspending, Chuck Guit�. "I require an immediate explanation as to how the department in question was permitted to breach the guidelines in this way," Kinsella writes, listing seven contracts worth $525,900 awarded to Earnscliffe and an affiliated company. "This is simply unacceptable." Guit� agrees, writing back that the situation "could become embarrassing to the government and certainly our minister." Coverage: Globe, page 4; Post, page 10, Star, page 6. How those memos came to light is an interesting question in itself. Kinsella staunchly denies he leaked them, even feigning unfamiliarity with the one above his signature ("The memo sounds genuine, although I still haven't seen it yet. It certainly sounds like something I would say..."). Actually, I believe him. My theory is that the Martin people leaked it, in anticipation of Guit�'s appearance before the committee tomorrow. The theory is buttressed by Monday's Globe piece ("Guit� expected to bare old feud with Finance"), which heavily quotes Martinites. The strategy is signalled by the headline: make everything Guit� says seem like part of an "old feud," an obscure bit of bureaucratic rivalry mixed with partisan infighting, where everyone says things they regret later. And rely on the fact that the story has already been leaked -- twice -- to make Guit�'s testimony seem stale by the time it is delivered.