Desperate House Knives

      Let me now translate for my Canadian readers the text of Prime Minister Martin's address to the nation tonight: "Please, pretty please, pretty please with sugar on top, don't let the Opposition kick my sorry ass to the curb.   Please?   I promise I'll be good, I really, really will!"   My gut says this speech tonight will be the PM's death knell.   For a government that isn't facing a national unity issue, this has to be the most desperate gesture of any government in recent memory-- and that stench of desperation will, I think, make Canadians decide to send the PM to the showers.   Whatever one thinks of Mr. Martin as a man, this seems to me a political error of gargantuan proportions, because only the most ardently Liberal will view this as anything but a last ditch effort at self-preservation.   And with this speech, I think the PM will inadvertently anoint Stephen Harper as his successor, after cutting out his guts to spite his spleen.   Remarkable, this political sepukku, isn't it?