Ask Jean Chrétien how that worked out for him

OTTAWA – Stéphane Dion is resisting pressure to fire the Liberal party's national director who suggested that former leadership rivals may be plotting against the new boss....

In Against the Current, author Linda Diebel writes that two months ago Carroll began to doubt the wisdom of Dion giving key roles to all his former rivals – including his choice to make Ignatieff deputy leader.

"I am starting to wonder if he may not have been a little too good to his former competitors," Carroll is quoted as saying.

Diebel writes that Carroll "lived in fear of an all-out drive against Dion," orchestrated by one or more of Dion's top three leadership rivals – Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Gerard Kennedy.

The kind of loyalty Dion tried to buy, post-victory, simply cannot be bought. The defeated candidates either accept your victory, or they don't and spend the next decade basically undermining you at every turn from their post as Minister of Finance. Or so I'm told.

In the excerpt The Star published, Diebel makes it clear that Carroll is right -- Dion offered Ignatieff a job that didn't flatter his ego enough, Ignatieff said he wanted the deputy leader post, and rather than stick to his guns (what guns, really?) Dion caved. Ignatieff isn't the only one who comes out looking bad -- Bob Rae ends up looking pretty petulant, too. A good read, in any case, and I'm looking forward to the book.