Indeed, some Liberals privately contend [Dion] will face a revolt among his restive MPs if he doesn't finally pull the trigger. At least two MPs have already vowed to vote against the immigration reforms regardless of what their leader decides.

Fun as it was to film the RCMP raid for potential use in negative election advertising, Liberal strategists privately acknowledge that a campaign focused almost exclusively on Conservative gaffes and ethical lapses won't take Dion very far. Indeed, with the memory of the Liberal-era sponsorship scandal still lingering in voters' minds -- and refreshed by the charges laid Friday against [Benoit Corbeil], a key figure in the fiasco -- an ethics campaign could backfire badly.

Liberals might want to consider whether they'd like to be in the middle of an election campaign, trying to persuade voters to give Dion the keys to the national treasury, when he's forced to admit he hasn't yet made a dent in his 2006 leadership debt.