They dumped on him right to the end.
There comes a point when "too much" is too much, even for a politician.
Bob Rae offered himself as Liberal Party leader back in 2006.
They said "No thank you, we want Stéphane Dion."
We saw how that ended up.
In 2008 he was ready to try again. But they loaded the dice against him in favor of Michael Ignatieff, so Rae back off.
Ignatieff did even worse than Dion.
After Ignatieff's well-deserved departure following the last election, they reluctantly accepted Rae as "interim" party leader, but only if he accepted a humbling set of conditions, including a solemn promise that he would not eventually seek a "real" leadership.
This week, with no other Liberal in sight who has as much talent or experience to knock off Harper or send Mulcair packing, Rae again offered his talents as leader in full title.
Maybe third time lucky.
It was not to be.
The same old backroom Liberal gang were up to their old tricks, and began trying to impose a set of debilitating conditions on Rae.
"Ah, so that's what you want." Rae must have said to himself.
"Bye-bye guys. Catch you at the pass. "
In the end, it was Rae who had the last word.
When his caucus gave him a standing ovation in the House of Commons Wednesday afternoon, Rae joked: "Look NOW how they love me. . . . . "
Was he making a joke?
I'm not sure.
