Ignatieff: yet more noxious macho manliness

Though I'm meant to be following Bolivian politics, I just can't seem to get away from Michael Ignatieff's awesome phallic rhetoric.

To wit, a quotation I just stumbled on from a two-week old story on Canada.com. From a section of the story where he's boasting that a number of federal MPs said they supported his leadership bid:

Ignatieff said snagging the support of MPs is "tremendously important."

"These are people who've been in the battlefields. These are people who've taken the incoming fire. These are people who believe I'll be a good guy in a fox hole. So I'm extremely pleased to have their support,'' he told reporters.

I mean, we all know that being elected as an MP is tought work, but is knocking on doors really as bad as getting trench foot?

Now, to prove this is more than just a random occurrence, here is more of his strange fascination with his warrior alter-eg, this time from the actual campaign trail, exerpted from a blog post I never posted:

At a fundraiser in Toronto called Meet Our Champion (for which he skipped the televised candidates debate for his Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding), he gave a speech replete with bizarrely macho quotes about winning back Quebec. These are reported in an article by the excellent Toronto Star reporter Linda Diebel, who somehow got in even though the media weren't invited.
As she paraphrased some of the remarks, to be clear I will quote straight from the article and put MI's words are in red:

Michael Ignatieff warned that Canada is facing a national unity crisis in which "we need troops, warriors and chieftains" ready for the political battle over Quebec.[...]"Young federalist Quebecers exist but they need a champion ... to give them the courage to speak," he said. In watching the English debates Monday night, he had seen in Martin "a man of tremendous, almost physical toughness. I have tremendous respect for his endurance... Everyone in this room needs to give this brave man full support."

It's all just too creepy. Why on earth is he talking about his puffed out, geriatric party leader's physical toughness and endurance? Why are young federalist leaders chomping for a frothing viking chieftain?

"Michael Ignatieff: Apostle of He-manitarianism" tries to puzzle some of it out, but some of the geopolitics are pretty dubious. I'll also point out that though I can't find the source, I'm positive he recently told a reporter to emphasize that he's not some intellectual flake, he's been shot at! (Alledgedly in Bosnia.)

I just think it's hard to tell whether Iggy is overcompensating for his obvious meterosexual image as a Harvard prof and BBC arts correspondent for strategic reasons, or whether he actually fantasizes about being one of those steel-nut seargents from Platoon or Full Metal Jacket.