Paul Martin came out West last week spouting his recent mantra of being upset, mad and outraged over the federal sponsorship scandal.

He came out West to quell the rising tide of anger caused by the scandal that saw millions of your dollars being channeled into Liberal friendly advertising firms in Quebec.

He told anyone who would listen from the students at a school in Vancouver to the coffee shop owner on Vancouver Island to the large bevy of reporters who followed him, that he will fix the problem and make those responsible pay.

While he was saying a lot, it is what he did not address that is cause for concern.

He has not explained to anyone's satisfaction how the man in charge of the purse strings, hailed as Canada's most competent finance minister and a Quebec powerhouse, did not know about the siphoning of millions of dollars.

His 'I did not know' line of defense meant to deflect the blame onto Jean Chrétien is outrageous and raises the question of his competence.

His 'changing communications strategy' that included blaming a cabal of civil servants; then Alfonso Gagliano, the former Public Works Minister; then Chrétien; then saying he will quit if necessary, albeit after the next election, has the West asking - who is this guy

The Paul Martin who came out West last week was a far cry from the confidence-oozing and articulate prime-minister in waiting we met a few months ago.

This time it was a whiner showing pain and panic, whose efforts at trying to be forthright seemed contrived, whose one-liners seemed wooden and whose visit to talk to the people was nothing more than a hastily crafted plan to justify himself.

Bottom line is that the damage control tour out West has done nothing for Martin's credibility for the already skeptical voters this side of the Rockies.

The spin-doctors decided the best strategy to convince voters, post Sheila Fraser's report is to put the prime minister on every talk show that wants him and make him available to every newspaper columnist with a decent following.

This risky gamble is not paying the anticipated dividends because Martin's profile of what he did not do is getting a higher profile that what he did as Finance minister, leaving the prime minister twisting in the wind.

His very public denials are getting tripped up as those he pushed aside in his ascendancy dig out old memos and get afflicted with the sudden urge to go public now that their snouts are out of the public trough.

One of them is Akash Maharaj, former Liberal party policy chief whose bid for the party presidency got sidetracked by Martinites.

Maharaj struck back at Martin saying he wrote to him in 2000 urging a probe of the sponsorship program.

Similarly, there are others who have been pushed aside, including some high profile Chrétien loyalists in B.C., who are waiting for the opportune moment to add fuel to the fire.

It is not only the sponsorship scandal that is dogging Martin in the West.

There is another very made-in-B.C. controversy simmering away and set to explode in the next little while.

This one involves energetic Martinites known as the 'Basi Boys', organized crime, the marijuana trade and clandestine moves to boost numbers in riding associations.

The investigation is expected to hit the headlines again soon with the release of a fuller picture of what triggered the Dec. 28 police raids on the offices of two political aides in the provincial Liberal government.

These aides are closely connected to the Martin inner circle.

Liberal insiders both provincially and federally fear that this story will put a spotlight on Martin's less than stellar tactics to seize the Liberal top prize.

Of particular attention will be the takeover of the Liberal constituency association of former natural resources minister and Chrétien supporter Herb Dhaliwal and the appointment of certain Martinites to the executive of the Esquimault-Juan de Fuca Liberal riding association on Vancouver Island.

If, as widely suspected, proceeds of organized crime were used to boost Liberal memberships in B.C. from some 3,000 to about 40,000, Martin may as well start talking to Kim Campbell about what prime ministers do after short stints in Ottawa.