This is a government that can’t even vet the right partisans for board appointments, as indicated by Health Minister Jim Reiter’s explanation that Rae did not undergo “significant vetting” because he was “already in the system.” He was previously the politically appointed chair of the Sunrise Regional Health Authority board.

Really? If this Sask. Party government was selecting a candidate or was hiring for the most junior ministerial assistant position, the first thing it would do is check out the prospective employees’ Facebook pages for inappropriate postings.

Unfortunately, the only vetting the Sask. Party seems truly interested in is vetting for partisans who are compliant when it comes to following Sask. Party government wishes. Perhaps this is nothing new. The old NDP government was horrific for peppering boards with partisans, and even assigning party commissars to jobs in Crown corporations to ensure the wishes of government were carried out.

Were this a less insular government, it might have demonstrated some progress from the very things it used to criticize the NDP for. It could have sought out career health professionals, administrators or policy analysts to form the majority of the new super health board.

But this is a government so insular that it now lashes out at any criticism in a personal and vindictive way.

The latest example is an inappropriately nasty letter from Finance Minister Kevin Doherty to Maclean’s over a piece largely about Wall’s decline in popularity. Rather than go after the content of the piece, Doherty’s letter was largely a personal smear campaign on the credibility of its Saskatoon based-author Tammy Robert. That was followed by an aggressive Twitter campaign in which the Saskatchewan Party’s feed called the piece an NDP narrative.

The real narrative in play here is one of a Sask. Party government that makes its decisions in isolation, only backpedals when public pressure makes it obvious that it is dead wrong and viciously goes after critics who might dare point that out.

This government is far too insular.

Murray Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post.

mmandryk@postmedia.com