The weird saga of Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal's one-man sting of the Liberals has been great grist for the political blogging mill.

Buckets of Grewal is a new site. For example, it provides a detailed analysis of differences between the first and final transcripts of a recorded May 18 conversation between Grewal and two top Liberals -- Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and Tim Murphy, Prime Minister Paul Martin's' chief of staff.

The yellow highlighting on the documents in the online slideshow shows material that wasn't included in the first transcript – and there's a lot of yellow.

This particular dust-up has some on the liberal side of the sphere tasting blood – and that has some conservative bloggers suspicious.

The Buckets blog started posting on May 24 (Grewal first made his allegations of being offered plum postings by the Liberals on May 18 – two days before the budget vote and one day after Belinda Stronach left the Conservative Party for the Liberals. For more on the tapes and their timing, see this article by CTV parliamentary reporter Roger Smith).

Besides the original content and analysis, Buckets links to other bloggers' posts on l'affaire Grewal but also offers original posts and analysis. He's been busy. According to one conservative blogger, there were 62 posts entered between May 24 and 31. "Rather extraordinary for a newbie to the blogosphere. The sheer volume of posts makes you wonder if "buckets" is a single person," wrote Bill Strong of Strong World.

This has Stephen Taylor, co-founder of BloggingTories.ca, wondering if Liberal Party operatives were engaging in "astroturfing" – making something look like a grassroots effort when actually an organized group is behind it.

"It reads like a whole bunch of Liberal talking points," he told CTV.ca, referring to the memos issued by parties to elected members on what should be said about a given issue.

However, Steven MacKinnon, national director of the Liberal Party, told CTV.ca "it's certainly not a Liberal Party of Canada 'astroturfing' operation," adding he'd never seen the Buckets blog before.

Meet 'Buckets'

On Buckets' blog is the following description: "Just little old me, together with a 3-year old laptop, a cheapy HP scanner, a hiliter, a $3 pair of ear buds, and an obsessive personality."

But Buckets ("eventually I'll probably out myself") told CTV.ca while he's voted mainly Liberal and NDP in the past, he's never held a party card -- and would consider voting Tory in the future if Stephen Harper weren't leader, saying, "I don't want a leader who's a provincial rights nut." He added the blog was his own idea.

One Conservative blog said Buckets lives in Hamilton, which is true. In one post, Buckets says "… my 'day job' involves dealing with documentary evidence -- some of it fragmentary, some of it tampered, sometimes by several hands."

In a telephone interview, he said: "As this story developed, the intellectual habits that I have from my academic background have (pushed) me to ask what are obvious questions to me, although they may be less obvious to other people."

While he's read blogs, Buckets had never blogged before this. Currently in New York state as a visiting scholar, Buckets originally saw his blog as a three or four-day throw-away project.

But then there was "one sort of strange, ridiculous turn of events after another," he said.

Buckets noticed the Grewal website kept changing the documents there. For example, the slide show shows the difference between the original transcript and the updated one for the May 18 conversation.

"They of whipped (it) in during the weekend without really telling anyone. As far as I know, they've never really announced that these things have changed."

Asked how much time per day he's been spending on the blog, Buckets said: "In my business, to succeed, you've got to have an obsessive personality."

He's been getting up at 8 or 9 a.m. and working on his blog until 2 or 3 a.m., which the self-described workaholic said is a normal pace for him when he's in obsessive mode.

As to the name, Buckets said he hasn't seen any Canadian newscasts, and named the blog thinking Grewal was pronounced 'Gru-well'. It's actually Grey-wall. Oops.

Told about the speculation his output led some to think there was more than one of him, Buckets said: "I should be flattered that they think no one could be so productive in a single day."

But in some cases, Buckets said he listened carefully to the tapes and made detailed notes. When the Tories released updates, it was easy to turn around further postings quickly. People have also started sending him stories to note on his blog.

While the tapes story will eventually fade away, that might not come soon enough for some. Buckets noted that "Mrs. Buckets is getting a little concerned at how much of my attention has been taken up."

A rarity in the blogosphere?

Fact-checking blogs like Buckets of Grewal are few and far between in Canada, Jim Elve, who runs BlogsCanada, told CTV.ca. Most political bloggers just spout opinion and analysis on the issues of the day.

Antonia Zerbisias, media critic and blogger for the Toronto Star, told CTV.ca that while U.S. blogs may do more "fact checking," in most cases those bloggers are fronting for think tanks, often conservative in nature.

That makes Buckets' efforts all the more unique.

So far, Buckets' efforts haven't filtered up to the mainstream media, if a Google News search on "Buckets of Grewal" is any indication. Zerbisias first mentioned the blog on June 1, although outlets like the Globe and Mail have hired forensic audio experts who said they believe the tapes have been altered.

However, some conservative bloggers are talking about Buckets' findings.

Bob Tarantino of Let It Bleed wrote this on Tuesday: "This is just ... stupid. Yes, when weighing the wrongs here, the Liberals are the bad guys. And yes, Grewal's shenanigans with the tapes appear to be just dopey third-rate machinations. So, in the perfect world, if we're assigning guilt, Tim Murphy, Ujjal Dosanjh and Paul Martin are a bunch liars and scam artists. But c'mon: why does the CPC (Conservative Party of Canada) keep doing this? The Liberal-friendly media is going to crucify the CPC every chance they get; do we need to make it easier for them?"

But the highest-profile ones, like National Post columnists Andrew Coyne and Lorne Gunter, have been silent.

But maybe a certain amount of Grewal fatigue is setting in on all sides. Check out this June 6 post from CalgaryGrit, who is listed as a member of Progressive Bloggers: "To be perfectly honest, I'm a little grewaled out so I won't even begin to comment on the latest bizarre twist (Grewal's stress leave) in this saga."