A Blast From The Past

Many thanks to John B who, in response to my previous post, wrote the following and provided this video and this link. I daresay you will enjoy this eerily prophetic blast from the past, as the 'over served' and pompous Mike Duffy attempts a stout defense of his Senate expenditures less that one year into his illustrious post-television career.

I realize that the Beaverton piece is fictional, but let's not forget that Duffy was appointed to the Senate in late 2008 just after the election and possibly as a direct reward for his role in Harper's project to destroy Stéphane Dion.

It would also be informative to our current perspective to keep in mind that the infamous CBC interview during which Peter Stoffer attempted to draw attention to the expense claim abuses that Duffy had committed to support his "expanded role in the party, an exercise that, taking a page from the Jason Kenney manual for publicly-funded CRAP Party ethnopandering, the Scotch-soaked Senator dared to describe as an "outreach", took place in November of 2009, at least three years prior to the "revelations" that have led to the tap-dancing we are now observing.

A Clear And Present Danger?

Only for some, I'm happy to report.

Some Nightmares Are Real

Sleep tight, Prime Minister Harper.

No Words Needed Here

H/t The Globe and Mail

A Little Something For Your Friday Evening Enjoyment

When it comes to Mike Duffy, the hits keep on coming. Enjoy:

A Blast From The Past

I am sure that some politicos would prefer certain things remain buried in what seems to be a collective public amnesia. Thankfully, the Internet is the gift that just keeps on giving, as this piece from Press Progress reminds us:

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Updated:Do They Not Get Any Canadian News In Peru?

I had to wonder after reading this story and watching the video below. After all, asserting to be Mike Duffy's daughter is not something that most people would claim, given the porcine senator's domestic notoriety:

UPDATE: Macleans seems to have removed the embed code for the video, but you can still see it by clicking on the story link above.

CPC slogan 2015: “No grounds for criminal charges.” *

* H/t Dan Gardner

In the twisted morality of the Harper universe, it will be claimed and conveyed as a complete vindication of the Prime Minister.

That the RCMP has found no grounds upon which to lay criminal charges against Nigel Wright in the $90,000 payoff-to-Mike-Duffy-scandal does nothing to dissolve the deep and abiding suspicions about Harper's influence-peddling machinations was not lost on the At Issue panelists last night:

I Guess Sometimes It Doesn't Pay To Have Friends In High Places

Although I have no sympathy for those who work, either directly or indirectly, for the Harper regime, there is a story in Toronto Life entitled, With Friends Like Harper: how Nigel Wright went from golden boy to fall guy which made for some interesting reading.

Part profile of Wright and part portrait of a cold, calculating and ruthless Prime Minister willing to jettison even those closest to him, the article revealed things I was quite unaware of. For example, I did not know that Wright and Tom Long were instrumental in luring Harper back into politics after he left following his three-year stint in the House as a Reform member:

In 2000, Wright, Long and then–provincial Tory minister Tony Clement helped found the Canadian Alliance—a new party conceived to bring east and west together. This party was led by Stockwell Day, whose leadership was to be contested the following year.

Although for a long time resistant to the notion, Harper eventually decided to make a leadership run, largely through the importuning of Wright. And of course the falling year, thanks to Peter Mackay's betrayal of his promise not to merge the Progressive Conservatives with the Alliance Party, the party became its current dark incarnation, The Conservative Party of Canada.

But Wright did much more than give Harper his unreserved support:

With his deep business connections and capital market experience, he gave Harper some much-needed Bay Street cachet, making the western reformer palatable to the Ontario wing of the party.

In 2003, Wright, along with Irving Gerstein, the former president of Peoples Jewellers, and Gordon Reid, founder of the Giant Tiger discount chain, established the Conservative Fund Canada. The CFC would become Harper’s greatest weapon in his war to eviscerate the Liberal party. Gerstein revolutionized the way Canadian political parties raise money—soliciting small individual donations, at the grassroots level—and the Conservatives became far and away the wealthiest party.

The article goes on to discuss how Wright left his high-paying position with Onex to become Harper's chief of staff in 2010 - in its boy-scout portrayal of Wright, we are told he took a significant pay cut and paid for all of his expenses out of his own pocket. He believed he shouldn’t charge taxpayers for expenses if he could afford to cover them himself.

The piece paints Wright as something of a living saint - he regularly helps out at an Ottawa homeless shelter and is contemplating going to Africa to do missionary work after resolution of his current legal problems arising from his $90,000 cheque to Mike Duffy. But that portrayal seems at odds with one curious fact:

His allegiance to the Prime Minister, we are told, is due to the fact that Harper's "...values align with [his] in every conceivable way.”

While we humans are a mass of contradictions, that one in particular is very difficult to reconcile.

The Puffster's Senate Speech

As much as I detest Mike Duffy and everything he stands for, I have to confess that in listening to his Senate speech yesterday I was much-taken with both its content and delivery. Thundering at his erstwhile allies and colleagues, Duffy rebuked the motion of suspension pending against him and Senators Brazeau and Wallin. While undoubtedly heavily self-serving, Duffy portrayed a PMO and, by extension, a Prime Minister who abandoned him despite earlier reassurances that all was kosher with both his expenses and residency, all for the sake of political expedience.

During a meeting with Nigel Wright and Harper, the latter is alleged to have told Duffy:

"'It's not about what you did. It's about the perception of what you did that's been created in the media. The rules are inexplicable to our base' …, after which he was ordered to pay back the money.

Hardly a smoking gun, but the unfolding portrait is one that promises to further erode Harper's credibility on claims of knowing nothing about anything pertaining to Wright's arrangements to write the $90,000 cheque to Duffy. I am sure more will be revealed in the forthcoming weeks and months.

Will Duffy's words be enough to circumvent the suspension? Today may provide the answer.

If you would like to hear Duffy's speech, click here.

Abandoning Ship?

Perhaps the Puffster will receive another lifeline soon?



H/t The Globe and Mail

Being Mike Duffy

I really have nothing insightful to offer today, merely a brief reflection on what it must be like to live a life devoid of even a shred of honour.

By now, most will have learned that the Senate has moved to suspend without pay Senators Brazeau, Duffy and Wallin for the duration of this session, which could be up to two years. The motion, introduced by Sen. Claude Carignan, the government leader in the Senate, is undoubtedly a mere ploy to convince the public that the Harper regime is as outraged by the excesses of this terrible trio as the rest of Canada. I doubt that such subterfuge will succeed, given the widespread knowledge that each of them was handpicked by Dear Leader both to promote the regime's agenda and enrich the Conservative Party's coffers.

Yet such political machinations are nothing new, and are, at this point, only of secondary interest to me. No, my fascination is with the rotund Cavendish Cottager (a sobriquet penned by The Disaffected Lib), the disgraced Mike Duffy.

How does it feel to be the object of such widespread odium that you have virtually disappeared from public view? Do you have some grand internal justification for your alleged larceny and pork barreling? Do you, like your elected Conservative colleagues, dismiss all of this as a mere conspiracy of the leftist elite media?

Perhaps you take comfort from having at least one friend left in high places, the one who tipped you off about your impending Senate suspension so that you could, like an errant schoolboy seeking to avoid his day of reckoning, gets his doctor to write a note allowing for a sick leave?

Or did you, in a moment of wistful fancy, think that such a medical leave would somehow engender a measure of sympathy from a seething public that, to put it delicately, cares not a whit for the state of your health? Indeed, some might unkindly suggest that cardiac trouble is the almost inevitable consequence of feeding too heartily at the public trough.

Always remember, Mike, that delusional thinking, no matter how momentarily comforting, is unhealthy in the extreme. Better a bitter truth than a sweet lie.

And please remember this, Michael: Nothing you can do, no steadfast denial, no mea culpa, no act of contrition, no public penance, will ever atone for the ignominy of being Mike Duffy.

Not For The Faint Of Heart

Be careful who you open the door to this Halloween:



H/t The Toronto Star

UPDATED: Some Sunday Recreation

Think I'll go out on my bicycle this morning. In the meantime, enjoy these letters on the Senate imbroglio found in yesterday's Star:

Machiavelli wrote: “Those who governed the state of Florence . . . used to say it was necessary to reconstitute the government every five years . . . otherwise it was difficult to maintain it.”

What brings down all holders of significant public office in the end is hubris. There is no escape, no way out, whether in an oligarchy or a democracy. Once they are sucked into the maelstrom embrace of the “government machine,” they are inevitably cut off from the real world with the result being hubris ending in a wretched fall from grace.

Monte McMurchy, Toronto

If I were to rob a bank and then get caught, I would be charged and sent to jail, even if I said I would give back the money. So why are politicians not treated the same way when they steal money from the taxpayers? Anyone caught using public funds for their own benefit should receive an automatic jail sentence and forfeit their pension. Implement this rule and anyone in public office would think twice before sliding their hand into our pocket.

Dave Watson, Pickering

Two things consistently strike me about this Senate scandal:
1. Is it not very telling that it is so difficult to specifically define “Senate business” for the purpose of making expense claims?
2. Is it also not very telling that the principal reason for retaining the Senate repeatedly given by many observers is the fact that it would be so difficult constitutionally to abolish it?

Hmmm. We can’t really say what we do, but it might be a pain to get rid of us, so we better keep going. Hardly a ringing endorsement.

Michael Farrell, Oakville

Senator Wallin seems to have the same syndrome as Conrad Black, Bill Clinton, Sheila Copps, Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, Mac Harb and Martha Stewart, etc. She simply will not admit that she ever did anything wrong. Strength and self confidence based on noble principles is one thing, but stubborness. arrogance, and frothing and grunting at the public trough is something else.

Douglas Cornish. Ottawa

And the best for last:

Every time a peace tower bell rings Pamela Wallin gets her wings to fly anywhere at the public’s expense. Oh it’s a wonderful life!

Terry Toll, Campbell’s Bay, Que.

UPDATE: For those who can't get enough of the shenanigans transpiring in our chamber of sober second thought, Bruce Anderson offers an interesting perspective in The Globe.

If the Prime Minister Obstructs Justice, Isn't It Still A Criminal Offence?

CTV reports the following:

The Prime Minister’s Office has been withholding from the RCMP an email about the $90,000 cheque Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff wrote to Sen. Mike Duffy...

RCMP investigators have been trying to obtain the email ever since CTV News first revealed its existence two months ago.
The prime minister’s communications director, Andrew MacDougall, confirmed that the email exists.

The story, with accompanying video, goes on to reveal that one of the key architects behingd the deal to silence Duffy and pay off his debts, Harper’s former legal counsel Benjamin Perrin, has not made himself available to be interviewed by our federal force.

Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner has suggested that the RCMP obtain warrants to get the email, but Robert Fife reports that the Mounties would prefer to see the PMO voluntarily provide all of the relevant information and require anyone with knowledge of the Wright-Duffy deal to come forward.

Fat chance of that happening.

Hope He Has A Restful Summer

Wondering if the rotund Senator from somewhere has made his annual pilgramage to P.E.I. yet. In any event, the Cavendish Cottager (as The Disaffected Lib refers to him) should not travel too far afield, as the RCMP may have some questions for him soon. As reported in The Ottawa Citizen, the federal force

...appears to have broadened its investigation into Senator Mike Duffy’s expense claims by obtaining campaign records from 11 Conservative candidates from the last election.

The exhibit report filed in court lists campaign returns and “expense claims and payment documents related to Mike Duffy from the following candidates.” It lists current Conservative MPs Gerald Keddy, Greg Kerr, John Carmichael, and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver. The list appears to be comprised of candidates who Duffy promoted during the 2011 election campaign, when he visited ridings across the country on behalf of Tory candidates.

One does not want to jump to the conclusion that The Puffster was double-dipping, claiming both per diems from the Senate and expenses from the canadidates; no, one definitely doesn't want to impute fraud on a man who apparently exists in a such a state of confusion that where he lives is one of life's more profound mysteries.

That would be cruel indeed.

A Boorish Boar

The other day I posted a video in which Don Martin denounces the disgraced Senator Mike Duffy. He makes a reference to the exact point at which Mike Duffy ceased to be his friend. This is the episode I believe Martin is referring to:




H/t janfromthebruce

Growing Public Cynicism

I can only hope that the growing public cynicism evident in these Star letters translates into a deep and abiding anger that lasts until at least 2015. Here is a sampling:

Beyond money, audit reveals a bigger problem for Duffy, May 15

This column described Mike Duffy’s problem but the Senate-appointed auditors might have used terminology that was more fitting of the crime, instead of “inappropriately claimed” expenses it might have said “fraudulently claimed.” After all, Duffy’s problem is not much different from that of Harold Ballard when the latter did time for fraudulently using funds from Maple Leaf Gardens to pay for renovations to his house and cottage.

Apparently under the Harper government there are two laws in Canada, one for politicians and the other for the public. Stephen Harper’s democracy is not the one that I served to defend in World War II.

Bill Tuer, Cobourg

Duffy's sweet deal, Editorial, May 16

“According to Harper's staff . . . Harper knew nothing of the Wright/Duffy arrangement.” Sure he didn't. How stupid do we all look? Sadly, if we cannot count on honesty and integrity from the PMO, then we really can't expect it elsewhere in their government. For sure, Canadians deserve a way lot better than this. For a change, how about some real action from the prime minister — not just words — to clear out the cheats and buffoons?

Don Dorward, Pickering

When Sen. Mike Duffy said on the news a few weeks back, “The old Duffer is a man of his word,” I believed him. He went on to say that after a discussion with his wife, in order to put this distraction behind them, they would pay back the money that people were saying he should not have claimed. I was really surprised, though, to learn that his wife is Nigel Wright.

Bob Larocque, Carrying Place

A Larger Problem

In his column this morning, Thomas Walkom suggests that Mike Duffy's current scandal-plagued problems are representative of much deeper ones in the Senate, namely that our much-cossetted members of that 'chamber of sober second thought' are appointed, not because of their expertise (many of them have none), not because of intimate knowledge of a particular province (Duffy has none, having lived in Ottawa for over 30 years and not even legally qualified to represent P.E.I.), but because the Senate has become, under both Liberal and Conservative governments, a repository of party strategists and bagmen where they can continue their partisan wizardry.

No doubt Walkom is correct as far as he goes. But the above, it seems to me, are simply symptomatic of two much deeper problems in public life, the widespread disengagement of our citizens, about which I have written before, and the shocking dearth of integrity in those who achieve high office.

For example, all of the events surrounding the Duffy porkbarreling have, quite rightly, provoked widespread outrage. However, when the abuses and betrayals of the public trust are not so obvious or so sensational, far too many citizens just shrug their shoulders and say that politics doesn't interest them. This marked indifference is precisely what has permitted, even encouraged, the depradatory environmental, science, economic and social policies the Harper regime has so avidly embraced and promoted. It is this indifference that enabled Harper to prorogue Parliament twice. It is this indifference that enabled, without even a hint of contrition, the excesses of Treasury Board President Tony 'gazeebo' Clement. I could go on and on.

A sleeping public enables, even encourages the unethical, the unprincipled, those for whom integrity is an alien concept, to prey upon and erode the public good.

I have always tried to live my life with principle and integrity, as do so many others throughout the world. Because we inhabit a world requiring adaptation and compromise, integrity and principle are ideals toward which we strive, providing, as they do, a moral compass and the recognition that the solely material and secular things of this world often come with a price too high to pay.

I will close this post with a quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth, a man who learned that hard truth far too late, recognizing, as the end of his life approaches, that he has sacrificed everything of enduring value in his lust for power and pomp:


My way of life
Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have; but in their stead
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.

-- Act v, Sc. 3

Some Low-Hanging Fruit

My, my, my, they are incorrigible, aren't they?