If Harper believed Duffy to be guilty of a gross breach of the senate rules — of the kind that the prime minister argues warrants his suspension without pay from the institution — why would his top political operator be willing to spare no expense to reimburse all the expenses related to the offence on his behalf? And if, as the cheque suggests, at least part of the money came from the Conservative party, was the PMO using funds given by the party donors to fool the same party donors into thinking that the government was running a tight ship when it was not? Harper has always maintained that until the story of Nigel Wright’s role in the reimbursement became public, he had taken Duffy at his word when he said he had taken a personal loan to pay back his housing allowance. But Duffy claims that the line about the loan was cooked up by PMO spin doctors. If, as the senator further asserts, he has a paper trail to document that allegation — and he has yet to produce it — he will, in effect, have Harper cornered. For taking the prime minister at his word, if he was gullible enough to buy a false story from his own palace guard, what does that say about his management of his own office? And if PMO staff assumed that it was acceptable to encourage a senator to lie, what does that say about the ethical rules that the prime minister enforces within his own ranks? thestar/news/canada/2013/10/29/mike_duffy_will_be_a_wet_blanket_on_tories_national_convention_hbert.html
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 14:18:02 +0000
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