Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses.
Mitt Romney
There is an air of desperation in the Senate Expense Scandal now and its first casualties were personal dignity and the truth.
What a cheap and indecent vaudeville show this has become. Yesterday’s revelations by Mike Duffy and the constant changing of the narrative by pretty much everyone concerned, including the Prime Minister have done nothing but elevate what should have been little more than an administrative issue into a series of desperate acts and accusations by people becoming increasingly more desperate.
I listened to Senator Duffy speaking in the Senate yesterday and while his information is relevant and significant, his demeanour had all of the charm of used car salesman desperate to close the deal. It was a real challenge to remember that this was a Senator speaking in the Upper House of Canada’s Parliament. He was almost drooling with excitement at the prospect of the effect his revelations would have.
It is one thing to defend yourself with the facts; it’s another thing completely to gloat and delight in the damage those facts might have.
The first question I asked myself as this Rocky Horror Picture Show unfolded yesterday was, “Do any of the people involved remember that this is the people’s Parliament?”
The media were on the new revelations like flies on rotting garbage but you can’t blame them. This entire situation is garbage and it is, unfortunately, the media’s job to report on it no matter how much it smells.
And smell it does – all of it.
Consider Senator Duffy’s primary defense: “The Prime Minister’s Office is as dirty as I am we. We conspired together to lie to Canadians and to hide the truth.” As defenses go, it doesn’t inspire much in the way of respect.
But then nobody connected to this inspires respect.
They’re all desperate now – decency, integrity, leadership are all casualties of this expanding scandal that is now threatening careers, possible criminal charges and the future election prospects of the current government.
The three Senators involved have been slinging allegations of conspiracy, personal vendettas and even illegal acts. It is a pathetic level of desperation that underscores just how low our government has been brought by those who seek to govern.
But the desperation doesn’t start and end with the three Senators being sanctioned. This disgusting burlesque starts and ends with Stephen Harper. Virtually everyone connected to this scandal was either appointed, hire or referred by appointment by the Prime Minister.
Senator Marjorie Lebretton who has talked out of both sides of her mouth on this issue was appointed Senate Government House Leader and to the cabinet by Stephen Harper. Senators Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau were referred to the Governor General for appointment to the Senate as was Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen who sat on the Board of Internal Economy that brought the motion to sanction the three senators and who is herself now accused of misappropriating expenses. Senator David Tkachuk who was referred to his Senate seat by Brian Mulroney was appointed to Election Campaign Chair by Stephen Harper.
Wright, Woodcock and Een Perrin in the PMO and connected to this scandal were hired by the Prime Minister and others like Arthur Hamilton were hired by the Conservative Party of which Stephen Harper is the leader.
What amazes me is that all of these people knew what was going and yet none, not his Chief of Staff, not his personal lawyer, not a member of his Cabinet told him anything – or at least that is what the Prime Minister is now desperate to have Canadians believe.
His defense is as odious as that of Mike Duffy. Where Duffy’s defense is about only being a little less dirty than those who conspired with him, the Prime Minister’s defense seems to be that he is so incompetent, he had no idea what his senior staff and appointees who report to him were up to.
I’m not sure that I find willful incompetence or stupidity to be a credible defense.
As I watched Power and Politics last night, emails were pouring in from participants including Senator Lebretton. These folks are worried. They’re watching the news and working feverishly to try and defend themselves from every nuanced revelation.
Too much has happened – too much has been revealed for Canadians to be soft-pedaled into believing this or that now. We’ve reached that all scandals arrive at when they are this poorly handled. Nobody except the die-hard fans of the Prime Minister believes what anyone says.
It has always been thus. When people try to hide their misdeeds, no matter how trivial, inevitably they blow up into something far worse than the original sin. Remember Watergate? It started as a penny-ante break-in by ‘the plumbers’, a sad sack group of Republican who stole documents from the Democratic Party Offices.
If the President and his senior staff had taken responsibility and provided full transparency, it would have been little more than today’s news and gone tomorrow. But, just as with the Senate Expense Scandal, everyone concerned was too clever by half and now the cover-up has become far more serious than the original inappropriate expense claims.
The police are investigating and there are real possibilities of criminal charges. It’s absurd. Due process, presumption of innocence, accountability, transparency and integrity have all been trashed but what is worse is that our democracy has been demeaned and diminished by the way this is handled.
Whether he, or the base, likes it or not; the only one responsible for that is the Prime Minister. He promised accountability – he provided blame, accusation, bullying and a continuously changing narrative.
There are many things that could be called, including desperate but whatever else you call it – it ain’t accountability.
The bottom line is that the buck stops with Stephen Harper and it’s time he accepted that, addressed all Canadians and told them the full truth.
This has now gone beyond partisan politics and he has a responsibility to all Canadians to look them in the eye and accept responsibility for his actions and those of all of those he hired and appointed. We've heard from Senator Duffy; it's time we heard the full story from our Prime Minister.
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