Monday, May 20, 2013

Nigel Wright and the Corruption of Stephen Harper



I don't know why Nigel Wright decided to sell his soul to a man like Stephen Harper,  the sinister boss of the Con mob.

Or what dark force drove him to cut a $90,000 cheque for the sleazy senator Mike Duffy. A man he hardly knew.

But he sure learned a hard lesson today eh? When you work for the Con mob, and you get caught, it's all YOUR fault. And it's time to disappear. 

Nigel Wright has resigned as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff, following revelations he wrote a $90,000 cheque to repay improperly claimed housing expenses for Senator Mike Duffy.

"My actions were intended solely to secure the repayment of funds, which I considered to be in the public interest, and I accept sole responsibility.

But not before moving your lips in the approved manner, to make it absolutely clear that Boss Harper knew NOTHING.

"I did not advise the prime minister of the means by which Senator Duffy's expenses were repaid, either before or after the fact," said Wright, who had been Harper's chief of staff since January 2011.

And that if you did reward the dilapidated Duffy for his appalling behaviour, it was only because you wanted to pay back all the money he took from the taxpayers...



(Ed. note: the first story about how Wright was just doing a personal favour for an "old friend" had to be changed after it was revealed that they weren't such good friends after all. And that two teams of lawyers had worked on the deal.)

Because that's how Boss Harper expects ALL his Con gang to behave. 



Someone who was there paraphrased Harper’s message to his ministers at his first cabinet meeting in 2006: “I am the kingpin. So whatever you do around me, you have to know that I am sacrosanct.” Harper was telling his ministers that they were expendable but that he wasn’t. If they had to go so that his credibility and his ability to get things done were protected, so be it.

As well as ALL the killer kittens he raises in his basement...



But of course this outrageous behaviour is no laughing matter, it's a POLICE matter. Because there are just too many rats, and too many questions.

Did Prime Minister Stephen Harper have foreknowledge of a backroom deal between his now former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, and Sen. Mike Duffy, in which the latter’s $90,172 tab for improper housing expenses would be made to go away?

Wright's carefully worded statement that he did not tell Harper "of the means" Duffy got the dough sounds highly suspicious:

How very tactfully worded that clause is. Not advising someone “of the means” can be interpreted any number of ways. It could mean that the prime minister didn’t know whether the $90,172 was paid to Duffy by cheque, in cash, or via bank draft. It could mean the prime minister was not informed whether it was a loan, or a gift, or a combination of both. What it avoids, rather glaringly, is this very simple question: Did the prime minister know about and approve of the payment to Duffy?

And the whole thing, if the religious fanatics in the PMO will forgive me, stinks to high heaven.

To suggest all of this occurred without the prime minister’s knowledge is simply not credible. Given the stakes, if Harper had no advance knowledge at all of the Duffy transaction – as opposed to, say, no knowledge of “the means” – would the PMO not be shouting that to the rooftops?

Gawd. What a horrible sordid scandal, and isn't it the most BEAUTIFUL thing you've ever seen?

The only thing more damaging than this would be if Harper had also been caught smoking crack with Rob Ford and his scary friends. In his underwear.

Thank you Mike Duffy Moby Duff...



Greg Perry/Toronto Star

Dive !!!! Dive !!!! Take her down Mikey !!!!

Although I do have a couple of complaints eh?

Did the Cons really have to take such a scandalous dump in the middle of our sacred Dead English Queen CanadianTwo-For holiday?

The bastards. Did they think we would be too drunk to notice, or remember?

And how could they send out the hapless Con MP Michelle Rempel today to try to defend the indefensible. Try to make her appear like a saintly Joan of Arc. 

Only to have the poor thing end up looking like deer caught in the headlights...



Conservative MP Michelle Rempel said she’s “disappointed” over the ongoing Senate expenses scandal but stands firmly by her party, and the government is motivated by a “desire to make sure that we have accountability and transparency in the Senate.”

Or just sounding like another cult-like member of the Harper mob, who believes that if you repeat a Big Lie enough times people will believe it. Because she may be better than that. But Great Ugly Leader will corrupt EVERYTHING he touches.

That's what this scandal is really all about.

Oh well. No doubt I'll have more to say about all this. But not tonight. Tonight I just want to send my own horse head message to Don Harpo, or Don Meowconi:

Go tell it to the POLICE. Have a good trip to Peru. Don't bother to come back, because we are going to defeat you.

And anything is better than this...



But if you EVER screw up our Two Four holiday again, I will personally ask the judge to add five more years to your sentence.

Because we may be broken after so many years of living in Harperland. The long cold spring may have sapped our will to live. The stench of corruption may have sickened us.

And yes, because of all of the above, some of us a lot of us are drinking heavily this weekend. *Hic*

But you will not fool us.

Because we are not IDIOTS !@#!!



Er......except those who voted for the Cons thinking they would clean-up the government.

Gawd. Happy Dead English Queen Day everybody. Enjoy the fireworks eh?

Stephen Harper is going down like a lead balloon.

And we've got sooooo much to CELEBRATE !!!!!

Click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.

12 comments:

Omar said...

Why will no brave and clear thinking souls ( Hello, Mike Chong) cross the floor on this absolute mess of a government? If there were ever a time to break ranks with this unethical mob, now would be it. Fly my pretties, fly!

Anonymous said...

Simon, you are always so over-the-top accurate that you leave us mere mortals speechless.

Be a little kinder to that Rempel lady. She needs all the support you can give her, being thrust out there in the glaring limelight.

Anonymous said...

My god Simon, thanks for the link!
Poor Pierre P couldn't sell - "Wright did the honourable thing to protect the taxpayers."
Now we have Michelle R trying to pitch - “Based on my understanding, Mr. Wright was seized with a burden of making sure that taxpayers’ dollars were not on the hook in this situation."
I don't know how the interviewer could restrain guffaws after hearing "seized with a burden" !
The Harper Cons have a great ability to create narrative.

Anonymous said...

Yes there may be some good ones possibly mrs Rempel ???? But the rest of the party must get off the Harper con crap possy crack. No offence to Canada's own outstanding degenerates.

leftdog said...

Great post. Really like your work on the Senate scandal of late. (I don't have your email addy ... but sent you a note on Twitter dmessage).

Simon said...

hi Omar...the silence of the lambs in the Con Caucus is one of the most appalling thing about the Harper years. That none of them ever had the courage to speak out will haunt them forever. But things are changing. Once Harper was their ticket to success, now he's looking more and more like a liability. So maybe now some will find their courage...

Simon said...

hi anonymous...I do try to be as entertaining as possible, and I rather enjoy being over-the-top. But somewhere in that confusion there is almost always a serious message. ;)
But I will try to be kinder to Rempel. I actually think she is more decent than most of them. But like Chris Alexander she is also hugely ambitious and unfortunately appears all to willing to play Harper's game. They both know better, but they are letting themselves be corrupted...

Simon said...

hi anonymous 6:46...Yes I know it's mindblowing isn't it? I almost felt sorry for her when I first sitting on the set, because he really did look nervous and uncomfortable. But when I saw her peddling that absurd nonsense, as if people were fools, that sympathy quickly evaporated. And the worst part is it happens all the time. We're living in the Kingdom of the Big Lie and it's absolutely outrageous...

Simon said...

hi anonymous 12:10...the way I see it the Cons are heading for disaster. Harper is starting to hurt them almost as much as he is hurting the country. But it's really up to them. If they don't have the courage or the ability to change their ways they will pay a terrible price...

Simon said...

hi leftdog...thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I just can't believe what those Cons are doing, and I have high hopes this scandal will do them some real damage. I sent you a message saying you can use any pictures you want. And keep up the good work. I like your blog a lot...

The Mound of Sound said...

Simon, it wasn't "two teams of lawyers" who worked out the deal. It was Benjamin Perrin, Special Counsel to the PMO and Harper's personal legal adviser, who drafted the "letter of understanding" er, contract. I'm sure it was entirely coincidental that Perrin resigned just as it became apparent that the story was coming out, that someone was leaking information that was never to reach the public. Never, ever. Perrin got out quietly and headed back to the UBC law faculty and he isn't taking phone calls from reporters. Even if Wright, or Harper, had a shred of plausible deniability going for them, the role of Perrin leaves that completely shattered.

Simon said...

hi Mound....I see that Perrin is now disputing the CTV story. But what I did read somewhere was that two lawyers, or two groups of lawyers were involved in drawing up the deal. One from the PMO/Wright side and the other or others representing Duffy. But whatever, the fact that any lawyers were involved shows that this was no ordinary personal favour...