Stephen Harper and the Trouble With the PMO

Well there he was waving happily as he set off for Ukraine to pander to the ethnic vote. Again.

And no doubt Stephen Harper WAS happy, because if that plane didn't have wings we'd have to call it a getaway car.

For at least now he won't be in Parliament next week to answer questions about the latest senate scandal.

Or the latest example of his appalling judgement. 

One of the Conservative Party’s top spokesmen on law-and-order issues will face an RCMP investigation over his Senate travel claims related to his work on behalf of victims of crime, sources said.

Because that WOULD be embarrassing. I mean so much for his Great War on Crime.

Or so much for the Conservative brand. 

What’s emerging on Harper’s watch is the seamy portrait of a panic-stricken, Tory-stuffed Senate whose leadership is implicated in the expense scandal, where the auditor has found widespread evidence of dodgy claims and where the rules have been rewritten to give anyone under a cloud every benefit of the doubt. We’ll get the full picture on Tuesday. But what we’ve seen already would make a vulture gag. This isn’t helping the Conservative brand.

Or as Chantal Hébert points out, so much for the young fanatics in the PMO whose political judgement must also be questioned. 

In Harper’s centralized Conservative operation, admission to the partisan speaking circuit is controlled from the top. At what point does it stop being a coincidence that the Harper appointees whose names are brought to the attention of the RCMP happen to be some of the most prominent on the party’s speaking roster?

For what does all this sleaze say about them, and their depraved leader?



Since chief-of-staff Nigel Wright left the PMO over his dealings with Duffy, Harper has put the political management of the government in the hands of a core group of fierce loyalists. They in turn have tended to place their trust in like-minded partisans to man the Conservative front line in question period, at the negotiating table of the election debates . . . and in the Senate. 

In most instances, they have made matters worse.

And if you want to know how incompetent they are, all you have to do is examine their latest attack ad aimed at Justin Trudeau, the so-called "hair" ad...



Which as it turns out was practically a carbon copy of an old NDP ad.

Was full of lies and distortions from beginning to end. May have helped the NDP more than it helped the Cons, as I pointed out in a post yesterday.

And to make matters worse, according to that latest Abacus poll, appears to have bombed.

We measured reactions to four different political advertisements (two CPC ads – here and here), one LPC and one NDP ad). In each case, we asked if the topic of the ad is important, if the audience agreed with the points being made, if the ad built support for the sponsor, and if the ad is fair or unfair. 

Three of the four ads were considered fair by large majorities (80% plus) of those surveyed. Less than half (41%) considered the CPC Interview Trudeau Hair ad fair, while 59% felt it “crossed the line and was unfair." 

The CPC Interview/Trudeau Hair ad had a negative 29 net score, with 36% saying it made them more inclined to support the Conservatives and 65% saying it had the opposite reaction.

And made this MUCH cheaper version of that ad, made by some Liberal supporters, look good by comparison...



And definitely more truthful.

And the best news? If this PMO is what we're up against in the next election we're laughing...



For what WOULD they have their Great Leader do next I wonder?



And yes, let's have a round of applause for them and their depraved master.

For they do so deserve it...



Yup. They're running out of ideas. They're running out of time.

And they're all going down together.

What more could we ask for?

Have great weekend everybody !!!!

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