9 weeks later, still no smoking gun

[maplesyrup]

9 weeks later, still no smoking gun

Nine weeks and scores of witnesses later, the public accounts committee is poised to leave Canadians with more questions than answers on the sponsorship scandal, including whether Prime Minister Paul Martin overreacted to a hyped-up Auditor-General's report when he was seized by the issue.

With the testimony of the main players in the affair over, the committee of MPs has struck out on the main front of its investigation.

It has not unearthed the kind of political smoking gun that the opposition parties had hoped for and that Martin himself hinted at the outset.

The committee heard no evidence that Jean Chrétien had ever been directly in contact with the sponsorship file.

Article

Articles in National Post & Globe are quite different. Strange.

[willy]

Chantal Hébert, has an interesting conclusion from this committee process. Confusion to her means some form of admonishment. I just see a flawed process for accountability.

The participants were after all senior bureaucrats and politicians. These people can obviously spin the yarn. Many inconsistencies did occur in testimony. There is plenty to be concerned about and the advertising business does not operate that way within the private sector.

The facts remain:

* Lots of money spent

* No paper trail

* No real or perceived value received

* Obvious tendering issues

* These practices seem to be in all departments (finance and defense at least)

* The result can still be more of our money spent on political patronage

I don't have an answer to how you prove who set the culture in place, but it is safe to say many in the Liberal party lived within those cultural norms and still the most senior don't question the ethics of thier behavior.

In politics we have a choice. Vote for the other guy/girl.

[August1991]

I don't have an answer to how you prove who set the culture in place, but it is safe to say many in the Liberal party lived within those cultural norms and still the most senior don't question the ethics of thier behavior.

In politics we have a choice. Vote for the other guy/girl.

I heard Williams in interview today saying that Watergate took 2 1/2 years and someone (Dean) to change sides to unravel. The PAC has had only 2 1/2 months.

In fact, it was the tapes that did Nixon in. Without them, he would have kept support in the Senate and survived impeachment.

If there's any lesson in this, it's to commit nothing to tape or paper and shred anything questionable. I would be surprised if anyone finds any gun, smoking or not. This gang has tossed them all in the Ottawa River.

The Ontario Tories lasted for some 40 years. Maybe this crew will too.

[theWatcher]

There's no way the current panel could ever get results.

Lets see, theres a Liberal dominated panel interviewing Liberals.

Any question asked is answered by one of the following:

1. I don't remember.

2. I don't know

3. I didn't do it.

4. Its the auditor generals fault.

The only reason Paul setup the panel was to distract everyone until he calls an election. Once its called the panel gets dissolved anyhow.

A better solution would be to punt the Liberals from office and sort it out later when they are no longer in power.

[August1991]

A better solution would be to punt the Liberals from office and sort it out later when they are no longer in power.

In politics we have a choice. Vote for the other guy/girl.

The Devil you don't know is better than the Devil you do?