I had hoped that Committee Chair Paul Szabo might have recovered a smidgen of his dignity after the first subservient performance, but alas! It was not to be:
11:10 a.m. — More preamble from committee chair Paul Szabo. Schreiber looks cool and collected. Szabo opens with an apology?! Apparently Canadians are expressing disgust that Schreiber was escorted to his house in handcuffs. Szabo seems to feel bad for subjecting Schreiber to "ridicule and mockery."
"The shame of one Canadian is the shame of all Canadians. Those who are responsible will take steps to make certain such a spectacle does not happen again."
Szabo goes on to complain that the hearing have been described as a political circus. "This is not a political circus, this is the Parliament of Canada," he says, huffily. Same thing, some might say.
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..."So now I am feeling somewhat like a beggar, I am empty. I don't know whether it is a Christmas gift or a burden. But for sure it will help you."
Christmas for the opposition for sure. He (Schreiber) offers to dig for more, if it isn't enough. He will more than likely be taken up on that offer.
11:57 a.m. — "This is a wonderful Christmas gift to us," gushes Szabo after Schreiber hands over the much-ballyhooed documents.
I don't think I can take much more of this.
These hearings should come with a disclaimer - Warning! May induce vomiting.
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Related: Robert Fife on Mike Duffy - "So what do we have here? We've got nothing".
Mike Duffy: "...Where's the beef?".
Steven Skurka - "...I call this now, the Airbust Inquiry. The only beneficiary of a public inquiry is one person, and that is Karlheinz Schreiber."
And exactly how much is this costing???
This one is just too rich by half (from CBC's Politics). Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal:
Huh???
Mike Duffy: "...Where's the beef?".
Steven Skurka - "...I call this now, the Airbust Inquiry. The only beneficiary of a public inquiry is one person, and that is Karlheinz Schreiber."
And exactly how much is this costing???
This one is just too rich by half (from CBC's Politics). Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal:
"...it just shows the culture of entitlement because as Mr. (Pat) Martin mentioned earlier, like, whether it was a race to get Joe Clark out, get Brian Mulroney in or Jean Charest later on or now it comes to Mr. Harper's government and he has written not only to Mr. Harper, but in fact he has also written to many ministers in his cabinet right now as well..."
Huh???
* * * *
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27 comments:
Szabo needs a refresher on how to be a chair of a committee. His bias was showing....for sure.
Is the world laughing at us? They should be. I can't think of another country that would have let its opposition and a criminal run the show.
I'm thinking that this is going to backfire on any and all who pushed for this gong show.
psst..."may" induce vomiting.
no need to post. ;-)
Psst.. Thanks. ;)
So why did the Liberals create the airbus scandle when it is plain that there never was one?
To influence an election perhaps?
Who declared Mulrooney guilty of taking kickbacks on the airbus file when it is now apparent there was never even an in-depth investigation and a main player never questioned?
I think the scandle here is abuse of office by the Liberal party of Canada through it's MPs( and media connections) to get taxpayers to once again foot the bill for thier political witch hunts.
You should watch the CBC, they seem intent on justifying their Fifth Estate program that started the whole thing.
Brian.
This is classic stuff. KHS baffles them with BS and a blizzard of paper. Meanwhile the Chair Mr. Szabo is on both knees kissing some burghermeister butt and speculating about no need for a public inquiry.
Back in Nova Scotia Liberal "researcher" Robert Thibault is enjoying a "snow day". Fortunately the Libs have an able substitute in noted windbag and all around shyster Ralph Goodale.
Ralphy is later front and center with the reporters directing them to ethics guidelines circa 1985 and hoping like hell nobody caught the reference to KHS associate Alford.
Down the hall during QP, Steffy and Iggy Poop come out swinging Bali,Bali the sky is falling...not a word about KHS.
Hmmmmm...I think I need to step out for some more beer and popcorn.
Syncro
p.s. Great link to the NP blog. Very entertaining.
I noticed that Liberal MP and mouthpiece Robert Thibault was not at the committee today.
Perhaps he is out looking for a second job to help pay for one of those pesky defamation suits that Mulroney keeps on winning from liberals. But at least this time the taxpayer is not going to be on the hook.
Anoy, They have to justify the Fifth Estate. If former PMBM has his way, and remember there is no journalistic privilege a parliamentary inquire if I remember correctly they are going to be tossing up their sources or going to jail. The legal Liability of the CBC is huge on this if they are found to have practiced shoddy fact checking. BM would love to get them them into court after they first provide evidence that he requires.
While watching Mike Duffy they had Paula Todd commenting and I was astounded to hear her suggest that Schreiber was not saying anything to irk the conservative government simply because his faith was in their hands. Apparently they are his political masters. Even after it is apparent that there is nothing to this so called scandal she comes out and suggests this. Incredible.
Maybe an inquiry into Stevie Cameron's accusations and character assignation is in order. I certainly hope a defamation law suit is in the cards. After all - No Mulroney/Airbus connection means she was weaving a pile of ...t out of thin air. Wonder who she was working for? You know what, the Liberals hooked into a good thing. Throwing around unsubstantiated allegations, asking snide questions hoping to get people thinking something is wrong, calling into question motives and character without the least bit of evidence is easy and fun. We should all do it -- Oh wait -- we all don't have Palimentary privledge -- what a shame.
I guess PM Harper was right in warning the opposition that they didn't want to go down the inquiry route. Again the Conservatives took the principled position, but the opposition had to make a$$es of themselves.
The bag of worms might have been opened, and it appears to be Liberals and journalists who are wriggling on the hook.
Leaving aside whether this inquiry if of any use, how many of you have had a person give you $300K in cash, for some future performance?
Former PM, BM has allegedly admitted to at least this much.
How many of you make that much in say, a year? 5 years?
You'd think someone had "pants'd" the fat bastard on purpose. The way Szabo reacted ti was the freekin Pope!
The righteous indignation though..... just a little too maudlin.
Szabo speaks for how many Canadians??
p.s. Great link to the NP blog. Very entertaining.
Glad you enjoyed that. Hope you had some beer & popcorn on hand. Great redux, BTW.
The legal Liability of the CBC is huge on this if they are found to have practiced shoddy fact checking. BM would love to get them them into court after they first provide evidence that he requires.
Kingston, to me that is the most fascinating aspect of all this. Many media types seem leery about the public inquiry in particular.
The Conservatives continue to go along with the cries for this charade to continue even as the Liberals and the media start to back off.
Like I said a few days ago, Harper has them exactly where he wants them.
I'm not sure that this was their strategy from the outset but if it was it was brilliant.
The legal Liability of the CBC is huge ...
Great, and guess who pays the piper if the CBC is sued for liable by the former PM?
Just a minute, I'll go get my piggybank.....
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I'm not sure that this was their strategy from the outset but if it was it was brilliant.
How many times have we heard this about Stephen Harper and the Conservative government?
Play 'em for the fools they are Mr. Prime Minister.
It is a marvelous thing of beauty to watch the PM handing out the rope.
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"How many of you make that much in say, a year? 5 years?"
Not I, but an MP's basic salary is $147,000 per annum, last time I heard.
Please, let's not fall for the Pat Martin sing-song about "bags of money bastardizing our democracy."
The facts should be the focus - not one's resentment that someone has access to more money than we do.
The fact is Mr. Mulroney dealt/deals with different circles than the rest of us.
$300,000 dollars is probably not such a big deal of money to people in those circles.
This whole thing was about the Liberals trying to find some mud worse than the mud puddle they themselves have been wallowing in since Adscam.
Defenders of this witchhunt seem to be alot fewer today...interesting that the usual cast of leftie characters are not over here gloating that this will be the downfall of the Tories.
I predict that we are all going to be paying alot more than the 2.1 million for our public broadcasters witchhunt....
Watch for the Libs/NDP/MSM to start backing away and will start to turn the matter around to make it out that Stephen Harper is on a costly witchhunt against Brian Mulroney.
Soon the questions will be "why is Stephen Harper allowing this public inquiry to go on at great expense".
It should be a fun ride....
And it wasn't our tax money. It was Shreiber's...who cares?
I am still wondering why Marc Lalonde has bailed out Schreiber. This is a lot of money. The media don't seem to care about this.
I am also intrigued by the billion dollar deal Airbus made with the Chinese. Imagine all the money that went into government officials' pockets.
There must be some startling information that we have not heard nor seen. Was it not just a week ago that Thibault revealed to Garth Turner the "picture", followed by Garth's post on his blog that Harper was toast because of it?
Do tell Garth.
paulsstuff
Paul, I find it interesting that Ralph Goodale is suddenly the media point person for the Liberals on this file instead of Roger Thibault...
I am hoping Thibault loses his shirt for his slander. karen Redman and Mulcair shopuld also be ashamed.
And it wasn't our tax money. It was Shreiber's...who cares?
Well, let's see. Did Schreiber pull this money out of his ass?
No, he makes commissions by convincing governments to buy military stuff from Supplier X versus Supplier Y.
These commissions are obviously built into the price of the military stuff, bought by taxpayers.
Ergo, it is taxpayers money.
Paul, I find it interesting that Ralph Goodale is suddenly the media point person for the Liberals on this file instead of Roger Thibault...
I find it interesting that the Libs think Goodale is a media point person on any file. He's a blustering idiot. Maybe Scott Brison has realized the damage he did to his image as point man on the sponsorship scandal, and they had to find a substitute.
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