"Wash me, but don't make me wet"--Schreiber returns!
Karlheinz Schreiber returned to the Commons Ethics committee on Tuesday--avec ses notes! (video here). My husband and I are still sharing one measly computer, so I didn't have an opportunity to post my notes from Tuesday until now. This is NOT a transcript, but I feel that it's important to archive them here for future reference. Again, I must be honest with you: if you're looking for true live-blogging, replete with witty running commentary, look no further than Kady O'Malley's blog at Maclean's. The National Post's Paige Aarhus also did a wonderful job of blogging the hearing. The closest thing that I can find to a 'proper' transcript is here, at David Akin's site.
You can find my notes at my not-so-live-blog "Foul Deeds," in eight parts:
You can find my notes at my not-so-live-blog "Foul Deeds," in eight parts:
- Part I: Canada, the Trojan Horse
- Part II: To Sir, With Love
- Part III: Saudis, Pasta, and the Unstoppable Kim Campbell
- Part IV: 'Helpful Donations' and that Dirty, Dirty Liberal Airline
- Part V: Hey, why don't you look at the documents?!
- Part VI: "Wash me, but don't make me wet"
- Part VII: Mike Wallace plays Matlock
- Part VIII: Fellas, please! It's really hard to hear with all this Conservapoo flying around
(Last Thursday's notes can be found here, beginning with Part I)
Some passing thoughts on Tuesday's "Christmas" presents: they went over like a lead balloon! In fact, I'd wager that the only people who were pleased with these 'revelations' were the BQ and their provincial counterparts (Oooh! Charest!). And, FWIW, Charest is denying that he received $30 000 from Schreiber to finance his 1993 PC leadership campaign.
The HarperCons squirmed and agitated throughout Tuesday's proceedings, but overall, they seemed right pleased with themselves. The smarmy Del Mastro tried to leave us with the impression that the Airbus deal was just good business. Y'know...bizness. Wallace, last seen getting booed at the Toronto vigil for Robert Dziekanski, made a total arse of himself, interrupting and barking legal-ish objections towards the end of the hearing. Wallace was irritated that Schreiber said he'd received assurances from Mulroney that Harpo was on-side (to intervene in Schreiber's extradition).
Mulcair and Martin continued to play tag-team on the NDP side of the committee, but it was much smoother than Thursday's go-round. Martin has a problem, constantly playing for the camera...he wears a permanently aggrieved look and tends to repeat phrases like, "Bags of cash!" By contrast, Mulcair was the consummate professional and conducted his line of questioning very efficiently, even eliciting the secondary 'bomblet-shell' of the afternoon: Schreiber claimed that the RCMP never questioned him about the Airbus affair. (The Mounties deny this, btw).
The Grits (Dhaliwal, Goodale-sub-for-Thibault and Hubbard) were fairly single-minded: they wanted to know about Schreiber's correspondence with Harper and the father/son MacKays. That's all well and good, but sooner or later we have to find out about that $2.1 Million defamation settlement we gave to Mulroney. Y'know...like, why? Anyone? Bueller...Bueller...
The committee adjourned on Tues afternoon to review the boxes & boxes of Schreiber-lit. They're supposed to return on Thursday, having actually read some of it, although judging from this crew, I wouldn't expect much. Would it be too much to ask to get the 5th Estate guys to ask the questions? Aaaaaarggghhhh.
Some passing thoughts on Tuesday's "Christmas" presents: they went over like a lead balloon! In fact, I'd wager that the only people who were pleased with these 'revelations' were the BQ and their provincial counterparts (Oooh! Charest!). And, FWIW, Charest is denying that he received $30 000 from Schreiber to finance his 1993 PC leadership campaign.
The HarperCons squirmed and agitated throughout Tuesday's proceedings, but overall, they seemed right pleased with themselves. The smarmy Del Mastro tried to leave us with the impression that the Airbus deal was just good business. Y'know...bizness. Wallace, last seen getting booed at the Toronto vigil for Robert Dziekanski, made a total arse of himself, interrupting and barking legal-ish objections towards the end of the hearing. Wallace was irritated that Schreiber said he'd received assurances from Mulroney that Harpo was on-side (to intervene in Schreiber's extradition).
Mulcair and Martin continued to play tag-team on the NDP side of the committee, but it was much smoother than Thursday's go-round. Martin has a problem, constantly playing for the camera...he wears a permanently aggrieved look and tends to repeat phrases like, "Bags of cash!" By contrast, Mulcair was the consummate professional and conducted his line of questioning very efficiently, even eliciting the secondary 'bomblet-shell' of the afternoon: Schreiber claimed that the RCMP never questioned him about the Airbus affair. (The Mounties deny this, btw).
The Grits (Dhaliwal, Goodale-sub-for-Thibault and Hubbard) were fairly single-minded: they wanted to know about Schreiber's correspondence with Harper and the father/son MacKays. That's all well and good, but sooner or later we have to find out about that $2.1 Million defamation settlement we gave to Mulroney. Y'know...like, why? Anyone? Bueller...Bueller...
The committee adjourned on Tues afternoon to review the boxes & boxes of Schreiber-lit. They're supposed to return on Thursday, having actually read some of it, although judging from this crew, I wouldn't expect much. Would it be too much to ask to get the 5th Estate guys to ask the questions? Aaaaaarggghhhh.
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posted by Godammitkitty at 4:08 PM
4 Comments:
Kitty, this is invaluable, or at least a lot more valuable than you know. It's more valuable than anything Kady O'Malley or other paid persons can do, because you deliver the analysis that usually scares them.
Well done. Excellently well done. Maybe we'll get to know all these jokers as well as we know the senators some day soon. ;-)
Your comment system has changed. I can't link to self any longer. *rrrr*
The plain Schreiber-Mulroney scandal story is: Mr. Mulroney helping Mr. Harper win political points in Quebec, In return Mr. Harper's government helping Mr. Mulroney by both giving his companies new government awards and also trying to resolve his problem with Mr. Schreiber (Mulroney having received a significant amount of cash from Mr. Schreiber that is more than a bit embarrassing) .
The long story is that there are several separate scandals involving Mr. Mulroney, Schreiber, and Mr. Harper. There is the Airbus Affair involving Mr. Moores, the late Premier of Newfoundland, and Mr. Mulroney. There is another scandal involving a payoff from Mr. Schreiber to Mulroney. Then there are the favours from Mr. Harpers government to Mulroney companies involving cabinet minister Mr. Prentice. And then there is the bungled attempt to silence and distance Mr. Schreiber, involving Peter McKay (and McKay Senior), Stockwell Day and the RCMP, and Rob Nicholson the Minister of Justice. The whole being a rather long list of dubious dealings.
Nevertheless, in a nutshell the matter is a simple case of quids pro quos between Harper and Mulroney and Mulroney and Schreiber that have gone sour.
Thanks, skdadl! I have no idea what's up with the Blogger comment ID. Sometimes it wants name & website, but others, it wants a Google/Blogger username and password. For me, the latter are associated with my Blogger website, but that obviously doesn't "auto-anything" for non-Blogger blogs. My apologies :(
Welcome, Walks with Coffee! Thanks for visiting. You know, Jim Prentice's name hasn't come up once in the Schreiber hearings so far. Stockboy and Nicholson have been mentioned, but only in passing. I guess we'll stay tuned ;)
Cheers!
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