Have you ever wondered if the Republicans are trying to stir up shocking stuff in Washington because the economy is doing better? It could be. But hard as they try, they can't hold a candle to our friends in Canada — which suddenly has become Scandal Central.
A rotund Conservative Senator improperly bills $90,000 in political travel expenses to the government, and is personally reimbursed by the Prime Minister's chief of staff to obstruct an audit. Chief of staff "resigns." The equally rotund Conservative Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, is allegedly recorded on a cellphone, smoking crack and saying, um, rude things. The Mayor denies the video exists, or says that if it does, it's doctored, but calls reporters "maggots" and fires his chief of staff.
Sex, drugs and money. What's not to love?
The crack cocaine thing wasn't an issue in Parliament today, but the Senate expense scandal was a whole 'nuther story. We cats are sure that Stephen Harper woke up groaning this morning, because he knew that today's question-and-answer period was going to be a nightmare — as indeed it was.
Now, we cats are watching the Canadian equivalent of "Hardball with Chris Matthews," and we're thinking we should call a five-minute penalty for fighting.
Our immediate takeaways? Two things:
The Rob Ford scandal was present in the House of Commons this afternoon, if only as a sidebar. Because in between puffs on his crack pipe on that video, Stephen Harper's good buddy from Toronto allegedly called Liberal leader Justin Trudeau an anti-gay slur. Trudeau was one of Harper's tormentors today, and oh, by the way — not that it matters — he's not gay. (But Tories are haters. Just sayin'.)
Second, back when he was in the minority, Stephen Harper was one of the first Conservative leaders to impose message discipline on his party — the Rovian kind that the Republican Party used to be so good at. And gosh, it was evident today. If we cats had a loonie for every time Harper and his minions said they'd been "very clear" about the Senate scandal, we could buy a lifetime supply of tuna fish — or heck, maybe even the entire Baltimore aquarium.
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