If you're finding it difficult to keep pace with what is now the roiling boil of our Senate scandal, you're in good company.
Three Stephen Harper-appointed senators, all accused of misusing senate funds (and one of hitting his wife), are facing suspension from the Senate. But they aren't going down quietly.
When Senator Mike Duffy showed up to say his piece this week, he let a few cats out of a few bags, including that the prime minister knew far more about the questionable expenses far earlier.
Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau have also turned around to bite the hand that once fed them and named the Prime Minister's Office. The strategy on the part of the disgraced senators seems to be along the lines of, "If I'm going down, you're going to break my fall."
To Harper's credit, he did show up to face questions in the House of Commons this week, rather than have one of his underlings take the heat for him. He refuted Duffy's claims, even though he must now admit he at least knew what was going on, which he denied before.
Proroguing Parliament clearly didn't work as hoped for the Conservatives. It remains to be seen whether the attempts to make the bad press surrounding the expense scandal go away will hurt them more than the image of three Harper appointees fiddling expenses on a massive scale.
Whether or not Harper survives the "What did he know, and when did he know it?" spotlight, this whole sorry debacle drags Canada's upper chamber ever deeper into the muck. Our prime minister once campaigned for a Senate that was equal, elected and effective.
Does anyone care anymore?
