OTTAWA—In his bid to survive the Nigel Wright-Mike Duffy affair, Stephen Harper has clung assiduously to the lone gunman theory.Harper has repeated that mantra time and again — his former chief of staff cut a $90,000 cheque to the disgraced former Conservative senator on his own, without the prime minister’s knowledge.

The best way to destabilize the Harper argument is to involve as many others players as possible, making it appear to be a conspiracy in the Prime Minister’s Office and beyond, making it increasingly impossible for Canadians to believe this elaborate operation could have unfolded without Harper knowing what was happening in his own office.

It helps, as well, if some of those involved could be considered especially close to the prime minister, so that they might be known generically as “Harper loyalists.’’We also know that Duffy has previously promised that more details in this affair would become public. He has offered a sardonic nod to reporters to “stay tuned,’’ because only the former broadcaster and former Conservative senator knew where the bodies were buried.

We may have arrived at this point.

Those close to this sordid tale believe the man from P.E.I., who has complained long and loud about being hung out to dry by the prime minister, is embarking on his scorched earth policy and will take down as many with him as he can.As reported by the CTV’s indefatigable Robert Fife, Wright used two key Conservative senators in his campaign to get a reluctant Duffy to accept the cheque to pay back money he had inappropriately claimed.

David Tkachuk, the Saskatchewan senator who until recently headed the Senate’s internal economy committee, told Duffy, according to the CTV report, the Senate committee would go easy on him if he accepted the Wright offer. If he balked, CTV reported, Tkachuk told him he would lose his Senate seat.

That is the same Tkachuk whom Pamela Wallin, another former Conservative senator living under an expense cloud, accused of counselling her to go back and “restrict” information on her calendar of events when she was being audited.

The other senator implicated in the CTV report is Carolyn Stewart-Olsen, a Harper confidante and former director of strategic communications to the prime minister.The emails cited by CTV also brought former Harper communications director Angelo Persichilli into the mix.This was all met with a torrent of denials and qualifications Tuesday, but the Harper narrative has been destabilized.

We already knew an RCMP affidavit says Wright recalled telling three other senior members of Harper’s office about the payment.

The Star

posted by leftdog at Wednesday, August 28, 2013 | Permalink

Harper, Tkachuk, Olsen-Stewart are being stretched so hard they're drum-tight. The problem with denial is that it has to be plausible. It has to be consistent with documents and other known facts. The more self-serving the denial, the more plausible it had better be. Unfortunately for Harper & Co., their denials offend logic and are inconsistent with the timeline and known facts. Few can suspend disbelief enough to find their lame denials plausible.

Posted by The Mound of Sound | 10:16 am, August 28, 2013