Pas de Deux
Back to the parliamentary committee. Today the entertainment was provided by Brian Mulroney, ex-Prime Minister and ex-friend of the redoubtable and cash-rich Karlheinz Schrieber. The scent of bribery, influence peddling and skulduggery was in the air.
Brian had accepted envelopes of cash on three occasions, a year apart, in three different cities and countries, in hotel rooms, for a total of $300,000 according to Karlheinz, or $240,000 according to Brian, for which Karlheinz expected certain services to be rendered.
Brian soared on wings of rhetoric, if not eloquence, damning himself and apologizing for such a profound misjudgment, but insisting that there was nothing illegal about it. He insisted so often, and so loudly, and so persistently and wasted so much time doing it that I was reminded of Hamlet's Queen Gertrude saying of the Play Queen, "the lady doth protest too much, methinks". So much as to lose credibility, in other words.
Brian dominated the meeting, as Karlheinz had the previous four. After each question he went on at great length with such irrelevancies, "ragging the puck", as TV anchor Don Newman put it, that it appeared he was trying to run out the clock. Each time the committee chair tried to restrain him, a Conservative member would raise a point of order to allow him to continue. The chair, trying to be fair to everyone, was visibly frustrated.
Few believe that Schrieber is an exemplary citizen, he's been living on his wits for years and the jig may be up, but Mulroney did not come off very well in this session. Did he really, really believe that Europeans normally deal in cash? Did he really have a road-to-Damascus conversion when he discovered at a late date that Schrieber was really a, gasp!, crook? Please!
These two deserve each other. Perhaps we can find a small island where they could retire and talk over old times together. St. Helena, for instance.
Brian had accepted envelopes of cash on three occasions, a year apart, in three different cities and countries, in hotel rooms, for a total of $300,000 according to Karlheinz, or $240,000 according to Brian, for which Karlheinz expected certain services to be rendered.
Brian soared on wings of rhetoric, if not eloquence, damning himself and apologizing for such a profound misjudgment, but insisting that there was nothing illegal about it. He insisted so often, and so loudly, and so persistently and wasted so much time doing it that I was reminded of Hamlet's Queen Gertrude saying of the Play Queen, "the lady doth protest too much, methinks". So much as to lose credibility, in other words.
Brian dominated the meeting, as Karlheinz had the previous four. After each question he went on at great length with such irrelevancies, "ragging the puck", as TV anchor Don Newman put it, that it appeared he was trying to run out the clock. Each time the committee chair tried to restrain him, a Conservative member would raise a point of order to allow him to continue. The chair, trying to be fair to everyone, was visibly frustrated.
Few believe that Schrieber is an exemplary citizen, he's been living on his wits for years and the jig may be up, but Mulroney did not come off very well in this session. Did he really, really believe that Europeans normally deal in cash? Did he really have a road-to-Damascus conversion when he discovered at a late date that Schrieber was really a, gasp!, crook? Please!
These two deserve each other. Perhaps we can find a small island where they could retire and talk over old times together. St. Helena, for instance.
posted by puzzled @ 9:47 PM
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