Is Nigel Wright to Harper what Chuck Colson was to Nixon?

From here:

So it was striking to see Nigel Wright, as a witness at the Mike Duffy trial, cite the Bible as his motivation for writing a $90,000 cheque for Mr. Duffy without telling his boss Stephen Harper. 

As quoted in Bloomberg, Wright said: "I was doing a good deed, and this is sort of Matthew 6. ... You should do these things quietly and not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." 

Citing the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew reflects Wright's reported devout Christianity, but it was a newsworthy statement in itself to the biblically illiterate reporters covering the trial.

It may also have been a coded warning to Stephen Harper, because Matthew 6 is one of the most explosively anti-Conservative passages in the Gospels, if not in the entire Bible. 

Read all of it: a trenchant piece from the erudite yet humble Crawford Kilian.

Both fern hill and I have been posting for years about this toxic intersection of extreme christian fundamentalist lobby and the US-style right-wing politicking, as staked out by Harper's CPC for the purpose of gaming Canadian democratic institutions to their advantage.

Prayer breakfasts. Special privileges for evangelical lobbyists. Innumerable private members bills to undermine abortion rights, which has emboldened fetushists to erode women's access in the provinces. Purported maternal health funding for international projects defined by anti-choicers. Prohibitionists pushing bills that criminalize and endanger sex workers. Downplaying violence against women and children - it's all gawd's plan. Christian extremists supporting war weapons sales to Israel and Saudis. Fake apologies to First Nations and Aboriginal people, facilitated by rightwing nutjobs. Progressive christian churches are audited by the CRA or their international projects defunded — as directed by Steve. The list goes on and on.

A recent event was savaged on Twitter, then crutinized by the MSM now seemingly capable of discerning between an individual's right to religious belief and the blatant deployment of religiosity for the benefit of a political party, à la *Grande Noirceur*.  It was the curious incident involving Con MP Wai Young and an evangelical church.

The Duffy trial, which one hopes will be the tipping point for the well deserved downfall and destruction of the CPC, has been chockfull of dramatic moments.  Wright's testimony and reams of email evidence bears witness to the byzantine works of PMSHithead's Politburo aka the PMO.

Some random christian dingbat chastised us for doubting the sincerity of Wright's religiosity.

Will the Duffy trial accomplish what the Watergate hearings did in the US? Will Harper be exposed, along with his thuggish team of Lee-Atwater-and-Karl-Rove wannabes aka the PMO?

And what about the cypher that is Nigel Wright: was he Steve's Chuck Colson?  

It's likely Wright was pressed to duty by corporate interests with deep, deep pockets who bankrolled Steve's rise to power. This happenstance clever and useful instrument had one assignment: keep a tight leash on PMSHithead.  

Whether he was contaminated by the toxic brew of paranoia and fury that Harper kept at a boil in the PMO, failed spectacularly at his job or deliberately left behind evidence of Mr Party-of-One's wrongdoing... it remains to be analyzed ad nauseam.

So prophetic, so appropriate.

"Once the toothpaste is out of the tube it's going to be very hard to get it back in." - H.R."Bob" Haldeman

That is a Watergate reference.

Stephen Harper - ever the opportunist and at times, plagiarizer - deployed that quote when describing the political situation in Egypt during the Arab Spring when Mubarak stepped down, throwing his authoritarian regime into a tailspin.

We are reminded these days by the spectacle unfolding in the Senate and in the House of Commons, with regard to allegations of criminal fraud, corruption, collusion and subversion of the Parliamentary process, how perfectly appropriate that analogy is.

And we salute Corporal Greg Horton, one brave individual RCMP officer who has rigorously pursued this criminal investigation, interviewing many hostile or fearful people, and finally, sifting through hundreds of documents and an ocean-sized cesspool of obfuscations to shine the light of justice upon some very ugly CPC machinations.

At this point, some in the media are playing it coy, aware that the teflon-coated Harper may yet walk away unbesmirched by the volcanic eruption of shit his Con government has produced.

iSlamming Rob Ford!

Unintended outcome ... for the win!

Cue the shrieeeking from Ford Nation and other rightwing nut jobs.

Has Ezra Levant seen this?

The above is probably a consequence of Rob's incoherent rant at Toronto City council on Monday.

Bigger fish...

Through all the mind-numbing histrionics of the Rob Ford saga, the large pachyderm in the room is not the Mayor himself but THE question: what could be the target of Toronto police investigations?

It was StunTV Ezra Levant who indirectly raised the edge of the rug, with his habitual shrieeking excesses on the Ford Nation premiere* yesterday. His flamboyant misdirection might have backfired, in this case.

At DJ! we started wondering about the Fords' agenda, back when Rob tried so desperately to bring a casino to Toronto.

Gambling and organized crime are long-time associates. It's worth noting that Sheldon Adelson is a huge supporter of the Republican party, and is currently under investigation.

And now, the Fords have retained the counsel of George Rust-d'Eye** to defend Rob's interests. Some say he's an over-rated, over-priced, way past his best-before-date shill. Will taxpayers have to pay for Crack Mayor's legal bills?

Rust-D'Eye is known for spectacular invoices that he believes reflect every penny's worth of his *expertise*, and his overbearing manner of delivery.

A carefully cultivated façade of punctilious and unctuous civility... The man has a history of advancing semi-truth, under the cover of legal advice and 'integrity'... though eventually facts do surface.

But back to Levant. The overweening excuse for his trademark trashy and flashy infotainment glurge: that he has a civic duty to speculate about the underbelly of his ideological and political opponents.

So, let's speculate about the Fords, shall we?  Are investigations also probing the possible existence of organized crime schemes? 

Is the family business involved with wise guys?  Did the illegal adolescent antics of Doug, Kathy and Rob provide leverage to pressure Doug Senior into mutually beneficial business arrangements?

There are historical precedents.  The Kennedy dynasty and wealth was founded on criminal entrepreneurship.  And the stench never left that cursed, tragic family, in spite of patriarch Joe's obssessive drive for respectability and political power.

Consider the range of resources dedicated to Ford surveillance.  It only makes sense to use a plane and that level of staff deployment if there's much, much more involved than only Rob scoring dope. Are there many Canadian and US law-enforcement agencies conducting forensic analysis to follow financial transactions and shipment of goods? 

Project Traveller looked at guns and gangs. Project Brazen dealt with drug dealers.

What else could there be... Money-laundering? Drug-smuggling? Contracted murders?

What other factual dots remain to be connected?

Here's a link to a brilliant compilation of Ford Bros shenanigans from Alison at Creekside. The picture at the top is her work.

My co-blogger fern hill has done much heavy lifting to date, in blogposts after blogposts about dodgy and bizarre Ford clan machinations, as well as documents linking them to criminal elements.

If TPS investigators have diligently and scrupulously gathered evidence required so that charges can be filed, and prosecutors can make their case, it will be an EPIC take-down.  No wonder Police Chief Blair was so circumspect during his media conference.

Unfortunately, the Fords (and their silent business partners?) have deep, deep pockets.  

As with Michael Bryant, lawyers will use all the legal tactics and loopholes available to get their clients off the hook, if the TPS investigation even gets to trial.

It was clearly said here, you can bully and bluff your way out of anything, when you're a wealthy, christian, well-CONnected, privileged, heterosexual and cis white man.

*Just when I was about to publish this blogpost, we heard that StunTV has aborted Ford Nation.  Darn.  And I was about to launch the hashtag #FORdNicATION, too!

** Thanks to our Vaughn insiders who steered me towards more info about Rust-D'Eye.

CON electoral fraud coming apart at the seams.

The Galloping Beaver: And look what floats to the surface (updated)

Oh yes, the very latest in the CPC election fraud can be found there.

With linky goodness to everyone who has been on top of this story since the disastrous May 2011 federal elections where Stevies thugs and goons lied and bullied their way into a "majority" regime, with only 39% of the votes from those Canadians who weren't deterred by the MASSIVE robocall campaigned engineered by individuals working to the CPC, yet to be identified and charged.

It's why we call them CONs.

Added: an overview of what we wrote at DAMMIT JANET!

The Conservative View of Unreported Crime

From a Star story dated August 3, 2010 (emphasis mine).

Opposition critics are scratching their heads over Stockwell Day's claim that Canada needs more prisons in part because many crimes go unreported.

Day, president of the Treasury Board, was asked Tuesday why the Conservative government intends to spend billions of dollars on expanding prisons at a time of falling crime.

“People simply aren't reporting the same way they used to,” he responded. “I'm saying one statistic of many that concerns us is the amount of crimes that go unreported. Those numbers are alarming and it shows that we can't take a liberal view to crime.”

The old questions arise: What did they know? And when did they know it?