Maybe not the bottom of it all, after all!

Ah, yes another day, another Liberal at the witness table professing innocence, ignorance and hubris. The show trial of adscam continues on CPAC with guest appearances on CBC Newsworld, as the steady stream of Liberal officials and appointees comes forward and declares to a waiting public that “nothing was wrong”.

Today’s participant, Former VIA Rail President Marc Lefrancois made his debut on CPAC’s version of the daytime soaps, declaring that VIA Rail “never issued a fictious invoice in it’s business dealings”, LeFrancois blasted the Auditor General for besmirching the character of the Railway and its officials, with a highly negative report into the workings of VIA. The former president went on to describe the Auditor General as being “unacceptably inaccurate and vague in the use of such pejorative language.” Which I believe is better known as the shoot the messenger defence in court room parlance.

LeFrancois is the latest of the Chretien era appointees to be brought to the witness table following in the footsteps of Jean Pelletier, the former VIA Rail Chief who appeared in front of the committee on Monday. At the start of the week, Pelletier took his seat and promptly proclaimed his innocence and suggested that the committee would eventually find nothing to link the day to day workings of VIA Rail to any political master. Pelletier who used to be the chief of Staff for Jean Chretien, managed to say that with a straight face, having been appointed to the position of Chairman after serving Prime Minister Chretien for many years. As Don Stuart wrote in the Calgary Herald, the former guard dog to the PMO did his job here and did it well. And to put a bit of bite into his bark after his testimony, it was announced that Pelletier would be suing the government for wrongful dismissal and defamation of character. Nothing can make your point like trotting out your own lawyers waving court documents for all to see. Not to be outdone, LaFrancois became the third Liberal appointee to launch a lawsuit against the Federal government, when the CPAC ratings come out, the largest group of viewers should be lawyers trolling for clients.

The list of remorseless Libs grows daily, we started with Alfonso Gagliano, moved on to David Dingwall, Jean Pelletier and Mr. LaFrancois today, to hear them talk there is no problem and if there is or was; it certainly wasn’t anything that they had knowledge of, let alone participated in.

Prime Minister Paul Martin grasped upon the testimony of Pelletier to try and find a way out of this swamp of bad publicity, observing that “if Pelletier says it’s so, he would know, he was there” or words to that effect. Of course he probably was relieved that his name was not mentioned once during testimony, his own lack of knowledge claim able to survive yet another day.

As for the committee, the next big guest appearance should come on April 22nd, when Chuck Guite makes his much anticipated presentation to the assembled throng. Guite, who seems to be the central figure in the entire mess, could be the one to spill the beans or to quell the revolt. Lorne Gunter of the Edmonton Journal figures that Guite’s testimony will set the tone for Prime Minister Martin’s future handling of this. As Gunter explains it, Guite will be sending a message to the Prime Minister, if he declines to name any of the old guard as being responsible for the scandal the old Chretien forces will have put this issue to bed. Should Martin truly want to get to the bottom of the mess, he will have to rip open the Liberal party into a final bloody Civil War. All the gloves come off and Martin’s ten years at the elbow of Chretien will be reviewed day by day by day.

As the committee prepares to adjourn for Easter, the spirit of the season will take hold. Easter is a time for quiet reflection, forgiveness of sin and rejoicing of a resurrection. If ever there were a group in need of Divine intervention this must be it.

How the Liberals reflect over the weekend and into next week, will dictate where this meandering committee ends up. At the end of that reflection, will come a decision on whether the Prime Minister dares to take his battered party into an election campaign. Even more important for him will be whether his party is united enough to even attempt one.

The above item appeared on my Boondoggle blog. To find more items and links about government check it out.