Ugh, That Face, That Voice...!
Here's hoping the Mulroney-Schreiber fiasco will soon be over. Much as one would like the investigation to continue, far beyond the tentatively inexpert prodding we've seen in the parliamentary committee set up to examine the affair, it's a clumsy and inadequate investigative tool.
Talk about ambivalent; I'd like the affair to be gone and done with simply because to see that greasy smirk on Mulroney's face yet again and to hear his unctuous baritone simply drives me to distraction. Yet on the other hand, I'd like to see his mean-spirited, self-interested boondoggling unveiled. Not very nice of me, granted. Considering that the man has already been forced to face condemnation of his behaviour resulting from his unabashed greed and sense of self-entitlement in the public arena.
On the other hand, the choices he made were made freely; he must have been aware of consequences should his underhandedly unethical shenanigans be made public, yet his venal addiction to lining his pockets overrode any possible hesitation he might have felt about lending himself while in public office to shady dealings.
It's just the kind of person he is. Greasily and casually for sale to the highest bidder. His self-pitying mea culpa before the committee when he testified yesterday in Parliament, did have a desired effect, softening up some of his interlocutors, but certainly not all of them. While he admitted to poor judgement on his part, and his bitterness at the further public shame he's brought on himself while just incidentally smirching the offices he held, he also defended himself as an innocent falling prey to a slickly cosmopolitan shyster.
Poor man. Ever the thespian, he cagily set the stage for sympathy, his lovely wife in tow, along with his grown children, all symbolically wearing black; in mourning for the lofty laid low. So unfortunate, so dreadfully unfair. Other details were not overlooked; such as hiring public relations types to stand forward, help in the choreography of regret-for-compulsion that led this well-meaning but trusting man to be betrayed by a foreign and unworthily shady "businessman".
He tenderly coloured himself as one taken dreadful advantage of; no poltroon he, facing his detractors bravely and with full determination to clear himself and his soiled reputation. In the process casting dire aspersions on the reliability of any testimony that could be wrung out of Karlheinz Schreiber, his tormentor. Mr. Mulroney attempted, piecemeal and with careful intent, to persuade that Mr. Schreiber was a born liar - but not he. It was he wronged; the present carnival representing Mr. Schreiber's desperate attempts to remain in Canada.
His characterization of Karlheinz Schreiber simply redounded on himself, for however he described Mr. Schreiber's lack of credibility seemed also neatly to describe his own. Claiming too that Mr. Schreiber created a media frenzy, but who exactly was behind this sordid mess if not Himself? "He's got what he wanted. He's sitting in his mansion over in Rockcliffe, chuckling", pointedly claimed the put-upon Mulroney as though he doesn't himself gloat in satisfaction in his own Montreal mansion.
His smoothly-delivered explanation, leaving great unanswered gaps, well larded with his usual little bon mots did give pause on reception, but didn't last much beyond first reflection. No one is yet any the wiser about the work he is purported to have performed for those cushy cash payments. This man, a cagy lawyer, a seasoned politician and social arbiter, well travelled and well-met in the international community, professed not to have had the smarts to refuse cash payment up front for an undocumented "assignment".
He speaks of Schrieber's falsehoods, handily overlooking his own. His denials of ever having had business dealings with Mr. Schreiber, his manipulations of fact and fantasy. His having withheld the fact that he had accepted cash for an as-yet unknown purpose - despite his protestations of international lobbying for Thyssen - and his subsequent successful lawsuit against the country, resulting in his pocketing a cool $1.2 million for hurt feelings. Let's have it back, Mr. Mulroney, it doesn't quite belong to you.
One wonders, was it placed alongside Mr. Schreiber's hundreds of thousands in little home safes and safety deposit boxes, to be withdrawn at leisure? When NDP MP Pat Martin turned down Mr. Mulroney's flatulently self-serving explanations, he spoke for a whole lot of Canadians in saying "I'm not calling you a liar Mr. Mulroney, but I want everyone here to know that I don't believe you".
The slick, self-assured lawyer-politico no match for a humble little go-getter. The abused and his abuser. The wronged, and the devil who did it. Ugh. His reputation tarnished? It was of his own doing. It was this country that was wronged. This was not, as he averred, a private affair, but a very public albeit carefully discreet betrayal of the public trust.
His testimony, although not complete, and not yet to be put to rest, merely sounded the death knell to an already moribund reputation, for in the court of public opinion, this man, once the prime minister of this country, hasn't much to be proud of.
Nor, on reflection, do we.
Talk about ambivalent; I'd like the affair to be gone and done with simply because to see that greasy smirk on Mulroney's face yet again and to hear his unctuous baritone simply drives me to distraction. Yet on the other hand, I'd like to see his mean-spirited, self-interested boondoggling unveiled. Not very nice of me, granted. Considering that the man has already been forced to face condemnation of his behaviour resulting from his unabashed greed and sense of self-entitlement in the public arena.
On the other hand, the choices he made were made freely; he must have been aware of consequences should his underhandedly unethical shenanigans be made public, yet his venal addiction to lining his pockets overrode any possible hesitation he might have felt about lending himself while in public office to shady dealings.
It's just the kind of person he is. Greasily and casually for sale to the highest bidder. His self-pitying mea culpa before the committee when he testified yesterday in Parliament, did have a desired effect, softening up some of his interlocutors, but certainly not all of them. While he admitted to poor judgement on his part, and his bitterness at the further public shame he's brought on himself while just incidentally smirching the offices he held, he also defended himself as an innocent falling prey to a slickly cosmopolitan shyster.
Poor man. Ever the thespian, he cagily set the stage for sympathy, his lovely wife in tow, along with his grown children, all symbolically wearing black; in mourning for the lofty laid low. So unfortunate, so dreadfully unfair. Other details were not overlooked; such as hiring public relations types to stand forward, help in the choreography of regret-for-compulsion that led this well-meaning but trusting man to be betrayed by a foreign and unworthily shady "businessman".
He tenderly coloured himself as one taken dreadful advantage of; no poltroon he, facing his detractors bravely and with full determination to clear himself and his soiled reputation. In the process casting dire aspersions on the reliability of any testimony that could be wrung out of Karlheinz Schreiber, his tormentor. Mr. Mulroney attempted, piecemeal and with careful intent, to persuade that Mr. Schreiber was a born liar - but not he. It was he wronged; the present carnival representing Mr. Schreiber's desperate attempts to remain in Canada.
His characterization of Karlheinz Schreiber simply redounded on himself, for however he described Mr. Schreiber's lack of credibility seemed also neatly to describe his own. Claiming too that Mr. Schreiber created a media frenzy, but who exactly was behind this sordid mess if not Himself? "He's got what he wanted. He's sitting in his mansion over in Rockcliffe, chuckling", pointedly claimed the put-upon Mulroney as though he doesn't himself gloat in satisfaction in his own Montreal mansion.
His smoothly-delivered explanation, leaving great unanswered gaps, well larded with his usual little bon mots did give pause on reception, but didn't last much beyond first reflection. No one is yet any the wiser about the work he is purported to have performed for those cushy cash payments. This man, a cagy lawyer, a seasoned politician and social arbiter, well travelled and well-met in the international community, professed not to have had the smarts to refuse cash payment up front for an undocumented "assignment".
He speaks of Schrieber's falsehoods, handily overlooking his own. His denials of ever having had business dealings with Mr. Schreiber, his manipulations of fact and fantasy. His having withheld the fact that he had accepted cash for an as-yet unknown purpose - despite his protestations of international lobbying for Thyssen - and his subsequent successful lawsuit against the country, resulting in his pocketing a cool $1.2 million for hurt feelings. Let's have it back, Mr. Mulroney, it doesn't quite belong to you.
One wonders, was it placed alongside Mr. Schreiber's hundreds of thousands in little home safes and safety deposit boxes, to be withdrawn at leisure? When NDP MP Pat Martin turned down Mr. Mulroney's flatulently self-serving explanations, he spoke for a whole lot of Canadians in saying "I'm not calling you a liar Mr. Mulroney, but I want everyone here to know that I don't believe you".
The slick, self-assured lawyer-politico no match for a humble little go-getter. The abused and his abuser. The wronged, and the devil who did it. Ugh. His reputation tarnished? It was of his own doing. It was this country that was wronged. This was not, as he averred, a private affair, but a very public albeit carefully discreet betrayal of the public trust.
His testimony, although not complete, and not yet to be put to rest, merely sounded the death knell to an already moribund reputation, for in the court of public opinion, this man, once the prime minister of this country, hasn't much to be proud of.
Nor, on reflection, do we.
Labels: Politics of Convenience
posted by Pieface | 5:55 PM
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