Thursday, December 06, 2007

Karlheinz, Volume III

Never, ever ask a question unless you already know the answer. Never, ever attempt to impeach a witness until you're sure the witness can't use your question against you as an opportunity to reinforce his own position.

I watched a bit of Karlheinz Schreiber's testimony this morning before the Commons ethics committee and I was floored at the incompetence of a number of Conservative MPs, falling all over each other, each trying to score a KO and each just fanning the air.

Schreiber is not telling the truth, when that suits him. That much is obvious. The committee want to focus on condemning or exonerating Brian Mulroney. Mr. Schreiber is focusing on telling them what will best suit his immediate interests.

On Tuesday Schreiber stuck a skewer into Jean Charest. Today he set his sights on Peter MacKay.

But what of Mulroney? Schreiber has opened the prospect that money flowed to Mulroney, not from Schreiber's bank accounts, but from GCI, Frank Moores' lobbyist firm. GCI and Moores were directly linked to Airbus. Moores was on the board of Air Canada. Unfortunately that may be a tough one to crack. Moores is long dead. GCI is long gone. Fourteen years have elapsed since the first cash-stuffed envelope passed from Schreiber's hand to Mulroney's.

I'd be surprised if the RCMP investigators who worked on the Aibus affairs all those years don't have documents and statements on what's been brought out in the Schreiber hearings.

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