First Duffy, Then Wright, Now Tkachuk and Stewart-Olsen. Is Harper Losing to a Tory Insurgency?

I wondered whether Harper would track down and silence the insurgents in the Tory ranks who began by leaking e-mails that sparked the Duffy-Wright scandal in May.  The word I got was that there was a dissident faction that was fed up with Stephen Harper's unique blend of greasy authoritarianism.

That Duffy e-mail was devastating because it was corroborated by undeniable facts.   When the senate scandal erupted, Duffy was brought in-house, inside the PMO, where the chief-of-staff no less put him in funds to the tune of 90-large to settle his tab with the Senate.   The money was given on condition that Duffy cease all cooperation with the Senate-appointed auditors, Deloittes.  That too happened.  As part of the deal Duffy was promised that the Senate audit report would "go easy on" him.  That likewise happened.  The two top Tories on the Senate audit committee laundered the draft report to pointedly go easy on Duffy and, of the four senators involved, only Duffy.

The Three Prophecies set out in Duffy's e-mail all came to pass.  Caught out, Tory senators Tkachuk and Stewart-Olsen ducked for cover, claiming they chose to amend the draft report on Duffy because he had repaid the expenses wrongly claimed.  They did it, just the two of them.  Really?  Just straight out of the blue they laundered the Duffy report.  It has nothing to do, nothing whatever, with the promise Duffy had been given by the PMO.  Nope, sheer coincidence, real parallel universe stuff.

A critical part of Steve Harper's political life support system is the summer recess.  For him, it's like a trip to Lourdes.  When Parliament takes its summer break he's up to his eyeballs in scandal and nefarious deeds.  When Parliament returns in September, the public has forgotten all about it and Steve comes back rejuvenated and cleansed.

The Tory dissidents on Harper's heels might have had this in mind when they allowed the scandal to ferment for three months before leaking further e-mails to CTV's Bob Fife.

Those emails show that Duffy had initially refused to go along with the plan to repay the taxpayer-funded living allowance and other expenses using Wright’s money.
 
The embattled senator was then threatened with the loss of his seat in the upper chamber.
 
In the emails, Duffy claimed that Tkachuk, who until recently was the chair of the Senate internal economy committee, told him he didn’t meet the Senate’s residency requirements because he lived in Ottawa.

Tkachuk allegedly told Duffy that if he went along with Wright’s bailout offer, the Senate committee would throw out the residency issue and go easy on him in the audit of his expenses.

Harper’s former director of communications, Angelo Persichilli, was also putting pressure on Duffy amid the growing Senate spending scandal.

While Persichilli was awaiting his appointment as a citizenship judge in Toronto, he called Duffy to tell him that the Conservative Party would turn against him if he didn’t repay the money.
Persichilli insisted he acted alone and as a friend when he made that call.

Harper plans to prorogue Parliament, to extend the summer break into October at least.  No reasonable explanation has been given for that.  Makes a person wonder if Steve decided to lock down Parliament after getting word that more leaks were coming.