Did the Tory Senate Just Flinch?

Wallin, Brazeau and, especially, Duffy - Stephen Harper wanted them gone, dead and buried, and he sent his Tory senators very clear marching orders.   Steve told them to vote and get it over with.

Seems the Tory Senate leader doesn't quite see it Steve's way, at least not any longer.   Senator Claude Carignon now says he'll seek a consensus solution from the Tory caucus on Monday morning.

Carignan told Radio-Canada's television political program Les Coulisses du pouvoir that there is the potential to change sanctions that would be levelled against senators Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau if the motion is approved.

He suggested there was merit to what Wallin and Brazeau said as they defended themselves in speeches to their colleagues over the past week.

Carignan said he believed Brazeau did not interpret financial administration documents properly, and that in his case there was an "element of good faith."

Carignan said Wallin "made an impassioned plea, a good plea" against the sanctions, but added that Duffy "chose to settle political scores rather than answer to the accusations."

What Claude is really saying is that Wallin and Brazeau aren't worth the bother and the blowback that could come the Tories' way from suspension.  Duffy, on the other hand, he's an ongoing threat to the Oily Throne.  It's still the guillotine for Harper's "most valuable" senator.

Do you see Carignan's logical disconnect?  Wallin was the biggest piggy at the trough but it's Duffy, the one senator singled out for special treatment, hustled inside the PMO for an under-the-table handout, the senator whose audit report was then laundered - the shining beacon of the rampant corruption of the prime minister, the PMO and the Tory leadership in the Senate - he's the one who'll be singled out for a little more special treatment - suspension.   And no, Claude, no one will see through that.