Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

It's hard out here for a senator

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, November 5, 2009 8:05pm - 45 Comments

The already legendary meeting of NDP MP Peter Stoffer and reluctant partisan Mike Duffy on Power & Politics is here, elementary school insults quickly ensue.

Mr. Stoffer might’ve been better off showing up to the studio with his report and the numbers contained therein, but his rejoinder to Mr. Duffy that only one of them was elected by the public might have won him the confrontation. The offending Canadian Press article would seem to be here. The NDP’s press release is here.

Tags: cbc, Evan Solomon, Mike Duffy, Peter Stoffer, Power & Politics

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Mike514

Mike Duffy is a despica — oh wait, we're not allowed to use that language around here. We're only allowed to link to elementary school insults. Otherwise, entire blog posts vanish with no explanation or apology.
Steve V

"Reluctant partisan" Is that for real? I think we are seeing that Duffy was Conservative hack all along, masked as a "journalist". I would say "enthusiastic partisan". It's so bad now, he's actually accusing the media of bias. Cough, hack.

The good news, we all get to watch is former reputation going down the toilet.

Andrew (not Potter or Coyne)

It’s what you call a joke. Duffy professed to only reluctantly have accepted his senate appointment, and that he’d rather have sat as an independent. I’m sure he also didn’t have three eclairs for dinner last night, too.

http://intensedebate.com/people/WDM WDM

Paging Scott Feschuk
http://intensedebate.com/people/Douglass Douglass

Wow. I may have to give Power & Politics another chance.
http://intensedebate.com/people/WDM WDM

Seriously, what the hell was the CPC thinking when they sent Duffy on the air.

Edward

My guess? "He used to be a journalist. He was on TV all the time. He'll do fine."

http://intensedebate.com/people/WDM WDM

I suppose. Although he used to go off on tangents when he was a journalist too. At least send someone out there who'd just read the talking points. Duffy made this a more interesting (and worse) story than it had to be for him and his colleagues.

BCer in Mtl

Not to mention when he was on MDL, he frequently spouted innuendo & throwaway comments about how being a Senator was an undeserved reward. His hypocrisy is breathtaking.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Fish_30 Al O'Wishes

Gee, nice comeback Mike. Way to raise the level of discourse.

I have to admit, though, it's an interesting campaign strategy…

[youtube tk9HN7AwlX0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk9HN7AwlX0 youtube]
http://intensedebate.com/people/Fish_30 Al O'Wishes

Gee, nice comeback Mike. Way to raise the level of discourse.

I have to admit, though, it's an interesting campaign strategy…

[youtube tk9HN7AwlX0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk9HN7AwlX0 youtube]
Ted

I have to admit that I kinda like Duffy. Canadian politicians are too often too staid and reserved and boring. He brings colour and emotion.

But this was an awful amateur juvenile hour here. Constantly interupting, speaking off point, making petty personal insults over and over.

The contrast, with Stoffer no doubt being deliberately very polite and civil, made Duffy seem all the more like a little baby.
http://intensedebate.com/people/danby danby

Mike Duffy has a lot of nerve calling anyone a faker or a joke after his theatrical performance lobbing softballs at Stephen Harper in Cambridge.What a disgrace.
Anon Liberal

Could there be a better symbol of the Conservative Party that fat old Mike Duffy spilling out of his tuxedo and talking over the interviewer? Maybe if they got Mr. Burns in the Senate.

http://www.simpsonstrivia.com.ar/simpsons-photos/…
http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

Duffy talks a tough game for some that entered through the backdoor.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Mike Duffy looks like a B-list gangster movie actor, the kind that survives the massacre at the spaghetti house and runs shrieking into the street covered in tomato sauce with his napkin still tucked into his collar.

BCer in Mtl

Actually he reminds me of Sidney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon, I was half expecting Pierre Poilievre (as Peter Lorre) to show up as well.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Quite right!
[youtube BeDNlXT7HdA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeDNlXT7HdA youtube]

Ted

Especially when Poilievre/Lorre has the temper tantrum and scampers off crying into the corner.
BCer in Mtl

On second thought, its a toss-up between Greenstreet and Mr Creosote from 'The Meaning of Life' . . . "Its just a little after-dinner mint, suh!"

http://intensedebate.com/people/penlan penlan

LOL…

Amateur Hour

There are some fine journalists working in Canada. Too few, but they are out there. Duffy was a talking head (and jowl) for many, many years and had long ago stopped being a journalist of any sort.

That he was as recently as last year considered an elder statesman of the profession and held court on a major network is both disturbing and quite an insult to actual, um, what are they called … oh yeah, reporters … to say nothing of citizens.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Tceh Tceh

Hats off to the NDP today, they are providing excellent entertainment value with Layton no where in sight and Stoffer and Martin pestering the Clownservatives. Great contrast between the the Clown-Senator from PEI bulging out of his tux and the exceedingly polite Stoffer. You'd think an experienced ex-reporter like Duffy would figure out the set-up, but I guess Con-hacks never will. Stoffer definitely won.
Amateur Hour

I just watched it again and I think Mr. Duffy may have been a bit tipsy.

Ted

Funny, I had that impression early on in the interview as well. Watch his eyes. Then he gets going and it is more difficult to tell.

Anon

Senator Mike Duffy alone booked more than $44,000

That's 10,000 boxes of Tim Hortons 12-packs right there.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

In fairness, probably at least half of that went to booze.

Dave

Best part: "You got the first 5 minutes!", at about 4:45 into the video…
http://intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john g

Duffy really came off as an ass.

That being said, I have to wonder why Stouffer's press release got one iota of attention from the CBC or the Canadian Press. Senators were appointed months ago…why is the Canadian Press and the CBC giving legs to this story just because Peter Stouffer felt like taking his calculator out of his pocket today and running numbers that everybody already knows?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Just guessing, but maybe the novelty cheque thing hit and it took a few days to get the prop printed?
Ted

Because of the by-election, is my guess.
MJ Patchouli

Also I believe the annual report that documents the expenses of MPs and senators was released yesterday.
Foreigner

"why is the Canadian Press and the CBC giving legs to this story"

Because the liberal media is biased, naturally. Why are you even asking that question?

"that everybody already knows?"

Everybody?

Blues Clair

Duffy… preparing for his Stampede Wrestling debut.
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

Duffy did not look good, he was over the top. But he did look right, when he said that the whole thing was a stunt. And I think most people will see that.
http://intensedebate.com/people/danby danby

O' wise ones.
Can anyone give me one good reason why SH would appoint this bacon of truth to the senate?
No why, the Liberals appointed….
or obviously, for partisan reasons….

For your average Canadian, just what does Mike Duffy bring to the table, besides the obvious?
What was SH thinking?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Fish_30 Al O'Wishes

My own theory is that Duffy would do what he is doing now- be the poster boy of all the perceived wrongs of the senate. By acting as a hyperpartisan buffoon that costs a ton of money, he turns more and more people off the senate. That would make it easier for him to "reform" it in (to Harper's mind) a more palatable American type body.

Either that, or Duffy had pictures of Harper watching the National and reading an autographed copy of "The Essential Trudeau."
Sigh

Not claiming to be a wise one, but SH does seem to like having at least a few over-the-top attack dogs around. My guess is it's because they can say the more outrageous things that he can't, and take the heat for it, if necessary.
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

Maybe you could explain what any other senator brings to the table. Most of them collect paycheques for nothing. At least Duffy is active.

dede

Canadians should be ashamed that someone like Mike Duffy, a corpulent, nasty, piss tank holds an office that was supposed to be one of the most esteemed in the country. He diminishes the nation. Show that clip to some high school students and try to defend the confederation. His disgrace is all of Canada's.
Loraine Lamontagne

In this clip Mike Duffy epitomizes the culture of entitlement. How many Duffies are still out there in the media?
Mike514

In response to dede: ashamed that someone like Mike Duffy…holds an office that was supposed to be one of the most esteemed in the country

I thought the same thing, but then I realised: maybe that's the whole point? Maybe Harper's appointing less-than-stellar people to the senate, to increase resentment of the senate, and sway public opinion into abolishing it?

It's a stretch, but it's the most reasonable scenario I can think of. I certainly feel even stronger today about abolishing the senate than I ever did. And it's not all just Mike Duffy. It's an accumulation of events within the senate over the years. This is just the pinnacle.

Michael

I have to disagree Mike514. It's not a stretch at all! That's the most likely intention of Harper.
lyrical

Replace 'senate' with 'CBC' in your post.

Get it? ;)

oppo guy

What started off as a report about the exploding costs of the Senate morphed swiftly into a story about the exploding temper of Stephen Harper's least-hinged Senator.

The result is only to amplify what New Democrats have calling for for decades: the Senate is both illegitimate and irrelevant – let's abolish it already.