Canadian senators naughty but not world class.

Naughty but not world class.

Canadian senators looking to stretch a dollar with a spot of crookery and flipping the bird at the tax man seem mannerly and mild compared to the US.  Selling votes and access for sex and money was business as usual in the fifties as disgraced Bobby Baker, now 85, documents.  A juicy out-take of anecdotes is found here from Politico and the full 200 page open source interview is also published.  Blow jobs, $200,000 to switch a vote, unembarrassed pay-to-play, and so on, with names great and small listed.  Caution: No PC language is employed.

'Johnson jumped up and he said, ‘Mr. Baker, they tell me you’re the smartest son of a bitch over there.’ I said, ‘Well, whoever told you that lied.’ I said, ‘I know all of the staff on our side. I know who the drunks are. And I know whose word is good.’ He said, ‘You’re the man I want to know.’'  This dates from 1948 when he was a skinny 20 year old.  He went on to be champion vote swayer and counter for the Dems until 1964.

Another sample from page 20:

“When Senator Kerr died, he had two million in cash in his safe.  He had Neil Curry take $100,000 of his money and give it to Congressman Kirwan to let his water bill go through.  And he gave Jennings Randolph $100,000.  That is why Jennings cast that vote.  So he knew how to buy votes.  But I loved him.  Let me tell you, if he was not dead, I  would never be talking to you.”

Canada, just clean things up in the senate. Stop slavering at the latest titillation on the hill, like rabid dogs that need a shot.  If the moral outrage is substantive, there will be less barking and more fixing.

Footnote:  The USA is hardly in the running for corruptocracy.  A Russian recently said she was surprised that in America, the "President doesn’t automatically become the richest person in the country".
Footnote:  A reader commented that brown envelopes are known to have changed hands in private over public tenders in Queens Park and Ottawa.
Footnote:  I'm reading the 200 page interview with Baker and find that while the scuttlebutt is truly there, he has kind and respectful words for many he met.