Tories need to cut ties with Senator Mike Duffy

What you do with a problem like Mike Duffy?

That's the question that Conservative insiders are invariably asking themselves today.

With it being 2 years before an election, with Justin Trudeau emerging on the national scene and after 7 years in office this is a problem that the Tories don't need.

At the risk of hyperbole, if it's allowed to continue without some sort of action, the Duffy/Wright 'scandal' could essentially be the end of the Conservative government.

[ Related: PM’s chief of staff wrote personal cheque to repay Mike Duffy’s Senate expenses ]

Let's put this into perspective: The prime minister's right hand man has loaned or gifted an elected official $90,000 to reimburse taxpayers for falsely claiming a government benefit. Moreover, none of the terms of the deal have been made public.

The Tories have concocted an unbelievable tale that Duffy and Wright are buddies so the latter just gifted him $90,000 without telling the prime minister. The story might be true but it sounds phony.

As former Brian Mulroney Chief of Staff Norman Spector put it in a tweet: "This Duffy stuffy is characteristic of end-of-regime behaviour."

[ Related: Check into the cheque: NDP asks Senate ethics office to look at $90K Duffy deal ]

And it get's worse: today, we learn that Duffy claimed Senate expenses while campaigning for the Conservatives during the 2011 election.

I'm sure a lot of Canadians would like to see Duffy booted-out of the senate but, constitutionally, that's a very difficult thing to do.

Political consultant, Gerry Nicholls says that puts the Tories in a dilemma.

"Given his TV background, Mike Duffy is a high profile personality, one of the few Senators people might actually recognize," Nicholls told Yahoo! Canada News.

"This serves to amplify his troubles, which in turn causes more damage to the Conservative brand. That’s why they need to shut down this story and try to make it go away. The best way to do that is for Duffy to resign."

I'm sure Stephen Harper is wishing — privately at least — that Duffy do the right thing and resign and take the scandals with him. Unfortunately, recent history suggests that Duffy doing the 'right thing' is not very likely.

So the only thing the Tories have left in their arsenal is distancing themselves from the senator like they did with Patrick Brazeau. They did need to remove Duffy from the caucus. They need to do it soon.

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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