Utterly without shame

You knew this had to come:

Chretien defends the sponsorship program, calling problems 'administrative'.

The day after the lead auditor at Public Works testifies that the problems were anything but 'administrative' --

"We were talking about the steering wheel and the brakes of the program; we weren't talking about the air conditioning or the radio of the program. So it's beyond me if somebody can take that clear message, read the audit report, and make some kind of conclusion that these were simply administrative issues," Mr. Steinberg said.

-- up pops the old fraud to shrug and deny the obvious, deny that it mattered, deny that he was denying: "That's nothing new. It's a problem of accounting." A little clerical error, that's all. You get the feeling that Chretien could deny it was raining. And, in a speech in London carefully translated for John Ibbitson by unnamed Chretien confidants, the former prime minister obliquely finds fault with his successor for, well, finding fault.

"In life and politics, I am someone who believes in solving problems, in accentuating the positive," Mr. Chr�tien states, ostensibly in reference to the Commonwealth and the United Nations, "in defending institutions . . . that have been developed by the wise people who preceded us -- especially defending them against armchair critics who would only notice faults. "Fault-finding is very easy," Mr. Chr�tien concludes. "But it is paralyzing. It saps confidence and trust. I am not a fault-finder. I am a doer."

So you see? It's all Martin's fault for acknowledging the scandal. He's paralyzing the party. If he had just shrugged and denied, denied and shrugged, all would be well. One expects this from Chretien, of course. What is more alarming is to see the number of Ottawa journalists who have taken up the same line: Martin turned this molehill into a mountain. Martin has needlessly pursued a vendetta against Chretien partisans. Martin's all this and all that. I think it's time someone came to his defence. That's my next National Post column.