Sometimes there is no smoking gun
So what’s an offended politician to do? After all the ranting on the public stage, the accusations of calumny and worse, the assurance that the smoking gun would be found, what do you do with an official report that says nothing was found? It’s easy; you continue ranting, making accusations of calumny and worse, assuring anyone that is still listening that the smoking gun is, well, still out there. At least, that’s one way of keeping a small percentage of your faithful close to you.
Back in 1995, we had a referendum. One side won, another side lost. One side still doesn’t accept the conclusion. Next. Well, not exactly. Two journalists wrote a book that detailed all sorts of dire crime. That is, breaking a special election/referendum law by spending money on behalf of the “other side”. Lots and lots of money. Since only politicians have money, ergo, the crime is political.
A judge was assigned to “get to the bottom of the story”. He dug, and dug, and dug some more. Someone stole his thunder by leaking the results prematurely, so today we had a quick public presentation of that which many already knew. There was no smoking gun.
Turns out that the money spent wasn’t really spent after all. One tenth of the alleged amount was paid out, cheque stubs in evidence, to employees and contracted firms. An amount well within the allowed standards set by the law. Nothing to see here.
Remember those who can’t forget. Those who “did not win, this time”. They are sure that the proof is still out there. Like a holy grail, or an Oak Island treasure, or the curly-horned lucky unicorn. If only we will continue looking, the proof will surface. It doesn’t matter that the two gentlemen who wrote the original book which gave birth to the inquiry are satisfied; what do they know anyhow?
I’ll let the figures speak for themselves… alleged illegal spending: 6 million. Actual spending uncovered: 539 thousand (7.7 cents per resident). Amount spent by the judge to uncover that amount: 2 million.
Some days I am so depressed by evidence of idiocy.
