Just how long does Prime Minister Stephen Harper hope to float, butterflylike, above the Senate scandal that is ravaging his Conservative party’s credibility? Sen. Mike Duffy’s abrupt exit from the Tory caucus in the Red Chamber to sit as an independent settles exactly nothing about this sordid affair.

Canadians deserve to hear directly from the Prime Minister, not from his minions, on what he thinks of a scandal that has been building for the better part of a year, and how he intends to make things right. Harper’s silence is no longer just hurting his party brand. It is undermining public confidence in his leadership. It appears to condone the dubious actions of a Conservative senator and the PM’s right-hand man.

Does Harper believe it was appropriate for his chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to secretly cut Duffy a cheque for $90,172 — in the midst of an audit into Duffy’s affairs, no less — to help bail him out of a problem with improperly claimed housing expenses? Does Harper think that squares with Senate ethics rules that prohibit sizeable gifts? How can Wright not have kept Harper informed? Did anyone else in the Prime Minister’s Office know? How can someone so high-placed have been so blind to the political and ethical implications? And how can Harper profess “full confidence” in him? It strains belief.

Liberal MP Ralph Goodale says the arrangement “has the appearance of a payment that was designed to prevent further examination” of Duffy’s expenses.

Does Harper think it OK that the Tory-dominated Senate committee on internal economy chaired by Sen. David Tkachuk subsequently went easy on Duffy for improperly expensing housing allowances even as it came down harder on two other errant senators saying they should have known better? What about the concern as to whether Tkachuk tipped off Duffy to the contents of the audit report before it was completed? And what does Harper have to say about Duffy’s refusal to co-operate further with the auditors after he repaid the housing allowances? The optics are appalling.

Does Harper have anything to say about the latest revelations that Duffy may have charged Canadian taxpayers for expenses related to Senate business on days when he was engaged in partisan campaigning for the Tories during the 2011 election? The New Democrats are now raising concerns about possible Elections Act violations.

Then there’s the separate controversy over whether Duffy is even qualified to represent Prince Edward Island in the Senate, given that he doesn’t live there.

This sordid saga of improper Conservative behaviour, high-level secrecy and winking at wrongdoing has infuriated Canadians, disgraced the unelected Red Chamber, and spurred renewed interest in its abolition. It has also drawn the attention of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and of Parliament’s ethics commissioner, Mary Dawson. Even the Senate itself has been shamed into taking a second look at Duffy’s expenses.

And on Friday night, Sen. Pamela Wallin compounded the government’s embarrassment by also quitting the Tory caucus amid allegations of dubious expense claims.

If Harper hopes to salvage some shred of credibility from this fiasco, he should use his Senate majority to bring an end to the Senate’s cosy habit of policing its members’ spending from behind closed doors, with a minimum of public accountability and a maximum of self-indulgence. Henceforth, senators’ expenses should be public and itemized. The Senate has long since forfeited the taxpayers’ trust.

All this leaves even loyal Conservatives gnashing their teeth. Now that the PMO is involved, it’s no longer a matter of a few rogue senators. This scandal goes directly to issues of respect for the taxpayers, political accountability and transparency, and the government’s disregard for all three.

Harper promised better. At the height of the Liberal sponsorship scandal back in 2005, he vowed that his party would restore integrity in government. “Bend the rules, you will be punished; break the law, you will be charged; abuse the public trust, you will go to prison,” he said. After seven years in office that promise is dust in the wind.

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