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Except that there have been no similar situations. Not really. Certainly, there have been scandals aplenty. And yes, damage control will always look shocking and cynical to the public. Calculated evaluations of how to manage media. Who should speak and who should not. How to avoid unpleasant truths. Inventing distractions. Tossing friends under the train. That’s all been done before.

But a staffer cutting a cheque for $90,000 in a losing attempt to contain a self-destructing member of caucus? That’s actually unprecedented. It’s doubly sensational because we still don’t really know why. And, to add further twist, of all the people in this particular drama, it is the person who stroked that large cheque who appears to be the most admirable.

So don’t assume that we’ll be exposed to politics as usual. Nothing about this situation is remotely usual. Nothing about this defendant — enraged and entitled — is remotely usual. And the risks to the government during this coming trial are anything but remotely usual.

Which might lead you to think that Stephen Harper is the political leader with the most at stake. Certainly, he seems to be the leader with the most to lose. But, at this particular moment in the political calendar, this trial might matter most of all to the leader of the third party.

The truth is that Justin Trudeau needs Mike Duffy.

He needs the media’s obsessive focus on all those gory details. He needs the public’s disgust at what they’ll hear. He needs the sturm und drang of Duffy, the day-by-day pounding of news coverage and snarky Twitter jokes and pissed off work-a-day Joes and Janes who will repeat what they’ve heard with dismay down at the corner pub each night.