On lessons learned

The Hill Times' report on Con obstruction of the federal access to information system may not be surprising in substance. But it's a rather important step that at least least one Con operative is now willing to acknowledge just how thoroughly the system is being manipulated by the PMO - and now that the story had been broken, it's hard to see how the Cons will be able to keep a lid on future reports of just how widespread their law-breaking actually is.

Unfortunately for those hoping the now-public incident in Christian Paradis' office which resulted in the current scandal will result in any improvement, though, we're also told that the Cons have learned exactly one lesson from the matter:

Meanwhile, after seeing Mr. Togneri hung out to dry, the Conservative source told The Hill Times extra caution will be taken not to leave a paper trail.

"I'm a lot more careful now with any conversations I have with my ATIP officer," the staffer said. "They're all in person now, whereas before I would sometimes send emails."

Needless to say, there wouldn't be any reason for the Cons' political staffers to be concerned about what they're sending in e-mails to ATIP officers if they had any intention of following either the law or Dimitri Soudas' supposed instructions in the future. So we'd best make sure the Cons pay a due price for the actions of Togneri and others who have let their orders get put down on paper - because the next wave of Cons staffers has the elimination of any evidence at the top of its priority list.

Edit: fixed wording.