Even more shocking

Unaccountable partisan hacks proclaim their entitlement to continue unaccountable partisan hackery on your dime:

Senators have given themselves the right to pepper the country with mailings attacking opposition parties as long as they refrain from attacking each other, QMI Agency has learned.
...
“This is insane," NDP MP Peter Stoffer said. “They are unaccountable and unelected and they can use taxpayers dollars to attack … (NDP Leader) Jack Layton?”

The House of Commons stopped MPs last spring from sending highly partisan “garbage” to other MPs’ ridings and the Senate should do the same, Stoffer urged.
...
The Conservative-dominated Senate committee clarified the rules around mailings after receiving complaints Tory senators Bob Runciman and Don Plett had sent newsletters to Liberal ridings in their home province attacking the party for being soft on crime.

Now, it's somewhat surprising that Stephen Harper's patronage-laden majority bothered to hold the vote rather than simply daring anybody to stop them. But can there be a more definitive statement that the Cons are determined to abuse their publicly-funded sinecures in the Senate as thoroughly as possible?