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Michael Ignatieff's leadership woes worsened Thursday, after some Liberal senators effectively gutted law-and-order legislation that the Liberal Leader had supported and the Senate adjourned for a week before the problem could be fixed.

Mr. Ignatieff is paying the political cost of a disunited caucus and plunging poll numbers. He desperately needs to change a public perception that, fairly or not, portrays him as an ineffective leader who cannot even control his own MPs.

The senators insist they are simply doing their job of suggesting improvements to legislation that was passed by the House with more haste than judgment.

“It doesn't help in the public view, I must admit,” Liberal Senator George Baker said in an interview. “However, if we didn't do this, then it wouldn't help in the justification of the Senate being in existence.”

Such a justification, however, is unlikely to reverse the latest poll numbers. A new Ekos survey done for the CBC has Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives at 39.7 per cent and Mr. Ignatieff's Liberals at 25.7 per cent. A Strategic Counsel/Globe and Mail/CTV poll released earlier this week had similar results.

The contentious legislation concerned how much time to deduct from prison sentences for time already served in local jails.

Judges may, depending on circumstances, award twice the time served in recognition that jails are less pleasant places than federal prisons and that the time served does not count toward parole.

Claiming that defence lawyers are abusing the practice by drawing out trials, all 10 provincial attorneys-general asked the federal government to restrict it. Legislation brought forward by the Conservatives earlier this year to do just that sailed through the House with unanimous consent.

But the Liberal majority on the Senate legal affairs committee heard from legal scholars and associations representing both Crown and defence lawyers who said the measure was too restrictive. They amended the bill to give judges some added discretion.

“The judge is the person best placed to decide what sentence should be imposed and what credit (if any) should be granted,” Liberal Senator Larry Campbell maintained on his blog .

The Conservatives reacted with outrage (and secret glee).

“They don't have any trouble fighting among themselves; I'm just telling them to fight crime in this country,” Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in an interview. He urged Mr. Ignatieff to whip his Senate caucus into compliance. “I want him to get involved with this.”

The Liberals are clearly embarrassed by their rebellious senators, although Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh rejected the suggestion that the senators were making life difficult for the party. “They know they have to accede to the will of House, ultimately,” he told reporters.

Both sides tried to reach an agreement Thursday to bring the legislation before the full Senate, where other Liberal senators could join with the Conservative minority to pass the bill without amendments. But those negotiations broke down, with each side blaming the other.

Mr. Ignatieff acknowledged Thursday that the Conservatives had succeeded in framing him in an unflattering way that was hurting his popularity.

“I've got to lift that big frame off and let Canadians see who I really am, and we will be doing that,” he told reporters.

“If there are things I need to do better, I am certainly going to be ready to try, because I want to listen to Canadians and improve my performance any way I can.”