The “first debate” took place between U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu and State Treasurer John Kennedy yesterday at the Baton Rouge Press Club. I was initially hesitant to characterize it as the “first debate” because it was not open to the public and not broadcast on TV.
However, courtesy of the Times-Picayune, the full video of the debate is available in an embeddable format. I give the Times-Picayune a lot of credit for this innovation and I hope the other media outlets hosting the forthcoming U.S. Senate debates will be equally forward thinking.
Thanks to Jeff Crouere for this gem of a photo that captures a tender moment between Gov. Bobby Jindal and Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet.
I sincerely doubt this will help Claudet improve his already battered image, after he notoriously suffered a meltdown in the aftermath of hurricane Gustav.
Mary Landrieu is more liberal than Judah Benjamin! For those not well versed in civil war era history, Judah Benjamin was a U.S. Senator from Louisiana and a proud confederate who served in Jefferson Davis’ first cabinet. He was also, a la John Kennedy, a party switcher. He started out as a Whig and became a Democrat in 1859.
Who do you have to thank for this fabulous tidbit of knowledge? Why, of course, the bumbling, stumbling John Kennedy for Senate campaign courtesy of their latest tv ad:
The Kennedy campaign’s partisan statements are rapidly becoming as grandiloquent and inaccurate as those of the McCain campaign. In an email sent out last Saturday, the following sentence stood out:
At 5 o’clock last Friday, Mary Landrieu sent notice to every Louisianan that she couldn’t care less about debating the critical issues we face.
This is pure partisan nonsense. The ‘notice’ the Kennedy campaign refers to is a press release from Landrieu’s campaign team simply confirming her attendance at three debates. Read more
More than 2 years before he faces a re-election battle to retain his U.S. Senate seat David Vitter is actively campaigning. The invite below dropped into my inbox this morning:
When: Wednesday, August 20th
Time: 4:00pm (CST)
Where: In order to join the call attendees need to call: 1-800-391-1709 and
the bridge to access the call is: 281949.
These calls are an opportunity for Sen. Vitter to stay in touch with
supporters, to let them know about his work in DC, to discuss issues in
Louisiana as well as get feedback from his constituents. Sen. Vitter will be
taking questions during the conference call. If there is a specific issue
that someone would like addressed they can get me that information prior to
the call and I will be sure that he addresses it.
My contact information is:
andree@vitterforsenate.com or 504.208.9548 (phone).
Thanks,
Andree Miller
Grassroots Coordinator
David Vitter for US Senate 2010
O: 504-208-9548
It seems I spoke to soon. NBC only posted a short snippet of Jindal’s Meet the Press appearance. Consequently, I missed this revealing clip where Jindal’s long winded rhetoric was exposed for its lack of substance.
Jindal made yet another national TV appearance on Sunday, appearing on Meet the Press alongside Obama surrogate Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA). It was a typically uncontroversial appearance as Gov. Kaine faced most of the questions, which focused on vice presidential picks and abortion.
The only real point of interest was when Jindal suggested he hoped to serve two terms as Governor of Louisiana. That presumably means Jindal plans to run for Governor in 2011. The bigger question is whether he will attempt to court presidential donors for a 2012 run, while also running for Governor? Can he afford to wait until 2016 to run for President?
It may have been a slip of the tongue, but it’s deliciously ironic all the same. In his column today, Robert Morgan of the Alexandria Town Talk (a media outlet not unsympathetic to John Kennedy) had this to say:
For his part, Kennedy’s Internet blog accusing Landrieu of being a liberal “… solidly at odds with the majority in Louisiana” serves little purpose other than to identify her with her party in contrast with more conservative views.
The ‘Kennedy Internet blog’ he is referring to is none other than Kennedy shill Jeff Sadow’s ‘Between the Lines’. Not exactly an official Kennedy campaign blog, but he may as well be.
Congratulations to Robert Morgan and the Town Talk for bringing this important story to light.
In an email from Campaign Manager Katie Nee, Don Cazayoux just announced his first tv ad of the fall campaign. It’s a reprisal of the warm, funny, offbeat ads he produced earlier in the year, reminding folks how to pronounce his name and some of the issues he’s worked on since taking his seat in Congress.
We’ve heard a lot of noise from the Kennedy campaign over the last week about debates, debates, debates. Accusations have been flooding out from Kennedy’s camp that Mary Landrieu is scared to debate, but with very little evidence to support their claims.
Steve Sabludowsky did an excellent job of exposing the Kennedy campaign’s manoeuvrings for exactly what they were, pure political gamesmanship: Read more
