Last week, Bayou Buzz reported that this Wednesday night, at the venerable monthly tradition of Politics with a Punch!, award winning business woman, writer, director, and actress Stormy Daniels will join the prestigious ranks of Kathleen Blanco, Jim Bernazzani, Jeanette Maier, and Chad Rogers?
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.
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
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.
Finally, after months of laudatory coverage, the national media has also begun to experience the great Jindal awakening. Having praised Jindal so effusively only a few months before, the Gray Lady now joins in the condemnation.
Moon Griffon, who was so outraged by the audacity of Jindal’s shadow campaign organization, Believe in Louisiana, he pulled their radio ads, provides the best quote:
People don’t like hypocrisy, and they like somebody with guts.
Right on Moon. Guts, that’s what it’s all about. This whole episode has demonstrated Jindal is weak. He chose not to meet with Jim Tucker at the height of the crisis, he refuses to answers reporters questions and most importantly of all he doesn’t have the guts to stand up to the legislature and veto the pay raise.
During last year’s Governor’s race rival campaigns often railed at how supine the Louisiana press corps was to Jindal. That has gradually changed over the past few months and has culminated in a rough week for the Jindal administration over the legislative pay raise.
Just like everyone else in Louisiana, reporters want to know why Jindal won’t veto the legislative pay raise? Listen in…
Thanks to WJBO for the audio.
From the Baton Rouge Business Report: Rolfe McAlister, who by all accounts has no problem getting through to the Governor or his chief of staff, puts his paper in the line of fire between Jindal and an increasingly disgruntled Louisiana press corps. After debunking his own sport’s metaphor, JR Ball opts for the last defense of the hopelessly arrogant, namely, that if the people don’t care what Jindal does then the press can take a flying leap.
From the Times-Picayune: Once the champion of openess and transparency, the Jindal administration is now fighting tooth and nail to beat back attempts to limit public records exemptions in the Governor’s office.
Asked why the Louisiana Governor deserves greater exemptions that most other state, Jindal top lawyer Jimmy Faircloth chalked it up, cryptically, to “a hundred years of Louisiana politics.”
From the Advocate: Vague comments over “helping” John McCain with a New York Times story contrasts with his avoidance of the Louisiana press corp as Governor Jindal tries to remain one step ahead of his VP ambitions.
