Twofer

Clancy DuBos agonizes over what aspect of the Vance McAllister story most "riles" him.

This story hurts on many levels, but the hypocrisy is what riles me most of all — and there’s plenty of it to go around, at all levels of both political parties.

Not sure why it's all that riling or hurtful. McAllister is kind of a dumbass. And his dumbassery has made him vulnerable to sniping from cynical political opponents. Pretty regular business, that.

But even in his riled state, Clancy does well to point out why the big winner in this episode is Bobby Jindal.

Louisiana Democrats are having a field day with Jindal’s hypocrisy on this one, but the governor is having an even grander time. Lest we forget, Jindal has a pretty high threshold for hypocrisy. I’m not even sure if Jindal’s hypocrisy has a limit.

Jindal is delighted these days because McAllister’s transgression gives him a twofer: he gets to stick a knife in the new congressman who embarrassed him by defeating his hand-picked candidate in a special election last November; and he gets to remind everyone of Vitter’s “serious sin” on the eve of the junior senator’s campaign for governor next year.

Jindal and Vitter may align philosophically, but the two men cannot stand one another personally. If Jindal has to bear criticism for hypocrisy — a charge that, no matter how glaringly true, seems to roll off him like water off a duck — well, that’s a small price to pay for the chance to prick two foes with one stroke.

Like water off a duck! Get it? Because the Duck Dynasty guy is tangentially related to this. Don't expect that fun to stop either.  Yesterday, this also happened.   

Last week at this time, politicians and their consultants felt U.S. Rep. Vance McAllister would have an easy ride to re-election in November.

But that was before the Swartz Republican was caught by a security camera kissing his friend’s wife in a darkened office.

“He’s a dead duck,” said Clyde Holloway, who serves on the Louisiana Public Service Commission and has been involved in Republican Party politics in the central and northeastern part of the state since serving as a congressman in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Like Clancy, I'm disappointed to see McAllister, who won big on defying Jindal over the Medicaid expansion issue, submarined by his own dumbassery.  But if you're looking for something to get riled about, those duck references are a strong contender in their own right.