Kingpin

Here are some sunny quotations from this morning's Advocate.

While Vitter didn’t directly note his own role in ousting longtime adversary Landrieu, others have clearly noticed.

“He’s become the kingpin in Louisiana politics,” (Charlie) Cook said. “I think that he will dominate state politics for a good while.”

Ooof.  Well, maybe. We were just throwing this around on Twitter and noticed that this bit..

Word among most political observers is that Vitter was key to clearing the Republican field for the state’s 6th District congressman and in orchestrating Cassidy’s campaign. One of Vitter’s top aides, Joel DiGrado, served as Cassidy’s campaign manager after Cassidy parted ways with a consultant to Gov. Bobby Jindal. 

Isn't all that impressive given this.

@skooks he has all the money, but notable that field wasn't cleared for Cassidy to walk in without defeating Republicans in primary.
— Karl's in Charge (@karlschott) December 9, 2014

Rob Maness existed.  We're pretty sure that happened.  Also, Vitter didn't do anything to get Garret Graves elected so he doesn't control everything, apparently.

On the other hand, neither do any Democrats.

Samuels, the political science professor, said the gubernatorial run won’t be a slam dunk for Vitter, though he is currently seen as the front-runner in the race.

“Republicans will have a fight among themselves,” he said. “I don’t think the Republicans are going to concede the Governor’s Mansion to David Vitter.”

He said under Louisiana’s unusual “jungle primary” setup that pits all candidates, regardless of party, against each other from the start, it’s possible that two Republicans could face each other in a runoff — splitting the state’s GOP base in an unpredictable scenario.

“The Democrats may not have a candidate to make the runoff,” Samuels said. “The real question is what do the Democrats do.”

Also, if the answer to "what do you do?" is we sit around and wait for the indictments, then that's how you know you've already lost.
 

I have some ideas about what the PBJ administration might look like

But it's difficult enough to push one post through this morning since it seems that our internets get really slow when they get wet. Plus Greg Peters has it all figured out already saying more or less what I think here and here. I'll have more later when the internets are working better... but probably after the sports.

Factoids

1. Incumbent Att General Charles Foti failed to make the runoff. Believe me, he certainly earned that.



2. John Geroges narrowly edged Jindal in a badly fractured Orleans Parish vote. New Orleans was a non-factor is a race that was largely about how much the rest of the state hates New Orleans. More on that later.



3. 50 votes separated Jalila Jefferson from David Williams putting her into the runoff for the 5th District Seanate seat. That's tight.



4. 310 votes separated sports talk radio dork Kaare Johnson from Tommie Vassel. In fact 4,569 souls cast a vote for Johnson to be their City Council Person. Wow.



5. Meanwhile 2,622 souls cast their votes for Kimberly Butler. In the 2006 Mayor's race, Butler received 793 votes for Mayor of Disneyland and was the overwhelming winner in that year's Chocolate City Awards.



6. 512 souls cast their At-Large vote for Mama D. That is just Dynamite!



7. Bobby Jinal received 699,672 votes for Governor. Mitch Landrieu received 701,777 votes for Lt. Governor. This is Ashley's favorite stat.

There will be time to play with these trifles later. But today is Saints-Falcons and I'm going over to the Dome to get my badly needed Bloody Mary.

Bite me, Clancy Dubos

Hope you're happy.

Hope Louisiana enjoys four years of privatized education, "intelligent design", more expensive medical care, and zero action on flood protection or coastal loss.

The good news is it will only be four years. The bad news is it's four years we can't afford.

Last call for Goober-yuks

• All of the heavy lifting is being done at CenLaMar where this morning we find 37 reasons to vote against Jindal all of which can be condensed into: He is a turd sandwich and a half.



• Pistolette, meanwhile, provides us with the well-reasoned recommendation to not vote for either of the giant douches (Boasso and Georges).



• Ashley has some final thoughts and continues his crusade against Virginia Boulet (which we wholeheartedly smile upon)



• Oyster has a post full of fun links regarding Jindal's relationship to the right wing super-weirdo Council for National Policy. This is yet another example of an obvious Jindal vulnerability that could have been exploited by a competent opponent... assuming the Gambit and T-P would allow it.
  
  Update: Oyster lists his endorsements here.



• Morwen is voting for Campbell... but we knew that already... she's been saying so for months now.



• Ray is voting for Boulet... I think because her "brother" made him a sandwich at a Gumbo party or something like that.



• "Miss May" has also made a few recommendations (which did not make the paper for some reason)



• David is still predicting a runoff. I think he means that it's Georges vs Jindal. Georges has been picking up steam in New Orleans lately. However, I maintain that the fact that a conservative millionaire vanity candidate like Georges is swallowing up what remains of the organized New Orleans black vote is just further evidence that the New Orleans vote is effectively isolated and irrelevant to this campaign.



• Adrastos seems the most exasperated by the lameitude of this campaign writing
  

  The best thing about this particular campaign is that it's nearly over. The ABJ (anybody but Jindal) candidates with the resources didn't have a message and the candidate with a message, albeit a limited one, didn't have the money to stop the Jindal juggernaut. It's time to put both the campaign and myself to sleep.

  
  
  Update: Adrastos makes his recommendations here.



• Update: Schroeder is voting for Boasso. HIs argument seems to be that the St Bernard candidate is most likely to make flood protection a priority. I'm not convinced it's that simple. I also disagree with Schroeder's argument that Campbell's oil tax would somehow drive oil production out of Louisiana. They can't take the oil with them, can they?



• More: I seem to have left Maitri out of this somehow. She's behind a couple of candidates I just can't support (Vassel and Boasso) but then again, I'm not supporting anyone. Oh except Stephen Colbert who is also on Maitri's list.



• And still more: Editor B presents us with an admirably iconoclastic... if somewhat impractical creed

  My voting philosophy is pretty simple. Here are my general rules:
  
  1. Vote against the incumbent, if there is one.
  2. Don’t vote for a candidate of either of the two major entrenched parties.

  Which leads him to some surprising choices.



• Still more: The We Could Be Famous list provides us with the astute observation,

  I don't think there's been a governor's race in the history of the country with a slate of candidates less qualified to stage a nice looking photo op.

It has been a disappointing season with more tedium than drama and next to no discussion of the future of the state or the fitness of the candidates to grapple with the coming challenges. How is it even possible that a campaign for governor of a flood ravaged state results in the first ballot election of a former associate of the firm that taught insurance companies how to lie to people?

The real culprits here, of course, are Jindal's friends in the Louisiana media, particularly at the Gambit and T-P, who have propped him up as their latest Dragon Slayer come to rescue us from the ever-present grip of "old political corruption". I intend to say more about the irresponsible idiocy of these publications and their predictable enthusiasm for cyclical Louisiana "reform" movements after the election.

But for now it's time to turn up your radios and feel the magic of those last-minute advertisements as the 2007 buffoon show moves into its final act.

Jindal is Baaad

Definitive edition

If you read only one Jindal is Bad post this election season, make it that one.

"Like Pearl Harbor"

So I'm not even back one day and already I run across the single greatest political ad of 2007. John Georges is running a radio spot in which he decries Bobby Jindal's "unprovoked negative attacks".

The Jindal camp... apparently wary of Georges's late activity... has run some ads which point out that Georges's highly touted "business experience" involves, among other things, alcohol tobacco and video poker sales. All of which is, of course true.

The Georges ad takes remarkable exception to the Jindal "attack" describing it thusly (no, I am not making this up) "Like Pearl Harbor, when an unprovoked surprise attack was launched against a great nation, Bobby Jindal has attacked...." I am no photoshop genius, but I can imagine a pretty fun image of Jindal as a Zero pilot descending upon Georges out of the rising sun. It strikes just the right chord, don't ya think?

Update:

Michael is right on time with help here



Astounding choice of imagery for Geroges, yes... but it's not even really the funny part. You see, earlier this week, Georges attacked Jindal with the not-so-subtle insinuation that the recent home delivery of Jindal's third child was "orchestrated" for political purposes. Now, far be it for me to put something like that beyond the creepy egomaniacal Jindal, but it is at the very least unlikely and a helluva thing to go throwing unsubstantiated accusations at someone about.

But according to Georges, this sort of thing is fair game while making truthful statements about a candidate's business interests is a vicious attack reminiscent of Pearl Harbor.

Georges has been spending a lot of time and money lately targeting the New Orleans media market with his advertising and targeting the black vote specifically with some well-placed public appearances and endorsements. It's enough to give Georges a bit of a buzz during the final week, but I doubt it will make much of an impact on his finish in the primary. Even if Georges's shenanigans do give him a slight bump in New Orleans, it won't make any difference statewide.

Outside of the city, this election is still largely a "kick NOLA" exercise and Bobby Jindal has had that vote sewn up from the very start. Jindal will also take nearly all of the conservative New Orleans vote as well as much of the NOLA Yuppie Left thanks to his campaign against the word "corruption" and the aid of his trusty Dragon Slayer Squad.

If anything, Georges's wild flailing could further weaken the already badly fragmented anti-Jindal vote to put "Bobby" in on the first ballot.... that is unless there are any last minute unseen bombing raids looming just over the horizon.

Keeping Up

We'll be resuming our regular Yellow Blog broadcast schedule soon enough. I've been out of town for a few days... hence the slight interruption. From what I can tell, here's what's been going on while I was away:

• The T-P published the rantings of a card-carrying member of the "certifiably insane" coalition



• Unorthodox (but Greek) Goobernatorial candidate, John Georges has taken the campaign to an interesting place in its final week.



• Nagin, whose endorsements have a history of being lead balloons, laid the kiss of death on Georges as well as on Cynthia Willard-Lewis in the dismal Council-At-Large race.



• Chris Rose's new column amounts to "Oh those wacky politicians! Why are they always running for stuff?" proving once again that Rose's column possesses all of the wit of a Garfield strip. But without quite as much dark irony.



• In a somewhat related matter, I've started reading Joshua Clark's Heart Like Water which I am really really trying hard to like. But it tasks me. I'm reserving judgment for now because it at least has kept me turning pages so far.



• Time for LSU to fire Les Miles. No, I'm not kidding.

And finally, there was a professional football game Sunday night which may have attracted some local interest. I know there is a report expected here. I may have something later in the week but for now I would just like to point out one detail which may have been overlooked.


Black leotard pants = fantastic suckitude


Normal gold pants = sudden awesomeness

Just sayin'

One chance

Bobby Jindal's new radio commercials tell voters that we have "only one chance to get it right". Isn't that the same thing Mitch Landrieu told us during the mayor's race? Why are all these politicians lying to us about how many chances are available? I'll bet there's like twenty or so more chances Bobby Jindal knows about right now. Do you think he'll tell us about them? Fat chance! Tell Bobby Jindal to stop hoarding all the chances. Oh and ask him what he thinks the "margin for error" might be while you're at it.

Noteworthy

This morning's T-P

Protesters call for reopening of SUNO
Posted by The Times-Picayune October 10, 2007 2:24PM

By John Pope
Staff writer

Massed in front of a campus building that has not been touched since Hurricane Katrina two years ago, about 200 placard-waving demonstrators today cheered a procession of speakers who called for immediate action to restore the Southern University at New Orleans campus.

For the past 20 months, SUNO has been housed in temporary buildings about a half-mile away. It is the only local institution of higher education that hasn't returned to its campus.

Of course no one is surprised that SUNO is the last college in New Orleans still not back to operating at its flooded campus or that the matter only makes news as the result of a public demonstration on behalf of the school's neglected community. What is a bit more interesting is who we find in attendance.

The only gubernatorial candidate to appear was John Georges, who not only spoke and worked the crowd but also provided 3,000 chilled bottles of water bearing his red, white and blue campaign logo.

"I am the man with a plan, and my plan includes rebuilding SUNO," he said to cheers. "It's the last university to be rebuilt; it should have been the first.

John Georges and his water bottles were last seen, by the way, at the Jena 6 rally back in September.

While there isn't much in his background or his platform to suggest that Georges would garner much support from African-American voters this election, it should be noted that his campaign is paying, at least, cursory attention to some of their concerns. And this is more than can be said for any of his opponents. Especially Bobby Jindal who continues to make a very different sort of appeal.

Jindal ♥ 's UK

Heh indeedy.

Follow Oyster's link. It's worth your two minutes.

Jindal is Bad

"Outside Agitators" edition

Instant Goobernatorial Debate Reactions

1) All candidates other than Campbell appear to favor "dual-track" education beginning as early as "before high school" (according to Jindal) which emphasizes vocational training over intellectual inquiry. To put it another way, these elitist fucks just want the schools to train better slaves.

2) Jindal appears to view higher education as little more than a tool of corporate "R&D"

3) "Biology major" Jindal approves of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution.

4) Walter Boasso apparently wants to "come into your home" and tell people, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" What dipshit adviser told him to say that?

5) Foster Campbell is in favor of pardoning Edwin Edwards. God bless him!

6) Overall impression:

• Jindal is a disingenuous pandering asshole... but you knew that already


• Boasso and Georges are pathetically, embarrassingly inarticulate and hopeless buffoons.


• Campbell comes off as though he believes his oil processing fee will solve EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM ON EARTH. It's the closest thing to a progressive agenda available, but he presents it in a cartoonish one-trick manner.

Jindal won this debate simply because his opponents are ill equipped to challenge his bullshit. Is this really the best we can do?

Update: More, better written, and funnier analysis from Adrastos

Jindal is Bad

On Monday I wrote the following about Clancy's Gen-X icon,

Jindal isn't running against his opponents. He won't even debate them. In fact, it's hard to say he's even running for Governor of Louisiana since he talks so little about the unique problems Louisiana faces with regard to insurance, or storm protection, or coastal restoration, or our crushing poverty.

In this post, David elaborates on Jindal's lack of any there there, after a visit to "Geek Appeal"'s website.

For somebody who's supposed to be just about the brightest sumbitch in the whole entire gad dang state, Jindal doesn't seem to be very clear on the concept. If you tell people that can read your detailed paln on your website, they expect to be able to read the plan, not that you have a plan. Of course, Jindal's just using an increasingly common political ploy -- be as vague as possible, while saying that details are available on your website. It generally works, because most people, including most journalists, don't bother going to the website. Four years ago, he wasn't a politician, now he's using the newest, oldest politician's trick in the book.

Update: Oyster (even if he is a whiny baby) observes this fun bit of anti-NOLA race baiting in the "News" section of Jindal's site.

In the "News" section of the web site, Bobby links to a supportive letter by John "fan belt" Cooksey, printed in the Ouachita Citizen. The letter celebrates the displacement of New Orleanians from their home state after the largest disaster in U.S. history. I repeat: the letter celebrates the displacement of New Orleanians from their home state after the largest disaster in U.S. history.

"Fortunately, not all of the state's electorate is from Orleans Parish. Fortunately, many of the people who once composed a great deal of the electorate in Orleans no longer lives in Louisiana. Thus, they are not taking part in the patronage system which has existed in New Orleans for at least 150 years and is the source of so much corruption."

Notice the way the Jindal people execute a slick declension from "corruption" to "New Orleans" to "the people who once composed a great deal of the electorate in Orleans". Jindal's "Slay-the-Dragon" campaign has deftly substituted the word "corruption" for whatever bogeyman the target electorate can imagine. In this case, Jindal's war on a word targets the not-so-subtly-racist anti-NOLA vote. Plus Jindal's campaign is more or less openly stating that the slow recovery of New Orleans post-flood is somehow a good thing. Is this the kind of advocacy New Orleans needs in the Governor's office for the next four years?

Jindal is Bad

Adrastos sums it up pretty well. You'd think our bold new "whiz-kid" "Geek Appeal" leader guy would be a bit less whiny and paranoid.

Snitchin is Bitchin

Adrastos has another witness to Jindal's "outside agitators" remark on Shreveport television last week. Also, Oyster's original commenter has returned to this thread to explain herself a bit more.

The fact remains that without video evidence, there isn't a whole lot more that can be done with this. And even then, I can't imagine it would be likely to hurt Jindal very much if it were out in the open. Jindal wants to appeal to the cracker base in N. Louisiana and is not above employing this kind of hateful codespeak to do so. It can only help him politically in that "part of the world". His election seems like a fait-accompli at this point in what has got to be the most boring Governor's race ever.

What is frustrating is the way the Dragon Slayer Squad (the New Orleans press and the Yuppie Left) treat Jindal with such fawning teenage lust rarely... if ever pointing out how nakedly phony his slogan-driven campaign has been to this point. I say rarely in case anyone out there happened to catch Stephanie Grace's column yesterday.

Jindal also has gone so far as to hurl the term (corruption) at his opponents, even if their supposed offenses fall way short of dishonesty, evil or whichever definition you choose -- or if it's unclear just what the alleged transgressions are supposed to be.

It's almost as if anybody who aggressively campaigns against Jindal deserves the label

And here you have it. Jindal isn't running against his opponents. He won't even debate them. In fact, it's hard to say he's even running for Governor of Louisiana since he talks so little about the unique problems Louisiana faces with regard to insurance, or storm protection, or coastal restoration, or our crushing poverty. No, Jindal is running to "slay the dragon". Like Buddy Roemer before him, he's running against "corruption".

And why not? As Republicans have demonstrated for the better part of a decade now, it's much easier to run against a word than it is to run against your opponent... or much less run for anything at all. Running against "corruption" is particularly good coin in Louisiana right now because it's such a versatile word. It's a catch-all for the widespread discontent that now characterizes our political atmosphere.

In the suburbs surrounding New Orleans, to run against "corruption" means running against the Bill Jefferson machine, and against Marc Morial, and the Landrieus and all the rest of "those people" who the suburbanites voted against with their feet a generation ago. To the degree that "corruption" gets conflated with "incompetence" it allows Jindal to run against the retiring Governor Meemaw and the perpetually troubled Road Home program without having to provide a reasonable answer as to how it can be saved. In North Louisiana, running against "corruption" means running against New Orleans altogether which is always a winner in those parts regardless of the context.

It's a wonderful strategy so long as one is allowed to get away with it. And to this point, Jindal has been allowed to dragonslay the entire race away. In such an important election, one would hope for more substance. But that's your local press for you. And this brings us back to Jindal's supposed Jena remark. Should someone out there manage to dig up a recording of this quote, it likely won't hurt Jindal very much at all. But that's not why I want to see it. I want to see it come to the surface so I get to read Clancy Dubos's column about why Jindal's callous race baiting is really just a hip form of X-treme marketing that appeals to the new "Gen-X" electoral demographic. What a quote like this will do is demonstrate clearly just what kind of politics the Yuppie Left and New Orleans media will rush in to endorse all in the interest of slaying dragons. As it is, we have to rely on the conservative press to ask the interesting questions... and that's just plain icky.

Note

This supposed Jindal quote I mentioned this morning may or may not be real. It originated from an anonymous commenter on YRHT who cited a Shreveport television station. I mentioned it here in the hope that someone out there in intertubesland might know if there is a video or audio record of it somewhere.

If this quote is real, it is massively shameful. If it is false, then I regret even mentioning it. I still would like to see the persons seeking the highest political office in the state speak out more clearly and boldly against institutional racism in Louisiana. None of them... including Jindal... has done so.

Update: The commenter responds here. There's still no source on this. It still sounds plausible, but is useless without a record.

Jindal is Bad

Weirdo campaign manager edition

Of course... next week Clancy Dubos will explain to us why home-schooled hyper- Christians and their quasi-arranged marriages are sooo "Gen-X"

Waiting For Nagin

Ray Nagin now has less than an hour to qualify for the Governor's race if he is indeed interested. This morning, Nagin said he was "having great fun" with the speculation. I am also having great fun with this and very much hope he runs in order that he may add some entertainment value to this horribly boring election. A few weeks ago, the politics panel at RT2 was having a bit of fun their ownselves with this speculation. Unfortunately, I was only partially paying attention since, at our table, I was too busy pointing out to Varg the following quote in that Saturday's T-P:

"It makes no sense for me not to be engaged in the governor's race," Nagin said during an interview Wednesday. "That's where the money goes. . . . All the money from the federal government flows through the state."

Come on, Ray. Wake up and smell the money. We need you in this race so we can continue having great fun.

Update: Sadly, it was not to be. But hey, don't fret. Check out the fun cast of clowns running for Council At-Large. Kaare Johnson? Really? That Kaare Johnson?

Things happening

This may be a light posting area for the next few days. Keep in mind, it seems every time I say that I end up rewriting the entire internet within 48 hours. But for the moment, you may be able to take me at my word. In the meantime, here's what we're watching this week:

• I'm still digesting the idiotic puff piece on Bobby Jindal in this week's Gambit. According to Gambit, this Christian conservative pro-war, pro-Bush Republican is suddenly the voice of "Gen-X" Louisiana because he... has a Blackberry and a MySpace or something. Or maybe he just likes mountain biking... I'm still rereading the article. Suffice to say, Gambit has picked sides in the Governor's race.



• Is this what we've hired Ed Blakely to do for New Orleans? Because I can't wait to hit that 18 hole championship golf course.... you know as soon as they finish with all the bulldozing and the unnecessary moving of the entire civil court system across town without input from the persons affected.... you know.... all that important crane-type business.



• Start your engines, it's qualifying day for all your regular political weasels. Will Nagin run for Governor? How many recycled pols, cronies, and hangers on will jump in the race to replace OT on the city council? We'll know by the end of the week. Stay tuned.



• Apparently Reggie Bush is ready for his close-up. Why the hell does this douchebag have to be on our team?