Lamar over at CenLamar has been documenting the nasty whisper campaign allegedly being pushed by crazy, nutto right-wing Ron Paul supporters. That means Republicans are pushing this thing. Big surprise there, as we are talking about the party that sought to divide Americans on racial issues in their quest for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the last 30 years.
The Obama campaign has put out a damn good commercial fighting back.
Last summer, DKF noted that Rep. Jim Tucker was facing ethics charges before the Ethics Board regarding GOZone credits that his firm was awarded from the Louisiana Recovery Authority. The Ethics Board decided that since the firm did not use the credits, there was nothing to worry about.
I would also like to note that Chris Whittington, the Chairman of the Democratic Party, noted that "no one truly knows what Mr. Tucker's true intentions were" regarding the GOZone credits. And what do you think Mr. Tucker's response was? He threatened to sue Whittington for "libelous" remarks. Just so you know, Speaker ... libel refers to written statements. I believe you were referring to slander, which refers to an oral, or spoken statement.
But that's nothing compared to what he did in the last legislative session. He abused the power of his office, and helped pass legislation written so narrowly to benefit so few Louisiana citizens, one of whom just happens to be his wife!
Now, I've got nothing against Mrs. Tucker. I'm sure she's a fine lady and a fine mama. My problem is with Mr. Tucker. He's a State Representative in our State Legislature. And he introduced and spoke in favor of House Bill 501, which is now the law in Louisiana. (It's now Act 99 of the 2007 legislative session.)
Well, it's clear now why there's been no mention of campaign finance reform in the vaunted Jindal ethics package.
Seems like the new governor's campaign was — in that great Republican tradition — trampling Louisiana's campaign finance laws at the same time the then-candidate was blathering about the essential need for ethics reform in our state.
The Baton Rouge Advocate reported tonight that Jindal's campaign has admitted that it failed to report more than $100,000 assistance it got from the Louisiana Republican Party:
Gov. Bobby Jindal faces state ethics charges for failing to timely disclose more than $100,000 in campaign aid he received from the state Republican Party.
Well, Mitt Romney staved off defeat tonight in his native state of Michigan, living to fight another day. This was important for the following reason - it denied McCain momentum going into South Carolina, where he will go toe-to-toe with Mike Huckabee.
The best case scenario for Democrats is that Huckabee and McCain end up within the 2-3 percentage points of each other in South Carolina next week, and Giuliani somehow manage to take Florida. Then we'll see a free-for-all all the way to the GOP Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Then wny has a Plaquemine Parish Republican (Ernest Wooten) endorsed Jalila Jefferson-Bullock? And why has the Republican-endorsed candidate in the SD 5 primary (David Williams) put out a mailer smearing Rep. Cheryl Gray, who is running against Rep. Jalila Jefferson Bullock? Now, I'm not saying that Ms. Jefferson-Bullock is corrupt, but she is part of the corrupt Jefferson machine.
This is something that has been brewing on my mind for the last few weeks, as I have spoken with folks about Louisiana politics, and the fact that the Democratic Party has pretty much had a stranglehold on the State Legislature for the past 40 + years.
Many Republicans say it is time to give their party a chance to run Louisiana, mainly because the State Legislature has been run by the Democrats for all of that time, and we still rank near the bottom in darn near every category we don't want to rank near the bottom in.
To paraphrase my father ... if bullshit were energy, the folks making that argument would be bigger than Entergy. Simply put, that dog don't hunt.
