While I was checking emails this afternoon, I received an email from the Kennedy campaign. (I'm not really a fan, I just wanna keep tabs on the Wanna Be.) Before I get into the spin Kennedy's people are putting out there, if y'all missed the debate, you can find out all y'all need to know about from Lamar. He put up a pretty concise explanation of the debate.
Now, for dat spin ... they sent out an email claiming that confused John Kennedy is the "most qualified candidate" to lead Louisiana through these "unprecedented economic crisis."
I think they forgot about the Great Depression. Did they miss American history that day?
Anyhow ... back to that email. Wanna Be's people claim Kennedy won the debate ... which is to be expected. But the email links to SIX times to the same blogpost.
The blogpost author is none other than conservative brown-noser Jeffrey Sadow. Just read the link, and you'll know all you need to know about him. 'Nuf said.
Now, for dat poll ... for the third straight poll, Senator Landrieu leads Kennedy by double digits, 53% to 43%. The key here is that Landrieu is still over the magic 50% marker.
Now, dat don't mean we can afford to be complacent. No ... we have to be vigilant, and get our people out to the polls. Drag a friend to the polls ... between now and Tuesday ... and then volunteer to help get out the vote on Election Day.
The final debate between Senator Landrieu and Republican hopeful John Kennedy is set for tonight at 7 PM Louisiana time. You can watch it on the following channels throughout the state:
WWL-TV in New Orleans
WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge
KSLA-TV in Shreveport
KLFY-TV in Lafayette
KNOE-TV in Monroe
KPLC-TV in Lake Charles
The question for tonight's debate is whether John Kennedy will constantly mention his love for John McCain, or will he run as far from McCain as he can? Tune in to find out!
Earlier this week, it came out that Louisiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere was considering censuring Louisiana Republicans that have endorsed Senator Mary Landrieu in her campaign against Republican John "Wanna Be" Kennedy.
Well, the Times-Picayune reported on Wednesday that Republican Congressman Rodney Alexander attended a fundraiser for Senator Landrieu that was held at former State Senator Randy Ewing's home.
Rodney even spoke(!) in support of Senator Landrieu at the event:
"I spoke for her and told the people there how we have worked closely together on projects for farmers."
So, Roger, what's the punishment you're gonna levy on Rodney?
On Wednesday, it came out that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), sensing that their incumbents in Kentucky and Georgia were in serious trouble, were pulling their ad buys in Louisiana after Tuesday.
I just wanna thank the NRSC for staying here in Louisiana. According to sources, the NRSC is buying a mere $500k ad buy, which is a maintenance ad buy. And it's only for the week, which means the average voter will only see the ad 6 times, which ain't enough to move them, usually.
They did release a poll that supposedly only shows Landrieu up by only 5 points, but they won't release the party affiliation breakdown, nor do they release the ethnic breakdown. So, until they do, I'm skeptical. If any of the national polling outfits want to chime in about now, that'd be awesome.
So, my fellow Democrats ... don't rest on your laurels ... this race truly ain't over yet. Leave it all on the field by going to volunteer for Mary and get out that vote!
In all the hoopla surrounding Round 3 of the Obama-McCain debates, I forgot that Senator Landrieu and Republican hopeful John "Wanna Be" Kennedy have a debate scheduled for tonight at 6 PM.
Regrettably, I will not be able to live-blog the Senate debate, as I will likely be stuck in traffic on the way to New Orleans this evening.
Y'all can watch it live on C-SPAN 2 throughout Louisiana, online at c-span.org or WDSU 6 in New Orleans.
If it's anything like the first two debates, it'll be a back and forth barrage of attacks, with Senator Landrieu coming across as more likable, as she delivers her jabs with a smile.
The Wanna Be's campaign has been trying to make hay out the fact that if you want change in Washington, we need to change the Senator here in Louisiana.
Well, with this new information out there, I'm not so sure anybody is gonna want to change the Senator:
You say you wanna change Washington? That's all good and fine. But I gotta ask:
Has your ambition to be a big dog clouded your ethical judgments?
And with all the information in the ad being fact-checked quite nicely by the folks behind One Confused Politician, and posted below the jump, I know you have taken $350,000 from folks who appear before the Bond Commission. Damn, I know you wanna be the Senator, I just never realized how badly.
I was in New York this weekend for a wedding, so I missed the debate. However, Lamar over at CenLamar gives a pretty good synopsis of the debate, including the latest immortal line of Louisiana politics:
"John, I know you're trying very hard, but Senator McCain's coattails are not long enough for you."
Wanna Be has been trying very hard to tie Senator Landrieu to Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, much like Suzanne Haik Terrell tried to tie Mary Landrieu to Senator Hillary Clinton 6 years ago.
I guess the Republicans never learn ... if it didn't work 6 years ago, why would it work 6 years later?
UPDATE: The Landrieu campaign released a video of the first debate at the Baton Rouge Press Club, taken from the Fox News report of the debate:
The Kennedy For Whatever folks are a'rocking and a'rolling ... releasing this ad highlighting how Republican Senatorial candidate John Kennedy lost FOUR million dollars of Louisiana taxpayers' money:
The DCCC released an ad highlighting that Republican Congressional candidate Bill Cassidy (LA-06) believes in putting our Social Security into the troubled stock market ...
Senator Landrieu just launched an ad that exposes John "Wanna Be" Kennedy's support for securing the pensions of corrupt politicians convicted of bribery:
UPDATE on Wednesday morning: The Advocate reports on Kennedy's remarks!
In honor of Wanna Be's campaign event before the Shreveport Republican Federation of Women tomorrow, Tuesday, August 26th, I want to air this clip of Wanna Be at a Bond Meeting this week to discuss a bond for Antoine's:
The audio ain't that great, admittedly. But the clearest line in that is of Wanna Be saying "This is Antoine's, not Hooters."
Apparently, the Sinator's got hookers on his mind, and Kennedy's got hooters on his mind. Strange bedfellows they are.
It's incredible that the Wanna Be's campaign has relinquished the airwaves to the Landrieu campaign for so long. They've already introduced Wanna Be as ONE confused politician. They're hitting him on his flip-flop on Social Security with this ad ... I mean, putting Social Security into the stock market? That means some folks will be winners and some will be LOSERS. Social Security was not meant to for some to win and some to lose. It was supposed to be a win-win for every senior citizen in America.
Wanna Be, you wanna "fix" Social Security? Then do the right thing, and raise the payroll taxes on Social Security. Right now, the payroll taxes are capped with Social Security at $102,000. This means that us poor working class folks are paying more of our paychecks percentage-wise into Social Security than folks who make more than $102,000. Doesn't seem fair, does it?
And now Wanna Be wants to help Wall Street make a killing on our Social Security money? Yeah, Wanna Be's really looking out for us.
The "Nonsense On A Stick" Campaign hit a new low this week. John Neely Kennedy has been attacking Senator Landrieu for her vote on a bill dealing with oil shale last week. Well, it turns out that Mr. Kennedy is cribbing his oil shale platform from Wikipedia:
John Kennedy and Wikipedia on Oil Shale: A Comparison
John N. Kennedy: July 28, 2008 Eric Asher Show, WIST 690AM
"Oil shale is nothing but rock with a, an organic material in it called kerogen."
"Oil shale, a fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen..."
"And, uh, when a, when a chemical process is applied to the rock containing the kerogen, I don't wanna get too technical but the process is called, uh, pyrolysis, when that's applied to it, the kerogen turns into oil."
"The chemical process of pyrolysis can convert the kerogen in oil shale into synthetic crude oil..."
"Uh, this is, uh, uh, a well established source of energy, Estonia and China have well established oil shale industries."
"Estonia and China have well-established oil shale industries...
"Brazil, Germany, Israel, Russia all use it."
...and Brazil, Germany, Israel and Russia also utilize oil shale."
The Politico reports that Mr. Kennedy said in a conference call that:
"I am honored to have David Vitter's support."
Pray tell, is Mr. Kennedy really honored to have the support of someone who liked breaking the law by soliciting prostitution on Bourbon Street? Is Mr. Kennedy really honored to have the support of someone who frequented the DC Madam's brothel?
Ah, what great fun it is to cover this race, especially for all the consistency reversals in policy positions shown by the erstwhile Democratic Republican candidate for Senate in 2004 2008. The Kennedy For Whatever folks have come out with a brand new spankin' ad depicting all that consistency ...
"Party has never been the most important thing in my life."
So who knows? Perhaps Mr. Kennedy will change his stripes yet again at some point in the near future. One thing is for certain ... consistency ain't one of his virtues.
So John Neely Kennedy is going around bashing Senator Mary Landrieu for her vote against selling oil shale leases in the West all because a fellow Senator asked her to do so. A couple of questions to consider about this:
1. What is oil shale?
2. And why is the Bush Administration pushing this a mere 6 months before the end of their term?
Since the 19th century, we in the West have been trying to extract oil from the vast oil shale riches that lie under our feet. It is no easy task, and past efforts have failed miserably. Commercial oil shale development would require not only immense financial investments but also an undetermined quantity of (scarce) water from the Colorado River basin and the construction of several multibillion-dollar power plants.
Sometimes it seems that we are getting close to overcoming these barriers. But each time we near a boom, we bust. The last bust, the infamous "Black Sunday" of 1982, left Western communities holding the bill long after the speculators, Beltway boosters and energy companies had taken off.
This time, though, the technologies that companies such as Shell Oil are developing are far more promising. Thanks in part to a research and development program that Congress created in 2005, energy companies are starting to devise a way to heat the rock that holds the oil and force the oil up and out of the ground. Still, that oil would not come easily. It would take around one ton of rock to produce enough fuel to last the average car two weeks.
Furthermore, energy companies are still years away -- 2015 at the earliest -- from knowing whether this technology can cost-effectively produce oil on a commercial scale.
Unfortunately, the [Bush] Administration's approach carries none of the Western wisdom acquired over the past century. In a frenzied attempt to move a failed agenda in its last days, the Bureau of Land Management is trying to organize a fire sale of commercial oil shale leases on public land.
This sale would be a tragic case of putting the cart before the horse.
Ah, I love a good metaphor ... John Neely Kennedy, putting the cart before the horse, yet again. To sum up, we've been here before in terms of oil shale development. It's gone bust every single time. The right approach, as exemplified by Senator Landrieu, is to line our ducks up in a row and work hand in hand with the oil companies on this issue.
Hell, even the oil companies think we ought to take it slow:
Even energy companies, including Chevron, have said we need to proceed more cautiously on oil shale. With more than 30,000 acres of public land at their disposal to conduct research, development and demonstration projects (in addition to 200,000 undeveloped acres of private oil shale lands they own in Colorado and Utah), they already have more land than they can develop in the foreseeable future.
John Neely Kennedy ... Louisiana's best example of putting the cart before the horse.
In other words, if it wasn't for President Bush, John Neely Kennedy's campaign would be answering questions as to why their fundraising #'s had dropped this quarter compared to last quarter.
