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The echoes of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s silly, incoherent defense of the Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson had not even died out before the ironic acquittal of former commissioner of the State Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) Murphy J. Painter stung him with perhaps the most humiliating of several recent courtroom defeats.
And before we delve any further into this sordid mess, let us point out that the media, for the most part, have missed the real story in this entire Robertson GQ interview. While everyone is fixated on his comments about gays, his even more moronic claim that African-Americans were happier before the civil rights movement should have been the lead in every story written about the interview. How a writer claiming to be a professional reporter could have missed that elephant in the room is beyond comprehension.
And though he could not find the time to visit that toxic sinkhole at Bayou Corne in Assumption Parish until many months into the crisis, Jindal was Johnny on the spot with his defense of Robertson and in his condemnation of A&E Network for daring to suspend Robertson for exercising his freedom of speech.
While Jindal may well have a valid point in invoking the First Amendment, it is interesting to reflect on how intolerant the governor is of dissenting opinions within his own administration. Early on, he jettisoned Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Tammy McDaniel, Louisiana Highway Safety Commission Executive Director Jim Champagne (because Jindal apparently didn’t want to wear a motorcycle helmet on his Hell’s Angels weekend outings—now just try and get the visual of biker Bobby out of your head), Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Ann Williamson and virtually every member of the State Ethics Board (though most left in protest over his gutting of that agency).
In quick order followed Melody Teague for testifying against his government streamlining plans (she eventually was reinstated). Then her husband, Tommy Teague, was booted as head of the Office of Group Benefits for not toeing the company line on privatization (Scott Kipper, his successor, would also leave within weeks).
The firing of the Teagues quickly gave birth to the widespread use of the term “teaguing” as the euphemism for being terminated by Jindal.
Others shown the door included Department of Transportation and Development Secretary William Ankner, Office of Elderly Affairs Executive Director Mary Manuel, LSU System Office General Counsel Raymond Lamonica, LSU President John Lombardi, Secretary of Revenue Cynthia Bridges, LSU Health Care System head Dr. Fred Cerise, and Interim LSU Public Hospital CEO Dr. Roxanne Townsend.
And then there were the demotions from key legislative committee assignments. Removed from their positions for not voting with the administration or for simply asking the wrong questions in committee meetings were State Reps. Jim Morris (R-Oil City), Harold Richie (D-Bogalusa), Joe Harrison (R-Gray) and Cameron Henry (R-Metairie).
And of course, there was the showcase teaguing—the very public firing of Painter by Jindal and subsequent criminal charges after Painter refused to issue an alcohol permit for Champions Square across the street from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
It just so happens that Champions Square is part of Benson Towers, owned by New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson who, coincidentally, is a huge contributor to Jindal through himself, members of his family and his various business enterprises—in addition to being the landlord for several state offices in Benson Towers at an annual cost of $2.6 million a year more than the state had been paying before moving into Benson Towers. https://louisianavoice.com/2013/02/06/emerging-claims-lawsuits-could-transform-murphy-painter-from-predator-to-all-too-familiar-victim-of-jindal-reprisals/
When Painter rejected the application of Spectacor Management Group (SMG) because of errors in its application for the alcohol permit, SMG arranged a meeting between Painter and SMG attorney Robert Walmsley, Jr., member of a law firm that contributed $5,000 to Jindal.
Apparently, refusal to crater to Benson is a cardinal sin in Louisiana.
Painter was soon contacted by Jindal executive Counsel Stephen Waguespack, nephew of Wiley Waguespack, who had earlier defeated Painter in the Ascension Parish sheriff’s election. Painter said Stephen Waguespack leaned on him to cooperate with SMG and to cease using ATC’s legal counsel to address concerns with the Champions Square project being pushed by SMG.
Waguespack, Painter said, advised that he, as executive counsel for the governor’s office, “saw no problem with issuing the requested license to SMG,” whereupon Painter said he would defer to Waguespack—if Waguespack was willing to issue a legal opinion in writing to the ATC representing the governor’s position.
“The governor’s executive counsel refused and suggested that issuing such an opinion was not a good use of his time and/or position,” Painter says, adding that he understood from that conversation that he “was being ordered to issue the license requested by SMG in direct contravention of law.”
In more than 15 years as ATC commissioner, Painter said he had never received such a call from the governor’s office.
Painter and ATC again refused to issue the requested license and two days later Painter was summoned to the governor’s office on the fourth floor of the State Capitol where he met with Waguespack, Louisiana State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson and Jindal’s then-assistant executive counsel Liz Murrill.
Painter was advised that an unidentified law enforcement agency (later identified as the Office of Inspector General) was investigating him for alleged criminal violations, specifically sexual harassment and that Jindal was asking for his resignation.
When Painter refused to resign he was fired and an official announcement was issued by the governor’s office that he had resigned.
In what Painter described as another means of garnering publicity, an investigator from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) obtained a warrant to search Painter’s office at ATC even though a previous investigation by the Department of Revenue had already cleared Painter of any wrongdoing.
So, after losing major court battles over the funding of school vouchers, pension reform, and the teacher tenure and evaluations section of his education reform, Jindal now has egg all over his face in the highest profile case of teaguing in his beleaguered administration. It was, after all, the only one of the many teagued employees Jindal has actually tried to prosecute in criminal court.
On Friday, December 20, 2013, it all blew up in his face. In baseball terminology, he’s oh-for in the courts.
And don’t think for a moment that because it was a federal trial, the Jindal administration was not behind the indictments and subsequent prosecution from the get-go. All of which makes his sanctimonious outrage over the A&E network’s actions more than just a little hypocritical.
The jury verdict: not guilty on all 29 counts of computer fraud and lying to the FBI.
Sadly, for a governor who entered office with such promise, Jindal’s jumping on the Phil Robertson bandwagon is about all that’s left of his fading political career.
Few people would have had the courage to continue to fight the way Murphy Painter did, even from the outset. They would have simply bowed to the threats and attempted intimidation and walked away. The press coverage clearly painted him as guilty and he was subjected to having his personal life a matter of public record in often embarrassing ways. His defense had to not only take a toll on him personally, but on his finances as well. Yet, he continued to fight and was cleared of every single count. I hope, since he was proven innocent, the state will reimburse his legal expenses, post haste. There have been cases where the state paid legal expenses I did not think it should, but this one is a no brainer.
While GLAAD chose to create a firestorm over Robertson’s details of what he considered sins and appropriate sexual behavior, the NAACP seems to have largely stayed out of the quack-quack thing. My guess is they view his comments about African Americans happily toiling in the fields before the Civil Rights Act as clearly delusional and not worth attacking.
Painter was Teagued before Teaguing was cool.
I had the same thought, Tom. The “Guv” was “Johnny on the spot” for Duck Dynasty, but practically had to be forced to comment on Bayou Corne.
And now Dardenne wants to get into the Duck act.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/dardenne_louisiana_will_find_a.html#incart_river_default
🙄
Please re-read (or read for the first time) the actual script of Phil Robertson’s comments on Pre-Civil Rights treatment. He never said he believed mistreatment did not exist. He simply said that as he was working side-by-side with them picking cotton, he never saw any mistreatment.
I wish people would stop putting words in other’s mouths. The entire article is a hatchet job on Louisiana, ridiculing the Robertsons and Louisiana in general.
Phil On Growing Up in Pre-Civil-Rights-Era Louisiana:
“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
Phil was speaking from a very limited world view. He apparently had no concept of the beatings, shootings, lynchings, attacks by police dogs, attacks with fire hoses, etc. But all he had to do was read the paper or watch TV to know of the murders, fire bombings and other inhuman attacks on blacks. To make a broad, general statement as he did based only on his narrow viewpoint was ill-advised and does not serve him well.
I attended Louisiana Tech with Phil and as sports editor of the Ruston Daily Leader, covered him as a football player so I probably know more about him than you. This is not to talk down to you but simply to say I have known him for 40 years and I feel qualified to speak to the impropriety of his comments. One cannot simply turn a blind eye to the problems of our fellow human beings on the basis of so little personal knowledge of their condition.
Phil wasn’t going to hear anything negative about whites because [NEWS FLASH] he’s white. They knew one word was a short ride to more misery. They were not happy; they were resigned to their fate. I mean, let’s get honest here. Do you really think they were happy with knowing they were stuck at the bottom of the societal ladder? No, they simply laughed to keep from crying as all people’s with their fate do. He may have been trash but he is WHITE trash. Big difference. BTW, black people invented the blues in the twenties and played it predominately in Louisiana and Mississippi. Surprised Phil never heard it.
You are absolutely correct and to add to your story, they took the blues with them when they finally broke away from the cotton fields and went north, first to Memphis and then on to Chicago. And blues music flourishes to this day in those two cities. Rock and roll has its roots buried deep in blues. Just listen to the Allman Brothers, some the early Elvis music (he called himself the Hillbilly Cat at the outset but it was his singing black music that launched his career: Good Rockin’ Tonight, Hound Dog, That’s All Right Mama, etc.) and the Rolling Stones (Honky Tonk Women and Time is on My Side are pure blues).
But back to your main point: Of course they wouldn’t reveal their true sentiments to a white—for the very reason you mentioned. Why would Phil believe they would confide in him? For that matter I (and probably you) never heard a negative word from a black person when I was growing up—again, for the same reason to which you alluded. Quite the contrary, I witnessed them laugh along with everyone else whenever a white would play a cruel joke on them or tell a racial joke. Were they happy about being victimized by a rubber snake or some other “hilarious” prank? Hell no. Would you be when you’re stripped of your dignity in front of a hostile crowd?
My thoughts are that Mr. Robertson perhaps should have pled the 5th when asked about his feelings on the subject, but being an outspoken Christian Fellow, he did not bite his tongue but spoke and gave his answer, which he was free to do. The fallout of the term “don’t ask, don’t tell” has been used so often that when one does ask and the other does tell their opinion, then all hell breaks out. Perhaps everyone should just live in a bubble and refuse to ask or tell, their beliefs then peace shall ring out for all!!! Right
My thoughts exactly, Mr. Aswell. It wasn’t the comment verbatim about blacks that was so appalling, it was the INFERENCE that blacks were generally “happy” prior to the civil rights movement. The rest is just icing on the so-called “cake.” Thanks as always!
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