Can the campaigns of Bobby Jindal and David Vitter possibly be any more pathetic or repugnant?
Can the Louisiana Republican Party possibly look any more dysfunctional and puerile?
Between the events being reported on both campaigns, it would appear that each has reached the depths of degradation. But then experience has taught us to never underestimate the stupidity of a desperate individual—or in this case, two desperate individuals, both apparently headed in the same direction albeit via vastly different stratagems.
(Hint to Republicans still possessing a modicum of mental stability: you may wish to disembark from the Disoriented Express at the next stop. It’s not too late to check out of the Hotel Silly.)
First, we have Jindal, still clinging to the watery thin hope that somehow he may yet be thrust to the forefront of that gaggle of geese, aka Republican presidential hopefuls.
As we have mentioned from time to time, we somehow lucked up and got on his email list so that we get regular updates on his “surging” poll numbers and his “awesome” speeches and kiddie table debate performances. Here’s one we received on Nov. 3:
From: Gail, BobbyJindal.com [mailto:info@bobbyjindalhq.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2015 5:11 PM
To:
Subject: New Poll: Jindal Leads Bush in Iowa
According to the latest poll out of Iowa, Bobby Jindal has moved up to 5th place, and currently has the third highest favorable rating. Bobby doesn’t have a $100 million Super Pac backing him like Jeb, but it doesn’t matter because he has grassroots supporters like you. With your help, Bobby has stood up to the DC establishment and fought for conservative principles. There are 90 days left until the Iowa Caucus. Chip in $250, $100 or even $25 right now so we have the resources to keep building our grassroots campaign and continue to rise in the polls. With your help, Bobby will win Iowa and ride the momentum to the White House.
Thank you,
Gail Gitcho Senior Advisor,
Jindal for President
P.S. please share this big news with your family and friends!
We’re not certain but we suspect by “senior advisor,” she means she is a senior in high school.
But now it seems that Bobby has been marked down by K-Mart. Here is the email we received today:
From: Brad Engle, BobbyJindal.com [mailto:info@bobbyjindalhq.com]
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2015 9:22 AM
To:
Subject: Today’s challenge
Hi, I just got out of our senior staff meeting, and I need your help on something. Our digital team just got challenged to get 1,000 new Jindal for President donors today. Can I count on you to help us get there? All we need is for you to chip in $1.
I need to send Governor Jindal a list of how many people chipped in before I leave the office tonight. Thanks,
Brad Engle Digital Director,
Jindal for President
Are you freakin’ kidding me? Has Bobby actually gone from soliciting amounts of $10, $25, $50, $100, and $250 to support his languishing campaign to begging for a buck?
One dollar to run for President? Oh, the humanity! (With apologies to Herb Morrison, the radio reporter who provided live coverage of the Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937—and of course, to Les Nessman the WKRP newsman who covered the live Thanksgiving turkey drop from the WKRP helicopter only to find that the turkeys could not fly.)
But if it’s abhorrence you want in lieu of cheap humor, then consider this little jewel: Jindal is scheduled to join Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. at a National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines today and tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 5 and Saturday, Nov. 7) hosted by pastor and radio host Kevin Swanson.
So what’s so repulsive about that, you ask? Just this. The good reverend, the wonderful Christian that he must certainly be, openly supports executing homosexuals. It’s not enough, apparently to merely advocate rehabilitating gays the way many fundamentalists do, he wants the U.S. to adopt Uganda’s death penalty for them. http://www.politicususa.com/2015/11/03/gop-candidates-speak-conference-hosted-pastor-supports-killing-gays.html
If Jindal had any sense in that pea-sized brain of his, he would run, not walk, as far from that event as possible. Instead, he apparently embraces it.
What have we become as a society? A nation? A civilization? Does this pseudo-preacher, along with Jindal, Cruz, and Huckabee really believe this is what Christ taught when he walked this earth? For Jindal, the very idea of his participation literally drips with inconsistent irony. As the leading proponent of Islamophobia (remember his claim of the “no-go zones” in Europe?), he now aligns himself with Islamics who advocate the death penalty for homosexuals.
And then there is this today from Robert Mann: http://www.salon.com/2015/11/06/david_vitter_hooker_shocker_new_charges_that_louisiana_pol_missed_vote_honoring_soldiers_while_scheduling_prostitute_rendezvous/
But when it comes to sheer audacity, it’s going to be difficult to top Vitter and his supporters. Republican leaders were quick to condemn Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, who finished fourth in the Oct. 24 primary election, for his endorsement of Democratic State Rep. John Bel Edwards on Thursday (Sept. 5). Some of the criticism was a bit humorous, some of it more than a little sick.
Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere called Dardenne “the Nick Saban of Louisiana politics.” http://theadvocate.com/news/13896377-63/louisiana-gop-chair-calls-republican
That, of course was an attempt to label Dardenne a traitor to his party by comparing him with the University of Alabama coach who, like him or not, restored LSU football to national prominence after years of sub-par seasons with revolving door coaches. In 2003, he won the school’s first national championship in football since 1958 before moving on—not to Alabama, but to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. When that didn’t work out, he took the Alabama job and has won three national championships there.
So when Villere called Dardenne the Nick Saban of politics, he was, in effect, calling him a winner though that obviously was not his intent.
But in politics, it seems that party loyalty, or branding, takes precedence over selecting the best candidate for the job. The Republicans are showing that trait now. The Democrats did it in 1979 when four Democratic losers to Republican Dave Treen and Democrat Louis Lambert in the primary endorsed Treen. The demand for party loyalty over ability can definitely be found on both sides of the aisle.
But for pure nastiness and below the belt sour grapes, none can match the letter to Dardenne by Peter Egan, chairman of the St. Tammany Republican Parish Executive.
In fact, Egan, after what he compared Dardenne to in a Nov. 5 (Thursday) letter to Dardenne, perhaps should just slink off into quiet oblivion and hope that no one remembers his name.
In that letter, believe it or not, Egan compared Dardenne to a jilted man firing a gun into his ex-wife’s car. How he makes such a comparison is beyond comprehension—not far removed from the incredibly crass tweet of The Hayride blogger Scott McKay who compared Edwards to Anwar al-Awlaki, the American who joined ISIS and who was later killed.
As for Vitter himself, has anyone seen the first Vitter ad that tells us what he intends to do to pull this state out of the morass that Jindal has placed us in? Has he offered any solutions? Didn’t think so. All he has done is hit us with a never ending barrage of negative ads feverishly attempting to tie Edwards to President Obama.
As we said at the beginning, never underestimate the stupidity of a desperate individual.
Louisiana Voice 
Um…. isn’t it kind of dangerous to talk about violence against women when Vitter’s key staffer, consigliere, and (by some accounts hooker-finder) has a criminal record for attacking women?
Good response there Kevin. They don’t provide a mailing address but here’ the St. Tammany Repub facebook page in the event you want to make a comment.
https://www.facebook.com/STPRepublicans/info/?tab=page_info
Also, here is their website.
http://stprepublicanparty.com/
It isn’t the stupidity of desperate individual Vitter that bothers me. It is the stupidity of the voters that still will vote for him that is worrisome.
I don’t see a comment section on the St. Tammany page. Maybe it was there yesterday.
Please advise
Not sure what you mean. There is no St. Tammany page, just the letter.
listed below the letter were links to St. Tammany republicans. I had hoped to leave a comment.
That’s not a link. It’s part of the letter giving his position:
“Peter Egan, Chairman, St. Tammany Republican Parish Executive Committee”
Louise, this is the website for the St. Tammany Republican Party: http://stprepublicanparty.com/
Thank you.
If you got together an elite committee of the smartest Democrats in the country to design two Republican targets to further damage the Republican brand, I do not believe they could do any better than to come up with Jindal and Vitter.
Those two guys between them have it all: kinky sex, bigotry, hypocrisy, fiscal ineptitude, antipathy to science, vindictiveness, corruption, flaming out in a glorious defeat…I mean, these two guys are a gift from heaven if you’re a Democrat.
While my criticism of Dardenne’s endorsement might have, according to this article, provided humor or worse illness, I still find it dishonarable of Dardenne to now endorse someone who he, prior to losing in the Primary called an Obama Liberal and criticized almost every policy Edwards supports. Maybe Dardenne’s motives aren’t altruistic but an attempt to get a cabinet position with Edwards. Here are Dardenne’s own words. You decide. And no, I don’t get paid by anyone for my opinion and I’m quite comfortable with my mental state. I suppose tolerance for opposing views is a lost art by those who preach it for others. http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=3302177a320983d559c9bfb6a&id=e334c05922&e=d20b11812d
Dishonorable
I suppose tolerance for opposing views is a lost art by those who preach it for others
So, aren’t you showing your own lack of tolerance for Dardenne’s view (his view being who he thinks would be the better governor)?
It’s apparent you saw none of Dardenne’s comments about Edwards or you wouldn’t continue the “he’s following his heart for the good of the people” narrative. Tolerance for others views? No problem. Tolerance for selfish political games… not so much. He railed against Edwards as being everything but the Ant-Christ but now realizes he is perfect for the job? Sorry, my Bull$**t-o-Meter can’t register that high.
Yes, I read his comments over at Bob Mann’s blog. You chose to read them one way. I read them differently than you did.
I, too, read the comments. I think there is a line between these political statements and the utter garbage Vitter has spewed about all his opponents. Candidates have to distinguish themselves from one another and Jay’s comments about John Bel were very mild compared to those made by many others and pale by comparison with those made by Vitter. It is unfortunate nobody can run purely positive campaigns, but Vitter (and others) take it to a level that crosses the line of reason.
Stephen, my comments in no way defend the campaigns of Vitter or Edwards or their surrogates. My comments dealt with the Liberal “outrage” against those of us who criticize Dardenne’s intentions in endorsing Edwards. Edwards supporters are characterizing his endorsement as if it showed great character and courage and was solely because of his concern for Louisiana. The naivety or dishonesty of his defenders concerns me. Dardenne did this because he has something to gain. When other elected Republicans endorse Vitter it is suggested they are playing politics as usual but Dardenne is seen as “rising above” and doing the right thing for Louisiana. To suggest Dardenne has no ulterior motives is a lot more humorons than criticizing his intentions. I stand by my criticism and I call Dardenne’s reaching across the aisle as the BS it is. His Twitter comments are his. He dogged Edwards out and he’s the one who called Edwards an Obama Liberal. Now he’s somehow reasonable and caring? I think we both know politicians better than that.
I don’t normally watch Jimmy Fallon but perhaps I should try. This is funny.
https://youtu.be/smkTeYvgCwc
Great comments and video, very entertaining. Jindal, Cruz, and the kill homo preacher are not really scary, but I am so lucky, blessed and proud that I live in a country which has a constitution which I still believe has a catchy little phrase about separation of church and state, My favorite church, in I corinthians, faith, hope and love, the greatest is love, these blasphemers preach hate not love. I may have to love them but I sure as hell don’t like them. ron thompson
Before the Primary where he finished 4th, well behind his bitter enemy Vitter, these are Dardenne’s own comments about John Bel Edwards…
“Placing Louisiana on the hook, under the current ACA rules, is foolish and insolvent. Try putting Louisiana before Party.”
“You’re writing a check Louisiana just can’t cash in the long run. Those are empty promises, friend.”
“(Edwards) yet again proposes plans with no workable way to pay for them. Just more and more debt.”
“John Bel wants a pact with Obama on Medicaid expansion and I want to have a waiver and pact ‘for’ Louisiana.”
“John Bel has put his party first, instead of Louisiana. ..”
“John Bel makes some ambitious promises about everything. This is Louisiana, this isn’t liberal fantasyland.”
“John Bel Edwards is a party leader for the Democratic Party. Conservatives don’t support DC’s war on Louisiana.”
“(Edwards) has a ton of promises, but not the experience nor the votes to get any of his proposals through…”
After the Primary… Dardenne in endorsing Edwards, described having policy discussions with Edwards where the two agreed… and he said Edwards will govern in a bipartisan manner based upon what’s best for Louisiana, without regard for how it plays to a national audience. He said there was no exchange of his endorsement for an Administrative position but wouldn’t rule out serving in Edwards Administration. ”
Everyone (Democrats and Republicans) criticized Donald Trump when he wouldn’t initially agree to support the Republican Candidate for President no matter who it was. Now, Dardenne loses the Primary and even though he criticized Edwards policies and plans along with his Liberal philosophy, now sees things completely different? Either Edwards changed (not likely) or Dardenne traded his beliefs for personal reasons. That is why Dardenne is being criticized… because he is in it for himself and to hurt Vitter with no concern for those Conservatives he asked to trust and support him.
Thank you for all of your hard work, Tom. I feel so much better after reading your posts.
Reblogged this on tmabaker.