He probably won’t make the formal announcement of his candidacy for governor until September or October, but make no mistake about it, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy is in full campaign mode. If there had been in lingering doubts before, that much was made evident Wednesday by his inappropriate yet totally predictable CALL for Robert Mueller to end his investigation of the man on whose coattails Kennedy ran for—and won—his senate seat.
This was more than Kennedy’s typical down-home, cornball, Will Rogers country feed store philosophy that he is so proud to bestow and which TV reporters are so eager to foist upon their viewers. This was pure, old-fashion political sycophancy at its very worst.
Someone recently said the most dangerous place in Washington was to stand between Kennedy and a TV camera but his toadyism is both shabby and shameful in its transparent attempt to please Donald Trump and to cash in on Trump’s inexplicable popularity with Louisiana voters.
Inexplicable because everything—and I mean everything—the man stands for goes against the interests of the most vocal of his supporters. All you have to do to verify that claim is to compare his record with his actions. Instead, his supporters choose to listen to his rants and to read his sophomoric tweets which stand in stark contrast to his official actions behind the scene:
- Safe drinking water? Who needs it?
- Consumer protection? Why?
- The former head of the Bank of Cyprus, a leading conduit for Russian money laundering is now Secretary of Commerce so you do the math.
- Medical care? Hmph.
- Employee benefits like pensions and overtime pay? Nah.
- Net neutrality? Don’t need it, don’t want it, can’t use it (besides, that was an Obama policy so, out it goes).
- Tax reform? You bet—for the wealthy.
- Protection of endangered wildlife? Hell, there must be a hundred species of animals out there. That’s way too many.
- Banking regulations to avoid another recession like we had in 2008? Just signed off on the rollback of Dodd-Frank, thank you very much.
- The head of EPA is less concerned about protecting the environment than in enriching himself with European vacation trips on your dime and installing $45,000 soundproof phone booths in his office and blaming his staff whenever he gets caught wasting taxpayer funds.
Nixon was a crook, Lyndon Johnson lied us into an unwinnable war that cost 58,000 American lives, Bill Clinton had a basketful of scandals, and George W. Bush lied to us about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, but I daresay Trump is far and above the biggest crook—and the most ill-prepared to be president—who ever occupied the Oval Office. There will be those who will deny that to the death, but it doesn’t change the facts.
And before you call me a wild-eyed liberal or something worse, keep this in mind: I was a Republican longer than a lot of you have been alive. I was a Republican when we could caucus in a telephone booth. But I didn’t leave the party, it left me. It took me a long time, but I finally saw what the Republican Party stood for and it wasn’t for any of the things that I learned from the Bible—things like charity, understanding, kindness, compassion, taking care of the sick, and feeding the hungry. You know, Christian virtues the evangelicals claim to espouse but who instead turn around and condone, encourage even, the most unchristian behavior imaginable. We call that hypocrisy where I come from.
At various times, Trump has:
- Told us not to the trust the FBI;
- Told us not to trust the Justice Department;
- Told us not to trust the free press, and
- Told us not to trust the courts.
These are the only institutions that can hold him accountable and he is trying to undermine every single one of them. If that doesn’t worry you, it damn well should.
So, in order to appease Trump and his followers in Louisiana, and apparently in order to solidify his support for a gubernatorial run in 2019, Kennedy slobbers all over himself in calling for Mueller to end his investigation “because it distracts in time, energy and taxpayer money.”
And Trump’s governance by tweets is not a distraction? His constant reversals of positions are not a waste of time, energy and taxpayer money?
Trump reminds me of an editorial cartoon I spotted this week:
- He doesn’t believe the intelligence agencies;
- He doesn’t support the rule of law;
- He doesn’t support the special counsel;
- He doesn’t support the mission of federal regulators;
- He doesn’t support the right to demonstrate peaceably;
- He has no concern about the integrity of fair elections;
- He doesn’t care about the “huddled masses.”
Hell no. He’s a true patriot.
And Kennedy is sucking up to him in grand fashion.
Kennedy, you cited a laundry list of things that need to be done. I seem to remember that when you ran for the senate, there were things you were going to work for. But now it seems you are beginning to “distract in time, energy and taxpayer money” by running for governor when you should be doing your job—kind of like the way you criticized Bobby Jindal for running for president when he should have been tending to his job as governor. You sounded so sensible when you criticized Bobby for not doing his job and yet…
But just for the sake of argument, let’s compare the distraction that you claim the Mueller investigation of one year—one year, John—has become with past INVESTIGATIONS investigations and the presidents. We’ll start with the granddaddy of ‘em all:
- Watergate (Nixon): 4 years, the resignation of a president and more than 20 indictments/pleas;
- Michael Deaver perjury charges (Reagan): A shade over three years and one indictment;
- Iran-Contra (Reagan): six and one-half years and 14 indictments/pleas;
- Lyn Nofziger improper lobbying (Reagan): About 16 months, two indictments/pleas;
- Samuel Pierce influence peddling (H.W. Bush): Almost nine years (and he was only in office for four): 18 indictments/pleas;
- Whitewater/Paula Jones/Monica Lewinski (Clinton): Seven years, 15 indictments/pleas, impeachment of a president (acquitted);
- Mike Espy gifts (Clinton): Seven years, 13 indictments/pleas;
- Henry Cisneros perjury charges (Clinton): Nine years, 8 indictments/pleas;
- Alexis Herman influence-peddling (Clinton): Two years, one indictment/plea;
- Valerie Plame leaks (George W. Bush): Three years, one indictment/plea;
- Russia (Trump): One year, John, just ONE YEAR, and more indictments/pleas already than you can count.
In case you weren’t counting, John, that’s four separate investigations costing $80 million during Clinton’s administration. I’m not saying they weren’t warranted because they were. But I don’t recall anyone ever saying those investigations should’ve been shut down.
So, John, why don’t you read up on Will Rogers, do a few more hominy and grits folksy quotes and leave the real work to those charged with doing the job?
Or maybe come up with another ad about drinking weed killer for your gubernatorial campaign.
And how long did the Hillary Clinton Benghazi investigation last with absolutely no indictments or findings of fault? If she had won the Presidency, the investigation would still be ongoing.
Tom, you are going against the grain here – citing hard facts to support your position.
The better way is to simply be guided by whatever our dear leader happens to have said most recently. That way you don’t have to think at all, much less search for objective, unambiguous data to support your beliefs and actions.
For example, if our dear leader says, “A blizzard of Biblical proportions will blanket the entire United States with a foot of snow beginning at noon today”, you simply crank up the heat and get your overcoat out of the back closet. Then, if you live in south Louisiana, you rush to the nearest store and buy all the bread and milk you can store because you sure as heck aren’t going to want to be driving once the blizzard hits. Oh, and when 2 hours later our dear leader says a heat wave of hellish proportions is coming at noon, you simply reverse course. Problem solved.
Such a good column, you have outlined everything that is a huge concern, to many of us. I couldn’t believe what I was reading, when John Kennedy called for Mueller to wrap it up,do what? The scandals of past presidents pale in comparison to this one, and the indictments keep coming.. but the difference in those scandals and this one is that when the investigating was done, regardless of ideology, we stood by the results, we supported the rule of law, not this time, the absolute locked in loyalty to Donald Trump,is scary.. the Trump patriots are willing to tear down the institutions that make us who we are….John Kennedy has zero credibility, and his whining, folksy pandering has worn a hole in my already limited patience.
Safe drinking water? Who needs it? Where is Trump opposed to that ?
Consumer protection? Why? We have too many regulations in this country that only serve to run up costs
The former head of the Bank of Cyprus, a leading conduit for Russian money laundering is now Secretary of Commerce so you do the math.And how much did Bill/Foundation receive from Russia again ?
Medical care? Hmph. That is not a “right”.
Employee benefits like pensions and overtime pay? Nah. Who is stopping this ??
Net neutrality? Don’t need it, don’t want it, can’t use it (besides, that was an Obama policy so, out it goes).The “net neutrality” introduced by Obama was to allow government control of the internet. If you think this is a good thing,; that speaks volumes.
Tax reform? You bet—for the wealthy.Everyone benefited. I know I did, and I am hardly wealthy.
Banking regulations to avoid another recession like we had in 2008? Just signed off on the rollback of Dodd-Frank, thank you very much .Dodd-Frank caused to original mess with allowing subpar loans (Clinton endorsed to allow low income people access to home loans – which they could not afford)
The head of EPA is less concerned about protecting the environment than in enriching himself with European vacation trips on your dime and installing $45,000 soundproof phone booths in his office and blaming his staff whenever he gets caught wasting taxpayer funds. I am with you on this guy, but EPA should be under Congressional control and not allowed to regulate without oversight.
And Trump has legal authority ti fire Mueller, but has not. Additionally, Mueller people are almost to a man, Hillary donors. Do you not see a peoblem here ?
Now Zoe, just how the hell do you know that Mueller people are “almost to a man, Hillary donors”? C’mon, tell us how you know this. Who are these “people” and how much did they give to Hillary? Let’s have some hard figures here. Have you actually checked campaign finance reports or do you rely on Alex Jones for your “news”? You have a disturbing habit of throwing so-called “facts” that just don’t stand up under scrutiny.
And don’t forget this: “The “net neutrality” introduced by Obama was to allow government control of the internet.”
What does that even mean, and what factual documentation backs it up (factual documentation does not include the pure opinions and conjectures of anybody on television, radio, or anywhere else)?
I think we all know, by now, that people who support our current POTUS did not like much, if anything, our previous POTUS did. They also believe he and Hillary (who will never be POTUS) are responsible for the mess in which we find ourselves, but why don’t we just deal with how our current POTUS is handling things? No matter how great his supporters believe him to be, he does not, as far as I know, have the ability to travel back in time. Nor do we.
And, I ask again, when, exactly,was America greater than it was prior to 2016?
Zoe is using Trump tactics. Easy to spot…
Zoe, you can’t even put together a coherent sentence. And Dodd-Frank “caused to original mess with allowing sub-par loans”? I’m not even sure what that means but Dodd-Frank wasn’t passed until AFTER the 2008 crash (2010 to be precise) so there’s no way in hell it could have “caused to original mess.” You are letting your ignorance speak for you way too many times. You need to fact-check yourself before committing your half-baked opinions to writing so everyone else can see your pitiful lack of knowledge.
I suppose your comments are good for comic relief, though.
This rag is a complete joke. 10 of you liberal losers at least have a place to hang out. Hard facts? Try paying attention to actual investigations taking place instead of watching CNN and reading Politico.
WTF are you talking about? Enlighten us.
What I fail to comprehend is someone like Ben with nothing better to do than to habitually read and comment on a “rag” that is a “complete joke.” Seems to me your time would be better spent watching “Bachelor” or “Dancing with the Stars” since that seems to be your level of enlightenment. But not to worry, you’re always welcome to “hang out” with the 10 of us since you seem to have nowhere else to go.
Ben and Zoe should hang out together. I think they could become mutual Trumpgasm soulmates.
Just like the poor, the Jindalites(Coward Republicans) will always be with us. Kennedy will say anything because he really believes like Trump/republicans that he is just so f***king smart. I agree with you Tom and would add the goofy policy of privatizing the VA medical to put more money in the insurance whores, by using Vets as a political tool. Trump and his political dummy buffoon Pence actually lied to the troops during the budget debate saying the Democrats were cutting off the troops pay. Red state La.? Just remember the three pillars of ALL communication, fear, ignorance, and prejudice, personal attributes we all have, and I will continue to try to educate or reason with the fearful, ignorant, and prejudiced(but only on paper, I leave personal conversation before I slap the llving s**t out of _______) love always ron thompson