Louisiana Voice

Do U.S. senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy represent the best interests of Louisianans or do they reflect the wishes of Agent Orange, aka El Presidente Trump, aka Supreme Threat to the U.S. Constitution?

For that answer we need only scrutinize their votes for confirmation of Trump nominees.

Let’s begin with one of the more controversial ones to come up for Senate confirmation.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, he of the misuse of social media.You may recall the flap over the use of a personal email server by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to send and receive classified messages. There was an FBI investigation. The final six paragraphs of then FBI director JAMES COMEY’S STATEMENT on that investigation are key.

That’s because Hegseth committed a SIMILAR FAUX PAS not once, but twice within the span of a few weeks. Now, let’s jump back to his Senate confirmation which was approved by the RAZOR -THIN 51-49 VOTE. Cassidy and Kennedy both voted yea. Had they used the information they already had about Hegseth’s drinking and womanizing proclivities to justify nay votes, the vote would have been 49-51. Had just one of them voted no, it would have been a 50-50 tie. Either way, the nomination of the tragically unfit Hegseth would have failed.

Okay, let’s examine another nominee, one Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (no relation to Louisiana’s esteemed Foghorn Leghorn (“Nice, Ah say nice girl, but about as sharp as a sack o’ wet mice.”). It would only have taken nay votes by Cassidy and John Kennedy to negate the 52-48 VOTE for a guy who has vowed to investigate FICTIONAL CHEMTRAILS, those white trails that hang suspended in the wake of military jet aircraft. (They’re fictional because they’re not chemical trails – or trails of toxic chemicals being sprayed on unsuspecting Americans – but contrails, or clouds that form when water vapor condenses and freezes around small particles – aerosols – in aircraft exhausts). This guy will be personally responsible for setting medical research back 50 years or more but Cassidy (a physician, no less) and Kennedy each voted for him.

Remember Kristi Noem, former governor of South Dakota who infamously admitted to shooting a dog because it wouldn’t hunt? Well, she’s now our SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY, thanks to a 59-34 Senate vote. Two of those yea votes came from Cassidy and Kennedy.

And then there’s Tulsi Gabbard, who was confirmed by another close VOTE OF 52-48, despite that mysterious 2017 TRIP TO SYRIA where she met with then-President Bashar al-Assad who, since the overthrow of his corrupt government, hightailed it to safe haven in Russia. Details of her meeting with the tyrant president have never been revealed. Had our two senators but changed their votes from yea to nay, her nomination to this ultra-sensitive position would have been thwarted.

Another nominee who has proven to be more than a little controversial is Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bodi. She was approved with a MORE COMFORTABLE MARGIN OF 54-46, partly on the support of Louisiana’s two senators, who both voted to confirm. To date, she has used the Justice Department to go after universities, attorneys and foreign nationals (with legal residence status) who had the temerity to protest U.S. foreign policy (a right our U.S. Constitution supposedly guarantees, but one which the Trump administration chooses to ignore).

Then there is Linda McMahon, nominated with the express intent of dismantling the agency she was chosen to head (U.S. Department of Education). McMahon’s single qualification for presiding over education is her experience as a professional wrestling promoter (Hulk Hogan, Haystack McCall, Andre the Giant, et al come to mind as ambassadors of this gentlemanly sport, definitely not fixed). Approved by a SENATE VOTE OF 51-45, she has since, under orders from Trump, no doubt, informed Harvard that billions of dollars in federal research grants would not be forthcoming unless Harvard ceased its DEI appointments. This from an administration that bases its entire existence on its own version of DEI, a word Trump can’t spell even if you spot him the D and the E. No problem for Cassidy and John Kennedy, though, who each fell all over themselves in their eagerness to vote yea on McMahon’s appointment.

And as Trump Lapdog in Chief, there’s KASH PATEL, Trump’s nominee for FBI director – a rather odd choice given that Patel, as a major apologist for Agent Orange, has been loudly critical of the FBI as an agent of the so-called “Deep State.” No matter. Patel managed to suck up to Trump by writing a children’s book titled The Plot Against the King, described as “featuring a thinly-veiled Hillary Clinton as the villain going after ‘King Donald’” with Kash playing a wizard who manages to frustrate her plans. Talk about lap dogs…Of course, Cassidy and Kennedy both fell in line and voted thumbs-up on this ultimate lickspittle.

And then there are Lee Zeldin, now head of EPA, THANKS TO A 56-42 SENATE VOTE. (It didn’t take long for the EPA, under his leadership, to launch the MOST EXENSIVE DEREGULATORY ACTION in U.S. history) and former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was approved by a 53-45 vote to be ADMINISTRATOR OF THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION despite revelations that as a new senator back in early 2020, she sold $20 million in stock following a briefing in the weeks leading up to the coronavirus pandemic. Although she was eventually cleared of insider training, the stench of those charges remained. Naturally, Cassidy and Kennedy could be counted on by Trump to obediently toe the line and vote yea for both Zeldin and Loeffler.

Do you see a trend here? Can you see both Cassidy and Kennedy blindly following Republican Party directives and voting for anything – and anyone – their master Trump wants? Can you detect a definitive inclination to do whatever ringmaster Trump commands, benefits to the people of Louisiana be damned?

Ask yourself if you can ever count on these two when the chips are on the table to cast their lot with the people they represent or the party to which they are obviously beholden.

I think, in your heart of hearts, you know the answer.