Louisiana Voice

John Neely Kennedy, aka Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie, has gotten a lot of national publicity over his latest reelection ad in which he admonishes those who hate cops to “CALL A CRACKHEAD” the next time they’re in trouble.

And national publicity is exactly what he was shooting for. It was, especially with the not-so-subtle racist overtones, vintage Kennedy.

Louisiana’s answer to Foghorn Leghorn – “Son, Ah say, son, You ‘bout as useless as taste buds on a butthole” – is a throwback to Earl Long, but without the charm or the good looks. He is convinced (and he’s probably correct, given the collective depth of political perception of the average Louisiana voter) that the more homilies he can throw out, the more votes he will capture.

On President Biden’s announced intention of nominating a black woman to succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, Jed Clampett, er Kennedy opined that he’d prefer a nominee “who knows a law book from a J. CREW CATALOG.”

Clever, Gomer, er Kennedy. Except when once used, you don’t keep coming back with the same line – or even a variation of it – like your earlier line which substituted L.L. Bean for L. Crew. I should know; it’s why I quit stand-up at a local comedy club. After years there, everyone in Baton Rouge had heard my joke.

And let’s not forget his opposition to all things that reek of socialism. Things like public roads and bridges, police and fire protection, water and sewer systems, public stadiums where rich athletes play, public schools, public libraries, recreation programs where your kids or grandkids play organized sports, zoos, social security, Medicare, FEMA, and the VA. And before any of you start confusing socialism with communism (they’re two entirely different philosophies), answer one question for me: what did you do with your stimulus checks you received during the pandemic? If you sent them back, you are free to criticize; If you cashed them, do not pass Go on this board game.

But what really puzzles me is why Kennedy, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, and other fringe lunatic Republicans are so down on wokeness.

• Aren’t they the ones who insist that we “Don’t say gay”?
• Aren’t they the ones who insist that “offensive” books be removed, or at least relocated, in our public libraries?
• Aren’t they the ones who substituted “All Lives Matter” for “Black Lives Matter”?
• Aren’t they the ones who bitch and moan every time someone suggests a ban on assault weapons so there won’t be so many school children slaughtered?
• Aren’t they the ones who are scared to death of those hordes of murderers and rapists flooding our southern border?
• Aren’t they the ones stripping away women’s right of choice?
• Aren’t they the ones terrified of minority voting rights?

It doesn’t get any wokier than that.

Kennedy boasts in his ads that he was cited as one of the “10 most effective Republican senators in the 117^th Congress. Well, considering the competition, that designation is no great shakes.

There’s Rick Scott who, as CEO of Health Management Associates, agreed to pay a fine of $260 million for Medicare/Medicaid fraud; Ted “Cancun” Cruz, “Lapdog” Lindsey Graham, Josh “Watch Me Run” Hawley, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, and Tommy Tuberville, just to name a few of the contenders.

“All great libraries have something that will offend everyone.”

–Seen Friday on a Tee-shirt while shopping in Denham Springs.

Has anyone else noticed that the Special House Committee to Inquire into the Circumstances and Investigation of the Death of Ronald Greene hasn’t seemed to be in any particular hurry to move forward with its “investigation” in the past few months?

You’d think that if the committee has completed its work, it would have issued a report of its findings by now. Otherwise, what was the point of its creation unless it was to placate Greene’s family? If it has not finished its investigation, you might expect the committee to expand its probe into claims by a Louisiana State Police (LSP) detective who said he was targeted by superiors after he refused to take part in what he termed a “coverup” of Greene’s death at the hands of state troopers.

It’s been more than three years since Greene’s death, originally attributed to injuries suffered in a minor automobile crash but later revealed by video footage to have been a homicide. Only now do we learn from 3^rd JDC District Attorney John Belton that the case will go before a GRAND JURY by the end of the year.

Belton is district attorney for the parishes of Lincoln and Union. Greene’s death occurred in Union in May 2019.

Greene’s death has attracted almost as much national media attention as the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020, almost exactly a year after Greene’s death.

The beating and tasing death of Greene was the latest of a string of incidents involving state police, supposedly Louisiana’s elite law enforcement agency but one that could well be headed towards a federal consent decree if it continues to exhibit an unwillingness to correct its many problems which have included beatings of other black motorists, particularly in northeast Louisiana’s Troop F, an academy cheating scandal, sexual escapades by troopers, and payroll fraud.

That special House committee put its hearings on hold at the end of the 2022 legislative session. Committee member Rep. Edmond Jordan (D-Baton Rouge) said the committee planned to meet again but as yet…silence.

Belton was put into something of a legal bind when federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Louisiana’s Western District asked that he wait for the conclusion of their investigation before initiating state charges.

But in the end, federal prosecutors punted and turned over their files to Belton. That’s after LSP stalled and covered up and now after the House special committee is beginning to display reluctance to pursue the matter further.

LSP’s big ANNOUNCEMENT today that it has been accepted into the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project would almost seem as a defensive tactic to deflect attention from its multiple missteps over the past several years.

LSU and the Saints should be able to play defense so skillfully.

In an effort not to sound too much like TFG, aka 45, aka Don of Orange, who is never shy about sending out 20 or so emails per day, every day, Sundays included, begging for money, LouisianaVoice restricts its efforts to just twice a year – April and October. It’s October, so I remind you that we humbly solicit and need your support to do what we do here.

And what we do is to try and shine a light on the fakers, con-men, and political parasites who do not care about your concerns about health care, education, unemployment, inflation, environment, voting rights, women’s rights, and civil rights – but do care a lot about one thing and one thing only: remaining in office.

Incumbents become confortable in their positions and little by little, lose all connections to their constituents. Our job is to make them uncomfortable, if only a little bit. Even the most well-meaning officer holder can become complacent. We try to remind them that their first obligation is to the folks back home, not their reelection campaign.

To do that, we need your help. Please click on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post and contribute by credit card or send your check to: Tom Aswell, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

We promise not to become complacent in our mission.

So, Jeff Landry has made it official: he is an announced candidate for governor in 2023. It was the worst-kept secret in the state and yesterday’s formal announcement just made it official.

And while the gubernatorial race is certain to dominate the news cycle for Louisiana media in the coming months, it’s important to remember that his candidacy will leave a vacancy for what is arguably the second-most-important state office: attorney general.

Enter Liz Murrill.

Landry, as attorney general, had a standing rule that any employee of the AG’s office who run for political office must resign or take unpaid leave.

For Murrill, Landry made an exception a year ago and she filed paperwork to run for attorney general provided her boss didn’t run for reelection.

Murrill is a holdover from the BOBBY JINDAL ADMINISTRATION, working as his Deputy Executive Counsel for 2½ years before being elevated to Executive Counsel. When Christy Nichols was named as Jindal’s commissioner of administration, she brought Murrill over as her executive counsel.

It was in that position that she became embroiled in debate with legislators in 2014 over Jindal’s plan to radically change Office of Group Benefits (OGB) health coverage for state employees and retirees – after Jindal had reduced OGB’s $600 million operating surplus to only a memory.

OGB members testified before the House Appropriations Committee that dramatic increases in co-pays in their health care plans could cause their health benefits to exceed their monthly state pensions.

Murrill, took issue with a legal opinion from Landry’s predecessor, Buddy Caldwell, which insisted that the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) mandated public comment and legislative review before policy changes could be implemented. She insisted that public comment and legislative review were not required.

Murrill, who serves as Landry’s solicitor general, last January ARGUED to the US Supreme Court in opposition to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates – remotely, because at the time she had tested positive for COVID.

Way back in 2009, while in the employ of Jindal, she became involved in a RUNNING DISPUTE with LouisianaVoice over the release of public records related to the LSU Board of Supervisors’ decision to cut health care spending and to privatize state hospitals. Attorney Shelby McKenzie, retained by LSU, said he was advised by Murrill had advised him that the board should invoke the so-called “deliberative process” in order to deny release of the records.

Jindal consistently hid behind the deliberative process as a method to shield the operations of the governor’s office from public scrutiny.

But it’s interesting to note that McKenzie at the time was an attorney with the Baton Rouge firm of Taylor Porter. Another member, a partner, in fact, was John P. Murrill, who served on the firm’s Executive Committee.

He is married to Liz Murrill.

Taylor Porter has dozens of contracts with the State of Louisiana totaling millions of dollars. Contracts with law firms are traditionally issued by the attorney general’s office with the concurrence of the agency to be represented.

Ethically, there is no violation of the AG’s office issuing contracts to the firm. State law prohibits any person holding at least a 25 percent ownership in an entity from doing business with an agency that employs an immediate family member of the vendor. John Murrill does not hole a 25 percent stake in Taylor Porter but perceptions being what they are, the relationship does not have a good look.

If she is elected, she would take a significant PAY CUT. She currently pulls down $223,366 per year, which is about $72,100 more than her boss’s current $151,275 salary. Both make more than the $130,000 Gov. John Bel Edwards makes.

But if she and Landry are both elected to the respective offices they seek, we’re going to have a Republican legislature, a Republican governor, and a Republican attorney general.

Imagine the carnage that combination, working in tandem, could inflict on Louisiana and the rights of its citizenry.