Louisiana Voice

Sen. Bill Cassidy gets it.

John Kennedy, along with a dozen other senators and senators-elect, apparently does not.

Kennedy, who looks and acts as if he just stepped out of an old Pogo comic strip (or for the younger set, like Sen. Belfry of the Shoe comic strip), insists on bringing more and more embarrassment upon the state by joining with the others to CONTEST the electoral vote count during Wednesday’s joint session of Congress.

We can all vividly recall the Republicans bitching and moaning that Democrats were trying to nullify the results of the 2016 election with the impeachment of Donald Trump. They kept invoking the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump, conveniently ignoring the fact that 65.8 million did not.

Now the shoe is on the other foot and the Repugnantcans are trying to nullify the wishes of 81.2 million who voted to Biden (as opposed to the 74.2 million who voted for Trump).

That’s a double standard by any measure but you’d never know that by listening to Sen. Kornpone, aka Foghorn Leghorn who, every time he opens his mouth, a banal bromide spews forth.

It obviously has never occurred to Kennedy that he took an oath to defend, not undermine, the U.S. Constitution.

It never occurred to him that he is in a unique position to help, not ignore, his constituents. People are hurting, yet he plunges ahead on this doomed mission of fealty to a demagogue.

It never occurred to him that his loyalty should be to his country, not some orange-haired tyrant.

It never occurred to him to let the rule of law, not the petulant whims of a spoiled tweet-master, guide him as his moral compass.

In short, John Neely Kennedy has forgotten where he came from.

He is a former Democrat-turned-Republican for one reason and one reason only. Political philosophy had little to do with his switch; political survival had everything to do with it. He merely shifted with the political winds because that was his meal ticket.

You can bet the farm if the state made a sudden hard turn leftward, he’d be back in the Democrat camp proclaiming that he’d rather drink weed killer than forsake his liberal core beliefs. That’s John N. Kennedy sincerity for you. We call those kinds of political hacks neither RINOs nor DINOs, but chameleons.

If trump peed down his back and told him it was raining, he’d break out his umbrella. But if you tried to reach out to him, you’d get a computer-generated canned response that was neither germane nor useful.

He belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of Goofy.

But today, it was announced that Sen. Dr. Bill Cassidy is among a bipartisan group of 10 senators who are fighting that quixotic effort to overturn the election that Trump lost by 7 million votes.

The 10, which include, besides Louisiana’s senior senator, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney, signed off in a statement that said:

“The 2020 election is over. All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted. At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results. The voters have spoken and Congress must now fulfill its responsibility to certify the election results. In two weeks, we will begin working with our colleagues and the new Administration on bipartisan, common sense solutions to the enormous challenges facing our country. It is time to move forward.”

Maybe Cassidy could take Foghorn to the woodshed for a little man-to-boy talk.

Oh, and while he’s at it, he should take that ass-clown Clay Higgins with him.

Bullet-Head Higgins showed up for an appearance on JIM SCUITTO’S CNN SHOW earlier today and came off looking exactly like the imbecile he is.

Higgins, boasting that he is an “investigator,” (he was the public information officer for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office before he was canned – we aren’t sure what he ever “investigated”), claimed to have “thousands of pages” of evidence of voter fraud but when pressed by Scuitto, was unable to cite a single example. No, not one. nada. zilch.

That’s not unusual for the one Louisiana elected official who has the capability of making John Kennedy look good by comparison.

It truly escapes me how this guy ever got elected. It’s not as if he had a lightweight as an opponent in his initial run for Congress four years ago. He defeated Scott Angelle rather handily. Angelle, a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, had finished a close third in a four-man race for governor in 2015, barely losing a runoff spot to retiring U.S. Sen. David Vitter and had led in the first primary in the congressional race a year later.

But by running on Trump’s coattails in much the same manner as Kennedy did for the Senate, Higgins, who would give a head of cabbage a good run in an IQ test, won by 12 percentage points in the runoff.

Higgins is a guy who went into the race about $100,000 in arrears on his child support payments and was recorded telling his ex-wife that once he got elected, there would be plenty of money laying around for him to get caught up on payments.

Only in Louisiana, folks. Only. In. Louisiana.

If Sen. John “Foghorn Leghorn” Kennedy still insists on joining that cadre of fools bent on CHALLENGING THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS on Wednesday, then the Louisiana Democratic Party needs to immediately launch and all-out effort to recruit a viable candidate to oppose the state’s junior senator in 2022.

If Trump’s Saturday telephone conversation with George Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger isn’t enough to change Kennedy’s mind, then it must be assumed that Kennedy is just as deranged and incompetent as President Tweet Thang.

You can listen to the full hour-long conversation HERE.

Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, who was instrumental in bringing down Richard Nixon nearly half-a-century ago, says the Trump phone call was “far worse” than Watergate. I don’t know about all that; I’m not qualified to judge, although I vividly remember the Watergate story as it unfolded. I was a reporter with the Baton Rouge State-Times during those turbulent days of Watergate.

But I do know Trump’s attempt to coerce Raffensperger was nothing short of outright Mafia-style politics – an outrage that surpasses even that call to the Ukraine president in its sheer audacity and naked intimidation attempt. It was an extension of a coup attempt that has been underway since Joe Biden’s victory.

Kennedy’s fealty to Trump over the past four years was sickening enough without Saturday’s revelation that he planned to join with 10 other senators and senators-elect to oppose the results of the election that Trump lost by more than 7 million votes.

Kennedy, in his four years in office, has done damn little to address the real problems of the country in general and Louisiana in particular. All that was asked of him was that he do his job but he has been a miserable failure at that because of his loyalty to Trump which he obviously considers to be a higher priority than joblessness, housing, health, economic and educational problems facing this state.

Hell, he won’t even provide a direct response if you should be so foolish as to attempt to contact him on an issue – any issue. Instead, you get a canned response generated by a computer, not a person, which as often as not does nothing to address your concerns. How’s that for representation?

And is anyone aware of any town hall meetings he’s held in his four years in office?

He has chosen to turn his back on the state so that he can do his part in propping up a would-be dictator and that, my friends, borders on abject betrayal. To take matters a step further in challenging a democratic election that 50 court decisions (so far) have upheld, is even more serious; it’s sedition – and treasonous.

This country for more than two centuries has been the model of democratic principles. Kennedy’s decision to undermine that process is a threat to that very pillar of freedom of which we have been so justifiably proud – until now.

Kennedy has shown himself to be the shameless sycophant that he is rather than the leader he holds himself out to be. He is little more than a two-bit drugstore philosopher rather than the sage he would have us believe him to be.

Rather than evoking images of Thomas Jefferson, he elicits memories of the political wisdom of Archie Bunker – without the charm.

Instead of standing for freedom and justice for all in the manner of say, Martin Luther King, he is more reminiscent of the politics of a Willie Rainach, Leander Perez or Stephen Miller.

John Kennedy is not a man who represents the true interests of Louisiana. I don’t know who the Democrats might choose to run against him in two years or which independent, if any, might try to unseat him, but I can think of several imminently more-qualified candidates.

Larry the Cable Guy comes to mind immediately.

Too bad he’s not a Louisiana citizen.

In a follow-up to our story of Dec. 24 about that $450,000 judgment against the St. Tammany Parish School Board in the case of the 2007 RAPE of an 11-year-old boy by a custodian at Abney Elementary School in Slidell, LouisianaVoice has learned more disturbing details about how the school board handled the matter.

Apparently, it wasn’t enough that the board offered a paltry settlement that wouldn’t have even cover the medical expenses of the victim, and apparently it wasn’t enough that the board had the insensitivity and the brass to appeal the judgement (which was upheld on appeal), but now we learned that the board:

• Did not follow up with appropriate action (firing) when the background check on Dino Schwertz came back showing that he had lied on his job application when he checked “No” to the question of “Have you ever pleaded guilty or no contest to or been convicted of a criminal offense?”
• Fid not inform his principal when that background check revealed that Schwertz was still on probation for a bank fraud conviction and for violation of a protective order.
• Inexplicably transferred him to a permanent job at Northshore High School.

The vice-principal at Northshore at that time was Frank Jabbia.

He was PROMOTED to St. Tammany Parish School Superintendent last October.

His father, Peter Jabbia, was Deputy Superintendent when Schwertz was first hired at Abney and in June 2020, was appointed interim superintendent until his son was appointed superintendent four months later. He also served as a member of both the Louisiana Association of School Executives and American Association of School Administrators.

Kathleen Katorchis, who was principal at Abney at the time of Schwertz’s hiring, testified in a sworn deposition in the lawsuit cited above that Schwertz’s lying on the employment application would have prompted her to recommend firing him but she was not informed of the background check’s contents. He was eventually fired – months later and only after school officials learned he was being investigated by Slidell police.

So, why didn’t Katorchis know about the results of the background check?

Well, that would be because Deputy Superintendent Peter Jabbia didn’t inform her of the results and the information in the background report was never checked against his application.

The lawsuit by Schwertz’s victim said no one in the school system checked Schwertz’s references or called his current employer for a reference. Attorneys for the school system even argued that none of the information it had about Schwertz (in the background check) would have raised any red flags as to the possibility that he might harm children (and thus, apparently, would not disqualify him from employment).

Would not have raised any red flags? Seriously?

So, why have the question on the application at all, then?

So, Louisiana’s junior U.S. senator is teaming up with that constitutional scholar Tommy Tuberville and nine other senators and senators-elect to challenge Joe Biden’s victory over President Tweet Thang in the November election that the Tweeter-in-Chief lost by more than 7 million votes.

John Neely Kennedy’s decision to embark on this exercise in futility should make his Louisiana constituents very proud. We have a damned fool wasting his time on this B.S. effort to undermine the nation’s democratic process while 350,000 Americans have died of coronavirus (that’s more than half the 675,000 Americans who died in the Spanish Flu pandemic – which lasted more than two years, compared to one year of coronavirus so far).

Instead of trying to learn why the Trump administration fell more than 16 million short of the 20 million who were supposed to receive the vaccinations by Dec. 31, he would rather grandstand, pontificate and spew his homey Foghorn Leghorn banalities as he always does (Name one thing he’s done in four years in the Senate other than run his mouth).

Kennedy is going to spend his time on this fruitless challenge even as we learn of a massive computer hack of our government by Russians.

Kennedy feels this Rudy Giuliani-esque exercise is more important than the bounties paid by Russia to Taliban militants to kill Americans.

Kennedy would rather grandstand and garner face time on network television than take a serious interest in helping millions of Americans – including Louisianans – who are out of work, facing eviction, losing unemployment benefits and going hungry.

Kennedy would prefer to reject the decision of the American people in a democratic election in order to suck up to Trump. Remember when the Republicans (and Trump) were saying IMPEACHMENT was part of an attempt to NULLIFY the 2016 election?

Kennedy would rather stand with Tuberville and nine other crackpots than take his job as senator seriously.

Why do I single out Tuberville over the other nine who are continuing their attempt to thwart the democratic process when 60 – count ‘em, 60 – court challenges of the election have already proved unsuccessful? Kennedy says he wants the legal process to play out. Well, it has, John Boy, it has.

But let’s return to Tuberville.

It’s not like he’s squeaky clean himself. He was just a little too close to JOHN DAVID STROUD for my comfort. I know, that’s guilt by association. But let’s not forget that he was a co-defendant in that fraud LAWSUIT that claimed the two partners mixed clients’ assets with their own, failed to filed tax returns, falsified fund performance reports and “generally disregarded and violated customary practices and procedures followed in the hedge fund and security investments industry.”

Tuberville, the former head football coach at Auburn, was head coach of Texas Tech at the time and by the time he SETTLED the lawsuit, he was head coach at the University of Cincinnati. Looks like somebody has trouble holding a job.

Tuberville claimed that Stroud merely used his name, that he was an investor “just like everyone else” who lost money. But the fact is, he was a 50-50 partner with Stroud in TS Capital Partners – that’s “T” for Tuberville and “S” for Stroud.

Of course, terms of the lawsuit settlement were confidential, as is the trend these days. When Tuberville ran for the Senate in Alabama, his campaign was asked to release the plaintiffs from the settlement’s confidentiality agreement.

The campaign refused to do so. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

But that’s nothing compared to Tuberville’s grasp of basic civics and American history. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank probably had the best take on Tuberville who probably (to paraphrase LBJ on Gerald Ford) played too much football without a helmet (as opposed to Kennedy who talks like he played too much without a cup). But since there is a paywall to The Post, I’ll just borrow a few of Milbank’s examples of the wit and wisdom of Tommy Tuberville:

His dad, for example, “fought…in Europe to free Europe of socialism.” That might be news to Hitler and the Nazis as well as a few million WWII combatants.

In 2000, he told the Alabama Daily News, “Al Gore…was president-elect for 30 days.” He probably should have been, but the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. The actual number of days Gore was president-elect was…0, zero, zilch, nada, nil – as in none.

Of the opioid epidemic, he informs us, “It’s not just opioids now, it’s heroin.”

On health care, he cited the need to “open up” a health-care system “where we have more than one insurance company.” Really? There are 952 health insurance companies in the U.S.

He said he wanted to serve on the Senate “banking finance” committee. Banking and Finance are separate committees and besides, he is ineligible to serve on Banking because Alabama’s senior Republican senator, Richard Shelby, already is on that committee. And speaking of his desire to be a member of the “banking finance” committee, did I mention that fraud business with that hedge fund with John David Stroud? Did I also mention that a lawsuit over the hedge fund (read: Ponzi scheme) resulted in a confidential settlement?

Rural hospitals have closed, he said, “because we don’t have Internet.”

In discussing the “three branches of government,” he named “the House, the Senate and the executive.”

On the Voting Rights Act: “Who’s it going to help?”

On constitutional democracy: “We’d probably get more done with just the president running this country. So, let the Democrats go home.”

On education: “We’re going to educate several generations in this country that really don’t understand this country.”

Looks like he’s got a jump on the rest of us on that last one.

As for John Neely Kennedy: Just shut the hell up and do your damned job.

When Baton Rouge’s Bucky Richardson was raising eyebrows with his outstanding quarterback play at Texas A&M, his then-brother-in-law Charles Dupuy was a regular sight as he barreled west along I-10 at 80-90 mph with his family as they headed to College Station to watch Bucky play – in a Louisiana State Police vehicle assigned to Dupuy.

It was not the last out-of-state pleasure trip for a vehicle assigned to Dupuy, of course.

Bucky played for the Aggies from 1987-1991, so those out-of-state pleasure sojourns to Aggieland in an official state vehicle preceded the infamous 2015 San Diego trip in the vehicle assigned to Dupuy that led to former State Police Commander Mike Edmonson’s departure by several years but may well have established the precedent for using state vehicles for unofficial out-of-state travel.

Dupuy is no longer Bucky’s brother-in-law, having divorced Richardson’s sister, and as of May 2018, he is no longer a Louisiana State Trooper. Following the purge of Mike Edmonson’s inner circle following Edmonson’s own ouster in 2017, he was demoted from the rank of lieutenant colonel to major.

Dupuy, long considered as Edmonson’s heir-apparent before that San Diego trip disrupted those plans, may now be referred to simply as plaintiff.

Dupuy, it seems, is SUING his old employer. He’s not suing for job discrimination or anything like that; he’s suing in connection with an auto accident he had with….a state trooper.

Dupuy is claiming in his lawsuit, filed in 19^th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, that Trooper William Ray Stogner blew a red light and slammed into Dupuy’s 2019 Dodge Ram on LA. 446 near U.S. 190 in Tangipahoa.

Stogner, the lawsuit says, was allegedly responding to a call with his emergency lights activated. But the lawsuit claims that the call to which Stogner was responding did not require emergency sirens and did not allow Stogner to disregard traffic signals or the safety of the public.

Dupuy claims in his lawsuit that the Department of Public Safety “caused and/or contributed to the subject collision due to their negligent hiring, training and/or supervision” of Stogner.

But here’s the thing:

When Dupuy was DEMOTED from Lieutenant colonel to major in March 2017, he was sent to the State Police Academy. His new title was Command Inspector, Training.

He served in that capacity from March 31, 2017, until his retirement on May 7, 2018. He was making $140,800 a year at the time of his retirement.

Stogner? He entered the State Police Academy on Nov. 5, 2017. Academy training lasts from 12 to 18 weeks. He was listed as a cadet from Nov. 5, 2017 until Nov. 11, 2018, because new troopers are on probationary status for their first year.

That means that for the duration of Stogner’s time training at the academy, one Maj. Charles Dupuy was Command Inspector, Training, for the Louisiana State Police Academy.

So, the man who is suing his former employer for negligent training and supervision was himself responsible for Stogner’s training and supervision for the entire time that Stogner attended the academy.

That should make for some interesting cross-examination testimony if this case ever goes to trial.

But unless things have undergone a dramatic change i.e., a complete makeover, in the good ol’ boy network at LSP, this could be one of those cases that is settled quietly, out of the public eye and where settlement terms are deemed “confidential” so that Louisiana taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill will never know settlement amounts or attorney fees.

William Ray Stogner – State Police Cadet:   11/05/2017 – 11/14/2018

Charles Dupuy – Major, State Police Academy, Command Inspector, Training: 03/31/2017 – 05/07/2018