Louisiana Voice

Little over a week ago, I wrote about a campaign flyer I’d received in the mail attacking the bona fides of judicial candidate Colt Fore by hinting that he was a closet Democrat by virtue of his 2016 contribution to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

I more or less defended Fore – not because of his political affiliations, but because of the attacks on those affiliations by his opponent for the 21^st Judicial District judgeship, William Dykes.

The 21^st JDC encompasses the parishes of Livingston, St. Helena and Tangipahoa.

But today, I received a flyer from Fore in the mail.

First, a little background which I alluded to in my POST of Oct. 7:

Fore is an attorney for a Denham Springs law firm. Several years ago, one of his partners was the legal counsel for the City of Denham Springs. When a controversy involving the police department arose, a Baton Rouge television station showed up to shoot video of the proceedings.

The attorney promptly informed the TV crew that video cameras were not allowed in the meeting – contrary to the Louisiana Open Meetings statute.

Even though I have no skin in the game when it comes to TV news, I chimed with my two cents by pointing out the law which says photography of proceedings which occur in open meeting certainly do permit TV cameras.

With a smirk that I can still see in my mind’s eye, the all-knowing attorney said, “The law doesn’t specifically say TV cameras,” as if that mattered. The law doesn’t cite salad forks as the weapon of choice in order that a murder be classified as a murder, either, but it’s still murder.

Bottom line: I detest lawyers who parse words and twist the meaning of laws for their own purposes or to advance an agenda.

So, today I received a mailer from Mr. Fore that proclaims him to be “the true conservative for district court judge.”

Among the attributes he lists on his flyer:

• Registered Republican at 18 years old.
• Supports President Trump’s initiatives to strengthen and safeguard our country.
• Upholds conservative values (Christian faith, 2^nd Amendment gun rights, fight for innocent victims, opposes liberal agendas.).

On the flip side of the flyer, paid for by “Committee to Elect Colt Fore Judge,” is the obligatory attack on his opponent, to wit:

“Opponent William Dykes is a (gasp!) Democrat in disguise!”

It goes on inform us:

• He is from St. Helena Parish (whatever significance that is supposed to hold).
• He is a registered Democrat who has remained in the Democratic Party for more than 20 years!
• Don’t be fooled by a LIBERAL POLITICIAN. (all emphasis Fore’s)
• He even continued to align with the national Democratic Parity during Barack Obama’s presidency – the most liberal administration ever!

Just as a reminder here, we’re talking about a judge’s race, so why all the superfluous crap about Republican-Democrat, conservative-liberal, 2^nd Amendment, liberal, and Trump?

I don’t know either man, never met either one, but both have managed to offend me deeply so I probably will just skip over this part of the ballot.

Judges are supposed to transcend political agendas, liberal or conservative rhetoric, party labels and political alliances. These two have fallen short on each point.

The single overriding fact in a judicial race is I don’t give a damn about your personal philosophy because it’s got nothing to do – or at least, it should have nothing to do – with applying the law as it is written in the Louisiana Revised Statutes. It should never be about some judge’s hackneyed feelings on a given issue.

I don’t want to stand before a judge who I know to be diametrically opposed to everything I represent; how can I hope to get a fair shake out of him if he a professed Trumper and I’m a recovering Republican i.e., a Democrat?

How can I expect justice, no matter how firmly the law comes down on my side if I’m of a liberal bent and the judge is such a proud conservative as to advertise such in his mailers?

If I am a proponent of some form of sensible gun control (such as limiting access to assault weapons) how can I realistically expect justice to prevail if the judge boasts of his unconditional support of the 2^nd Amendment?

What if I’m assaulted by some hairbrained militia Trump poll watcher when I go to vote on Nov. 3? Can I expect a sympathetic hearing if the judge is still pissed at Trump’s losing the election?

All these are hypotheticals, of course, but try placing yourself in front of a judge who is a vocal advocate in his campaign literature of everything you oppose. Put my personal preferences aside and substitute your own and imagine such a hostile judge. Can you have any reasonable expectation of justice? Or should you anticipate a decision based on the judge’s personal political tenets?

So, please, judicial candidates: Cease your damned grandstanding and tell us your passion is administering fair and equal justice to all – blacks, browns, whites, gays, straights, male, female, young, old, rich or poor. That’s what we want to know about a judge – not some self-serving, brand of personal philosophy that’s not worth (in the immortal words of former Vice President John Nance Garner) a warm bucket of spit.

In other words, put impartial jurisprudence ahead of politics.

“[I]t does approach that kind of cult behavior — including the MAGA hats and the willingness to expose themselves to a lethal pathogen — because loyalty to the cult leader requires it. And his grandiosity is now . . . to the point where there is a sense that he is immortal or invulnerable or invincible. He could conquer the virus by being this Superman-great leader. Now he’s on dexamethasone, which is a steroid known to produce euphoria and grandiosity and psychosis as a side effect for some patients. If you have a tendency in that direction in the first place, it probably doesn’t help. But, yes, it’s become more florid, certainly. as time has gone by. And then, of course, the incitements to violence and the paranoia have similarly become more explicit — more frequent. And now, he is retrieving wilder and wilder conspiracy theories and obsessing with particular enemies. So I would say that you can’t really know his mental status without a direct examination, but what we see of his mental status looks more floridly disturbed as time has gone by.”—Dr. Judith Herman, co-founder of the Victims of Violence Program and psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, warning about Donald Trump’s mental health.

“I’m about the best thing that has ever happened to Puerto Rico.  You better vote for me Puerto Rico.”—Donald Trump, announcing the release of $13 billion to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electric grid and repair schools exactly three years after he tossed those rolls of paper towels at Puerto Rican crowds following the second of two major hurricanes devastated the island. [Uh, you do know, don’t you, Mr. Genius, that Puerto Rico does not vote in presidential elections? But you’re right about one thing: it is surrounded by water, lots of water, wet water.]

“So many of Trump’s supporters look like extras from Deliverance!—Tweet by Glyn Sanders. [I thought I heard banjos.]

“Be not afraid of the accusations that you’re a voter suppressor, you’re a racist and so forth.”—J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, in describing mail-in voting as “the number-one left-wing agenda.” [Oh, I don’t think the Republicans have ever been afraid of such accusations; they’re rather proud of the fact.]

NOT A TRUMP QUOTE, but it should be (with apologies to Cavin & Hobbes):

TRUMP: I’m a genius, but I’m a misunderstood genius.
BARR: What’s misunderstood about you?
TRUMP: Nobody thinks I’m a genius.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?
                                    –Signs (Five Man Electrical Band)?

I know, I know. The stealing of political signs is nothing new. It’s been a number-one pastime of election season as long as there’ve been election seasons.

But when a sitting mayor orders the thefts – and storage of the pilfered signs in a municipal warehouse – and it isn’t even his race…well, that’s just…Louisiana politics and the kind of nonsense that makes Louisiana a laughingstock.

Richie Sanderson is one of those challenging incumbent Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta in his bid for a third term as the representative from the PSC’s First District.

And thanks to Harahan Mayor Tim Baudier, Sanderson is having a pretty hard time keeping a fresh supply of yard signs because they just keep disappearing as fast as he can place them.

And it’s not just Baudier. Recently, a woman was spotted removing a sign from private property and when confronted by Sanderson’s people, she claimed she was the property owner and that the signs were placed without her permission.

She threatened Sanderson’s workers with trespassing.

The only problem was she wasn’t the property owner. In fact, she was the Skrmetta’s wife and Sanderson obtained an affidavit from the property owner attesting to the fact that he authorized the sign to be placed on his property.

So, who’s trespassing now, Mrs. Skrmetta?

But the real kicker to this entire sordid affair is that Sanderson’s team watched a city worker remove one of Sanderson’s signs and confronted him. The entire exchange is captured on this VIDEO.

This hapless city worker acknowledged that he had been ordered by Baudier to remove the signs and to transport them to a municipal warehouse for storage. The exchange takes on comical overtones as the desperate worker keeps trying to walk away from the interview, obviously uncomfortable with the position he’s been placed in.

LouisianaVoice attempted to contact Baudier for comment today, but those efforts were unsuccessful. Apparently, he isn’t too eager to talk about the signs but is pretty irate about the video of the city worker’s interview.

There’s another angle to the sign story: Sanderson, understandably angry over the theft of his signs (they do cost money, you know), had the foresight to place digital trackers on the signs (what a difference the electronic age has made in our lives) and was able to trace them as they made their way to three different storage sites.

Harahan police are now involved in the drama, so a lid has effectively been placed on any additional information about the ongoing investigation. But one has to wonder how much clout Mayor Baudier has over the police department and if he could in any way hamper the investigation at least until after the Nov. 3 election.

The answers would appear to be none and no as the police chief of Harahan is an elective office and Chief Tim Walker is not politically beholden to Baudier for his job.

One other note of interest:

In yesterday’s POST, LouisianaVoice noted that suspended attorney Scott McQuaig, who was previously contracted by the PSC as an outside legal counsel, was on today’s agenda to be hired to a $49,550 contract as an “outside consultant” to advise the PSC on cybersecurity.

We thought perhaps yesterday’s story might actually shame the PSC into at least tabling that matter since on the face of it, his previous contracts looked a little to cozy being, as it was, he was and is a pal and business partner of Skrmetta and given the fact he was only recently suspended from practice by the Louisiana Supreme Court (May 2019).

But noooo. McQuaig was their boy, suspension and all. The Good Old Boy Backscratching Express was too far down the tracks to throw on the brakes. Give him that contract, keep stealing those signs.

I mean, what’s the big deal about screwing over constituents with their own tax money? This is Louisiana, after all.

“Judge Barrett has been called so far a racist, a colonialist, a religious bigot.”

—U.S. Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-LA), at Monday’s confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

“Who said that?”

—A reporter, in response to Kennedy’s claim. [No one had.]

“I’m not going to argue with you guys. Some of my colleagues suggest because she’s a Christian, she’s unfit to serve in public service.”

—Kennedy.

“Seriously, can you name one of your colleagues who has attacked Judge Barrett?”

—Reporters, pressing Kennedy to name names.

“I don’t want to go there.”

—Kennedy, finally admitting he was referring to three-year-old remarks. [Louisiana should be so proud; we have Clay Higgins in the House and this buffoon in the Senate.

“I mean, that would be outrageous if they do that. In fact, that might actually come back to backfire on them. I hope they don’t do that, ’cause that would be kind of playing a game that we don’t want to play. So, I hope they reconsider that, if, in fact, they are indeed considering that.”

—Dr. Anthony Fauci, critical of Trump again using his quote or image in a Trump ad.

“They are indeed Dr. Fauci’s own words.”

—Trump, defending the use of a quote by Dr. Fauci taken out of context to make it appear he was endorsing Trump’s coronavirus response. [Yes, they were his words, Numb Nuts, but they were not said in praise of you. A one-cell amoeba would know the difference.]

“The House passed a bill in May and this Senate went on vacation. If you want to call yourself a leader … you got to get things done and those of us who served in the Marines, we don’t just point fingers at the other side. We get the job done.”

—Challenger Amy McGrath, during debate with incumbent Mitch McConnell – as McConnell laughed.

“There’s people I associate with and talk to and may even socialize with, but they don’t know how I feel about social issues. I don’t talk about it, because it’s not welcome. “Personally, I’m scared. They’re flying Confederate flags, calling you ugly things. They’re very comfortable with that now; either way it’s not going to go well.”

—Bonnie Dobson, a black mother of three in North Carolina. […and that’s just the way Trump and Lindsey Graham planned it.]

“To those who knew him, no words were necessary. To those who didn’t know him, no words are adequate.”

—Johnny Bench, on former Reds second baseman Joe Morgan, who died on Monday.