Flyers mailed to voters in Southwest Louisiana by the Landry for Louisiana campaign as well as robocalls generated by a super PAC are attempting to link U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, to conservatives’ ultimate bogyman: President Barack Obama.
Landry is attempting in the waning days of the campaign to make hay out of the Boustany campaign’s dealings with the unscrupulous folks behind United Ballot, a “voters guide” for major elections distributed in north Lafayette. United Ballot targets the black community and almost uniformly promotes Democrats and Democratic issues, but it is also evidently a pay-for-play arrangement in which a candidate can buy his way onto United Ballot. Leading into the Nov. 6 primary in a clear effort to gain support among black voters, Boustany appears to have done just that, appearing on United Ballot as the recommended candidate in the 3rd Congressional District race alongside United Ballot’s recommendation for president — Obama, whose first name was spelled incorrectly — along with other Dems. The guide also made recommendations on the constitutional amendments including, egad!, voting against the all-hat-no-horse “2nd Amendment” amendment strengthening gun ownership rights.
According to the flyer mailed by Landry for Louisiana (see the flyer in the video above, which contains the audio from the Liberty For All robocall), local Dem Mike Stagg reported on KPEL radio that Boustany’s campaign paid $35,000 to get his name on United Ballot. It’s worth noting that United Ballot endorsed Boustany, a conservative Republican, over Ron Richard, the Lake Charles Democrat who ran a tepid third in the primary.
The Landry for Louisiana flyer characterizes United Ballot as “an ongoing investigative complaint at the Federal Election Commission,” which is a lawyerly way of saying, “We’ve been bitching about it to the FEC!” The flyer further claims that Boustany’s campaign manager, John Porter, created an LLC that “funneled $35,000” to the United Ballot folks. (We have our suspicions about who is behind United Ballot, namely a former Lafayette City-Parish Councilman whose name rhymes with Wiss Chrilliams.) In effect, Landry argues that the United Ballot was campaign material for Boustany and should have had the FEC-required disclaimer identifying it as such.
The flyer, which makes reference to the “pro-Obama/Boustany ticket” and the “United Obama-Boustany ballot,” shouts desperation as the candidates near the finish line with Saturday’s runoff election. What has many in Lafayette incensed, as we’ve detected on Facebook and elsewhere, is a new Landry television commercial which plays a snippet of Boustany speaking with Arabic subtitles, suggesting in a slimy way that ... Boustany is Muslim? A terrorist? A Kenyan-Muslim liberal terrorist? Frankly, we’re not sure.
The Liberty For All robocall, in which the speaker mispronounces Boustany’s name repeatedly, hits the “fake Republican” refrain and also links Boustany to Obama:
Hi, this is Chris Cooper with Liberty For All super PAC. This weekend the Cajun conservative exposed that Charles Boustany decided to run for re-election on Barack Obama’s big government ticket in the hope of gaining votes. In this Saturday’s special election, conservatives like us have to decide if Charles Boustany is a fighter like he claims or just another fake Republican whose only concern is staying in office. Louisiana conservatives won’t be footed. This Saturday vote “no” on big government Charles Boustany. Paid for by Liberty For All super PAC, PAC Liberty.com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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JUNE 18 Former broadcast journalist Griffin Scott has posted this plea on his blog for financial assistance from his readers. Scott, who says he was fired after he wrote something fairly innocuous (for Facebook) on his wall, is suing a media giant for his job back. He's framed himself as David going after a bloated media giant, and he's probably not far off.
JUNE 18 Here's a fairly absurd column posted on DIG Magazine about the completely absurd practice of naming killer storms. Tornadoes don't have names. Blizzards don't have names. But hurricanes do, and there's a big process to bestow them, Jacques Cormery writes. He's right about the crazy assemblage of names -- this year, there's everything from Tanya to Humberto -- and his idea that we don't waste good names on killer storms is a good one.
JUNE 17 Political columnist John Maginnis has some advice for Louisiana Republicans: grow up. After the schism that occurred in this past session - fiscal hawks teaming up with Democrats to spank the Republican "majority" and hand Gov. Jindal his, er, aspirations for continued solon control -- they need to figure out how to get along with each other, Maginnis writes.
JUNE 17 Here's the Picayune's obit story for Dorothy 'Miss Dot' Domilise, the lady who made poboys at the uptown restaurant that bears her name. Miss Dot moved to New Orleans during World War II, where she met and married her husband Sam. When she passed away Friday she was 90, and had spent more than 60 of those years working at the restaurant on Annunciation Street.
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JUNE 18 Here's a post from Manny Schewitz on Forward Progressives that is good for a chuckle. Manny had an epiphany back in November, and is sharing it with us today: he believes that Fox "News" is killing the GOP by pandering to right wing nuts. Now, don't get it twisted: Manny's not broke up about it. He says he enjoys watching the downward spiral with a shot of whiskey and "a schadenfreude chaser."
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