Liberty and Justice for All!

On my lunch break I called into the Spud show on WWL. Clancy Dubos was on discussing the LA01 race and I decided to call in and add my $0.02. This is when I came up for my new term for the socially conservative springboard from which the three Republican candidates for this election are coming from. From Steve Scalise and his push to ban gay marriages (and gay civil unions) in our state, to Tim Burns plastering his name all over the radio as having a 100% pro-life record, to Ben Morris and his website where he also discusses how he loves “family values” and wants to defend our Judeo-Christian heritage (as if Ben Morris really respected Jews when he supported the lone picture of Jesus in the Slidell courthouse), all of these candidates are basically trying to stand up and proclaim who loves embryos and hates homosexuals more.

So I call in and ask when the LA01 voters are going to stop voting against their best interests. Sure, the three Republican candidates are showing that they are gay hating embryo lovers. However, the family values track has not shown a very good record in LA01. First you have Bob Livingston (who is backing Steve Scalise), whose family values included having an affair. Then you have David “Vitty-Cent” Vitter, whose family values included sins with prostitutes while married. Then you have PBJ, who ran for governor on an ethics package and is now has an ethics investigation no less than 1 month into his term. Finally, all three Republican candidates for Congress won their respective 2007 elections and will not be able to perform their jobs to their best ability because they will be focused on their new campaigns. So again, you have three candidates who are worried about their own gains and ignore the needs of their constituents. It also seems to me that collecting a paycheck for a job you are not doing is not very ethical or fiscally conservative. I guess that point is lost on the voters who happen to be GHEL as well.

Of course, Clancy’s response was pretty much a comment on how Democrats also do the same thing so I should be careful what I wish for. Well, I wish that all politicians (Democrat and Republican) follow the same set of rules and that includes committing to complete the term you are elected to and if you cannot, resign immediately. I hold Democrats to the same standards that I do Republicans.

There is also the issue that Louisiana tends to “zig” when the rest of the country “zags” politically. I brought up the idea that perhaps with a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President that it might benefit Louisiana to have more Democratic representatives. Again, Clancy said that I should be careful what I wish for because when the country went to the right and elected Bush and a Republican Congress, we elected Blanco and Landrieu. And if Clancy was trying to point out Louisiana’s folly in those choices at the time, well, perhaps it is time to learn from past folly and now that America is “zigging”, perhaps we should continue to “zig”  as well! That would require us to reelect Mary Landrieu later this year and to perhaps replace the obstructionist Republicans with Democrats who can get the job done for Louisiana.