Liberty and Justice for All!

That is an old quote from The Gipper himself, Ronald Reagan. And the Louisiana Republicans have dusted that old tired line out to try and convince current Democrats to turn over a new leaf (just like John N. Kennedy did).

Of course there is probably some truth Reagan’s statement. See, the Democratic Party stopped being the party that used the mantra of “states rights” in order to keep black people as second class citizens and started to become the party that fought for civil rights legislation, equality, and liberty.

Reagan, on the other hand, announced the official start to his campaign in Neshoba County Mississippi, the site where three black civil rights activists were murdered in 1964. Reagan campaigned on the “states rights” platform and utilized the “southern strategy” to attract the racists who also felt that the Democratic Party left them too. Since Reagan felt that the place where three black civil rights activists were murdered was the best way to start off his “states rights” campaign then sure, the Democratic Party left him behind … in the dust.
You can see the front and back of the flier (or should I say f-liar) my wife received in the mail today.

Not only does the f-liar have a picture of the Gipper, but it also has one of the Governor himself. It asks Democrats to “join Bobby Jindal in the Republican Party”.

Most noticeable are the prominent Democrats that are pictured on the f-liar. You have Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Kathleen Blanco and everyone’s favorite Bill Jefferson. Absent is Mary Landrieu (who is likely to win re-election), Mitch Landrieu (who got more votes that Jindal statewide) and other Louisiana Democrats who tend to be a tad bit more Conservative on the issues than those pictured (with the exception of pro-life Blanco whose only difference with Jindal on the pro-life stance is that she has a heart and would allow exceptions for rape and the life of the woman).

The f-liar says what “Democrats Believe In”.

The first lie is that we believe in no new oil exploration. Well, there are 10,000 oil leases that are not being drilled on yet. Seems to me that the Democrats would not have allowed those leases to be opened if they are opposed to new drilling.

The next lie is that Democrats support Amnesty for illegal aliens. The truth is that Democrats in Congress supported a plan that would require any person here illegally to get back in the line and pay a fine for their crime before ever getting a chance at citizenship. Forcing someone to pay a fine does not sound like amnesty to me. Of course, the Louisiana Republican Party and Florist Gump himself forgets that Republicans don’t want illegal immigration to go away because that would mean their corporate buddies would have to hire people at the minimum wage. I would also point out that the plan Democrats supported was called the ________ - Kennedy Fair Plan. Anyone? Anyone? The McCain – Kennedy Fair plan. So if this plan is so called “amnesty” then I guess anyone who supports McCain wants “amnesty” too!

The next lie is that Democrats support tax increases on the middle class. This is, again, untrue. Democrats support eliminating the bush tax cuts for people making $200,000 and above. In fact, here is Obama’s tax plan.You can plainly see that he wouldn’t increase taxes on the middle class.

In fact, when I campaigned for Congress in 2004 I proposed that we give a housing tax credit to everyone and not require it be itemized. Obama supports:

establishing a universal credit for the 10 million homeowners who do not itemize their deductions

Good to see someone else agrees with me. 

They tell the truth about Government run health care. Democrats do support that. Of course, if you want to look at failures in Government run healthcare you only need to look at the tenure of Bobby Jindal and his time as head of the Louisiana Department of Health. During his “leadership”, Louisiana’s health ranking dropped to dead last. But that is just typical of Republicans. They cry about how awful government is and then spend their entire political careers proving it

The f-liar asks “what do you have in common with these Democrats”? Well, if I had to make a flier of my own, it would probably look like this. (Well, actually I would spend a lot more time on it, not do it in paint, and not base it off the old one, but you get the point).

Anyway, it sure seems that the Republicans are scared that they won’t be able to get John “the liberal candidate in the 2004 Senate race” Kennedy to beat Landrieu. I am happy my wife got the f-liar. It was good for a laugh and it is good to see the Republicans wasting money on that garbage.

You might say: “Say what? I just read CNN and they said that there are no Republican Superdelegates!”. Well, when it boils down to the abilities of what superdelegates can do, CNN and many other people are wrong. Superdelegates are people who are not required to vote for any particular candidate and are free to, regardless of how the people vote within the primaries, choose whoever they want for president. This is not something unique to the Democratic Party.

Take, for example, the Republican delegates from Louisiana. Even if Huckabee got 50% + 1 of the votes in the primary, he would have only been awarded 20 pledged Louisiana delegates. The other 27 would have been “unpledged” and could have voted for whoever they wanted to. However, Huckabee only got a plurality of the votes. So all of Louisiana’s Republican delegates were unpledged, until this weekend. Now, McCain has gotten 32 of the 47 Delegates from Louisiana. So the argument that only Democrats have a mechanism that can go against the will of the voters is false. So far, Louisiana has proved that our Republicans are more than willing to go against the will of their people.

So you might say: “But Dan, those delegates are still elected. Superdelegates are appointed because of their position, that is why CNN and others are telling the truth, right?” Wrong. The chairman of the Louisiana Republican party (Roger “florist gump” Villere, national committeeman and national committee woman are not elected delegates and they are always unpledged. So there you have it, Republican superdelegates… or as some would say, a rose by another name. Although, the smell isn’t quite the same.

Listening to 99.5 FM this afternoon, Garey Forester stated that Governor Jindal hired Roger “Florist Gump” Villere to a position within his administration. While I lack the specifics, this leads me to a couple questions.

A) What happened to the hiring freeze?

B) Will the head of the Louisiana Republican party remain as the head of the party while working for Louisiana government? I’m sure leading the head of a state party is a very time consuming job. How much work will Florist Gump be able to get done for our state?

C) What happened to the “what you know” vs. “who you know” idea that Jindal claimed to support when he spoke of the future of Louisiana ethics. I do not recall the State of Louisiana needing an official flower arranger. Seems to me that the hiring of Villere is clearly a “who you know” arrangement.

More on this when additional details come out…

 Update: I heard back from Garey Forester. Seems if I had the wrong GOP hack as the one being hired. It was James Quinn, Executive Director of the Republican Party, who got hired and not Florist Gump. James Quinn is now the Director of Boards and Commissions. You can see an example of Quinn’s “hackery” here.