Displaying items by tag: David Vitter

What a profound difference makes six years!

Back in February 2014, Louisiana was embroiled in a hotly-contested free-for-all for the U.S. Senate position. Retired, and unknown Air Force Colonel Rob Maness had just announced his candidacy to oust Senator Mary Landrieu, the powerful senior Democrat US Senator. Landrieu, generally had been hailed as the hero from the Hurricane Katrina wars fighting the emotional unending battles to save South Louisiana and New Orleans.  However, Landrieu faced one major obstacle--President Barack Obama who down in these parts was less popular than the BP Oil Spill (if that were possible). 

My my!  How things have changed.

It goes without saying that Eddie Rispone is in a surprise runoff with incumbent Democrat, John Bel Edwards for Louisiana Governor. Somehow, a very rich, but politically unknown, Rispone morphed into Donald Trump.  He, wore Trump  around his neck. He  covered himself with Trump cologne and met him at the alter last week along with fellow gubernatorial candidate and ardent Trump name-dropper, Congressman Ralph Abraham.

If you didn't know better, you might think that President Donald Trump was running for governor as a Republican against John Bel Edwards, the incumbent and a Democrat.

Newbie political candidate, Eddie Rispone, a Baton Rouge businessman, who has his own rags to riches story to tell, essentially has made Trump his running mate with his TV advertising. Rispone backs Trump, donated to him and mentions the president throughout the ads.  Rispone, a virtual unknown in the state had to introduce himself to the voters for the first time. He chose to align himself with the national figure that the vast majority of Republican voters adore.

The good times keep rolling for Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. Even though he is a Democrat in the red state of Louisiana, he was elected Governor in 2015 due to the personal and political baggage of his run-off opponent, former Republican United States Senator David Vitter. Not only did Vitter have to deal with a prostitution scandal, but he also was so disliked by his fellow Republican gubernatorial candidates that one remained neutral in the run-off and the other one made a very public endorsement of John Bel Edwards.

"Russia Rob" 

That is what the Invisible Acadiana tweeted the retired Air Force Colonel after a Bayou Brief expose dealing with Russian oligarch’s money coming into the state’s Republican political coffers. Last night, the Bayou Brief added to discussion.

In my view, anybody who would in any way associate Colonel Rob Maness to Russia is stretching it quite a bit. He might be slightly embarrassed that his name has appeared among many others in a brewing campaign financing controversy, but knowingly taking campaign funds from a billionaire Russian? No way. 

Maness, in our weekly Friday morning Bayoubuzz Live Stream interview discussed the growing fuss, when he announced  “there's some bits of breaking news the last few days I just wanted to check to talk about real quick and it has to do with Russia…”.

Remember when we were looking at the possible candidacy of Stormy Daniels for the position of United States Senate from this great state of Louisiana? Apparently, many of us do recall. Yet, as Daniels is becoming a well-known face, body and name, there appears to be those who are just discovering that she once flirted with running for that top national office.

In the past week, I've received two phone calls from major International media outlets who somehow came across my name in association with statements I wrote or said back when Daniels was being discussed as an opponent against David Vitter.  The gist of the media’s curiosity appears to be--was she really running for US Senate? If so, why? What was she like?

As posted on twitter, the White House has offered Wendy Vitter, the wife of former US Senator David Vitter, a lifetime post as US Federal District Court Judge. 

Like Alabama, Louisiana is a deep red state with a large majority of conservative voters. In Louisiana, all of the statewide elected officials are Republicans, except for the accidental Governor, John Bel Edwards, a Democrat.  

In November of 2015, he was victorious in the Louisiana gubernatorial race against then U.S. Senator David Vitter, the Republican candidate. Vitter is a staunch conservative who had been an elected official for almost a quarter of a century. Unfortunately for Republicans, Vitter was a very flawed candidate. He was controversial within the GOP and had alienated many of the state’s party leaders.

As the great John Maginnis, used to say, “I owe it all to the material”, so does political cartoonist like Fred Mulhearn,   

Earlier this week, I interviewed Mulhearn, about his work and his new book “Looziana Political Cartoons”, that is a compilation of his cartoons.

On the day of the Solar Eclipse cutting across the United States, there’s a lot of gazing into the political skies too.

SCALISE MAKING A COMEBACK

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise participated in a conference call with fellow Republican lawmakers today.  The topic? Spending bills.