Scalise in Pocket of Club For Growth

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Don't Forget Down Ticket On Tuesday

Scalise, Bipartisan? Puh-lease!

Did Appointed Congressman Steve Scalise really just claim to have had a record of working across party lines?

Yes, it looks like he did.

The claim couldn't be further from the truth as Steve Scalise has been amongst the most partisan in Congress.

It's an interesting tactic for someone running in what is supposed to be one of the nation's reddest Congressional districts. Would Congressman Scalise like to back up his claims of reasonable moderation by, I don't know, rejecting and repudiating the endorsement of racist State Rep. John LaBruzzo? Rep. LaBruzzo proposed a revolting and roundly-rejected eugenics program a month ago.

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Wait, a minute...

Where's that link I like to use?

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One of these lists of Steve Scalise endorsers doesn't look like the other. This is a screen shot from October 6th. And here is the same site in its current form.

What was the catalyst for the removal of Rep. LaBruzzo's name? Why did it take a whole month for Congressman Scalise to do so? Does he wish to explain why he made such a decision?

Repeated calls to the Congressman's campaign office have not been returned.
I will be happy to let them speak for themselves in this space if they'd decide to get back to me.

Ditto Rep. LaBruzzo's office, who has not returned an email seeking comment. He may not yet know of the slight from Scalise.

Because there seems to be no official explanation for the removal, I feel it reasonable to infer that the campaign is trying to have it both ways. By removing the endorsement, the Scalise team may be hoping to deprive Jim Harlan of a potential rallying point, given that the LaBruzzo eugenics plan became a point of national embarrassment. Yet by doing so in the quietest way possible, Scalise may be betting word does not spread his racist base of Jefferson Parish GOP stalwarts.

It's also fascinating that Scalise kept the endorsement from LaBruzzo online for quite some time even after LaBruzzo had been stripped of his post on the health committee (by a Republican) and was mostly thrown under the bus by the vast majority of his party's leadership, including Governor Jindal.

Only now, after those darn local bloggers kept hammering him on it, has Scalise made an unannounced adjustment.

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Maybe my friends working in the mainstream media will have better luck getting their phone calls returned.

And once again, my offer for uninterrupted space for comment from either Congressman Scalise or Representative LaBruzzo stands.

Ditto for Jim Harlan, if he'd like to comment.

Why not?

On Republicans Running Against Obama in Louisiana

Jeffrey makes some good points about state Republicans running against Obama in their campaigns against local Democrats that have mostly never met Barack Obama or don't vote anything like him. (Including a the tasteless invocation of Reverend Wright in a political ad against the conservative Democrat Jim Harlan)

Jeffrey is right not to assume that this is a 'losing strategy' though I'm not sure which liberals are making that argument.

He is also right to assume that the identical and simultaneous strategies of Steve the Sleaze and the Neely Weather vane reflect some degree of coordination.

It is very possible that Scalise and Kennedy will see their electoral prospects improve based on this guilt by peripheral association smear campaign.

But this is unmistakably a desperate strategy. The Kennedy campaign is in awful shape and Scalise is looking in the rear view mirror at the fast-approaching and well-financed Jim Harlan. They don't have positive messages. They don't want to defend their past positions. They don't want to discuss the state of the nation. They don't want to debate the merits of their current policy positions. If they attempt to engage their opponents on any of these substantive things, the best they can hope for is a draw - as good as a loss given the momentum in each of the respective campaigns.

With nothing to run on and plenty to run from, the Kennedy and Scalise campaigns are forced to dig deeper and deeper into the depths of their sleazy souls in order to find mud sticky enough to stay on the minds of voters when they go to the polls.

Maybe attaching their opponent to Obama will work and maybe it won't.
Neither the Scalise and Kennedy campaigns know either.

The only calculation they've made is that they can't afford not to try it.

Disgraced LaBruzzo Stripped of Committee Chair, Scalise Still Proud To Call Him A Supporter

From the T-P:

In making the change, House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, said the Legislature "will undertake the enormous and difficult task of reforming health care in Louisiana in the next several months. Some of the comments made by Rep. LaBruzzo recently have impeded his abilities to help lead critical health-care reform and be an effective member of our leadership team."

See, even the GOP reason for the removal was indeed his Nazi-esque eugenics proposal. They didn't even do him the charity of allowing him to "step down" on his own cliche desire to spend more time with his family or work on other projects. And it would appear that the move came as much as a result of the request of the Jindal administration as it did the Legislative Black Caucus. This might be the only time I applaud anything to come out of Jindal chief of staff Timmy Teepell's mouth:

“We have a lot of important work to do and it (LaBruzzo’s idea) was a distraction,” said Teepell, who said he had talked to Tucker about the situation last week.

Asked whether he sought LaBruzzo’s ouster, Teepell said, “I’m not going to go into details of a private conversation.”

Teepell earlier said LaBruzzo’s sterilization idea was “a non-starter” and “absurd.”

So it would appear that the state of Louisiana might be demonstrating some basic maturity here. It is now absolute consensus that John LaBruzzo's eugenics bill represents an embarrassment to the entire body politic.

Well...

Actually there's one high level conservative leader in the state of Louisiana who has maintained an eerie silence about the whole thing.

His name is Steve Scalise and he's running for reelection to Congress. In what is amongst the most conservative districts in the country, a supposed cakewalk for an incumbent Republican, Steve Scalise is bleeding in the polls against the uber-qualified Jim Harlan. He's also struggling badly in terms of campaign cash, which is why he was forced to hold a swanky downtown fundraiser with the Walking Undisclosed Location.

John LaBruzzo has already given Scalise close to $1000 for this election cycle and the Congressman continues to tout Rep. LaBruzzo's endorsement on his campaign website.

Steve Scalise the man would, I'm so sure, ordinarily have no issues with denouncing eugenics and racism. But this year, Steve Scalise the failed Congressman and flailing candidate literally can't afford to send back LaBruzzo's checks. Perhaps more despicably, neither can Scalise afford to alienate his racist electoral base.

The Sleaze Rubs Elbows With The Most Dangerous Man in America

Remember that time a major Hurricane devastated Steve Scalise's community and the Vice President spent the whole time on vacation in Wyoming and house shopping on the Chesapeake and then manipulated a tax loophole created to encourage donations to Katrina relief charities to lower his own personal obligation to fund the troops even though his contributions went to non-Katrina causes?

Water under the bridge, apparently!

Today, future ex-congressman Steve "the sleaze" Scalise held a private fundraising lunch at one of the city's most exclusive restaurants. A thousand bucks to get in, $2,300 to take a picture. No media allowed.

Was eugenics proponent and prominent Scalise-backer John LaBruzzo there too?

Steve the Sleaze STILL Touting Racist's Support, Now Touting Traitor's Support

Steve Scalise is in such big trouble in his District 01 race out in Jefferson Parish that he can't afford to alienate the white supremacist vote by ditching eugenics proponent John LaBruzzo's endorsement.

UPDATE:

Now Steve Scalise is celebrating the arrival of the most dangerous Vice President since Aaron Burr. That's right, Dick Cheney is coming to help raise money for Steve the Sleaze.

Dick Cheney of course is as close to a treason indictment as he is to being vindicated by history.

I know Jefferson Parish is conservative but there's not a place in America where Dick Cheney's popularity endures. He's poison.

Support Jim Harlan in the LA 01

Jim Harlan is a self-financed Democrat running for US Congress against Steve "the Sleaze" Scalise in the LA 1st district, encompassing parts of Uptown, Lakeview, and Jefferson Parish. Here's an ad he's produced (h/t: Daily Kingfish)




Steve the Sleaze (aka 'the mistake by the lake') should also answer for his political dependency on anti-hurricane protection forces like Edward Diefenthal and Boysie Bollinger. If you look up either of those two New Orleans haters on the interwebs, you'll see they represent some of the Sleaze's biggest contributors, his base. You'll also notice that even though the Sleaze campaigned on the promise that coastal restoration and levee protection would be his top two priorities once in office, when a Congressional delegation was actually in New Orleans to specifically examine these issues, the Congressman felt it was more appropriate to be in Alaska of all places, fluffing big oil's drilling agenda in the Arctic wildlife reserve. (PGR caught this when it happened over a month ago)

In the middle of hurricane season, the Sleaze passed on an opportunity to advance a bipartisan coalition to federally fund levees and wetlands for Louisiana and instead stumped for the profits of big oil. What's even more inexplicable is that he was pushing for drilling expansion IN ALASKA instead of off the Louisiana coast. How is that representing your district, Steve?

What is wrong with this guy?