Another Couple Of "Sarah Palins Of The South"-- Tough Love/Soft Hate

With right-wing congressman Bill Cassidy running for Mary Landrieu's Senate seat, his Baton Rouge-based House district looks very attractive to an awful lot of candidates. It's a grotesquely gerrymandered (i.e., ethnically-cleansed) deep red district with a PVI of R+21. Obama won 31% there against McCain and 32% against Romney. In 2012 the Democrats didn't even bother putting up a candidate against Cassidy. There are 18 Republicans in the open primary but an inordinate amount of coverage has been about the campaign of former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards.

The video above, though, is from one of the leading Republicans in the race, Lenar Whitney, a crackpot who isn't given much of a chance to break through the clutter. Still, she is one of the 7 candidates to have raised six figures. This is how much each had raised by June 30 and how much cash they had on hand

• Garret Graves ®- $814,932/$722,071
• Paul Dietzel ®- $429,201/$111,500
• Craig McCulloch ®- $257,176/$93,368
• Dan Claitor ®- $220,944/$128,617
• Edwin Edwards (D)- $210,476/$141,342
• Trey Thomas ®- $135,387/$82,043
• Lenar Whitney ®- $123,173/$104,952

David Wasserman from Cook is not known for hyperbole, let alone for hysteria. He analyzes House races for the Cook Report but his report on Whitney in this morning's Washington Post was pretty hilarious. This isn't what anyone would expect to hear from Wasserman: "As a House analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, I’ve personally interviewed over 300 congressional candidates over the course of seven years, both to get to know them and evaluate their chances of winning. I’ve been impressed by just as many Republicans as Democrats, and underwhelmed by equal numbers, too. Most are accustomed to tough questions. But never have I met any candidate quite as frightening or fact-averse as Louisiana state Rep. Lenar Whitney, 55, who visited my office last Wednesday. It’s tough to decide which party’s worst nightmare she would be." But that was how Lenar Whitney was introduced to a national audience.

Whitney, a graduate of Nicholls State University who is running for Louisiana’s open 6th District, owned a dance studio in Houma, La., for 34 years and also worked in sales for small telecommunications and oilfield equipment companies. She clearly relishes poking Democrats in the eye, cites Minnesota’s Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) as a political role model, and takes kindly to the nickname “Palin of the South.”

Whitney has only raised $123,000 to date (fourth in the GOP field), but she has sought to boost her profile and appeal to conservative donors with a slickly made YouTube video entitled “GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX” (84,000 views so far). In the video, Whitney gleefully and confidently asserts that the theory of global warming is the “greatest deception in the history of mankind” and that “any10-year-old” can disprove it with a simple household thermometer.

Whitney’s brand of rhetoric obviously resonates with some very conservative Louisiana voters who view President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency as big-city elitists directly attacking the state’s energy industry and their own way of life. And she would hardly be the first “climate denier” elected to Congress. But it’s not unreasonable to expect candidates to explain how they arrived at their positions, and when I pressed Whitney repeatedly for the source of her claim that the earth is getting colder, she froze and was unable to cite a single scientist, journal or news source to back up her beliefs.

To change the subject, I asked whether she believed Obama was born in the United States. When she replied that it was a matter of some controversy, her two campaign consultants quickly whisked her out of the room, accusing me of conducting a “Palin-style interview.”

It was the first time in hundreds of Cook Political Report meetings that a candidate has fled the room.

Know Nothing imbeciles are in no short supply on the fringes of instinctual, brainwashed right-wing populism. If deranged KKK-oriented gun-totin' pastors Jody Hice and Mark Walker can win primaries in Georgia and North Carolina against Establishment faves, anything goes, right? And a job in Congress is made to look so easy by folks like Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Virginia Foxx, Steve King… Anybody could do it! And look how far Palin has gotten! Lenar Whitney may come off like a witless, brainwashed zombie who spent too much time listening to Fox and Hate Talk Radio, but another GOP queen of clowns in the making, Laura Ingraham, isn't just a victim of Hate Talk Radio's massive epidemic of ignorance; it's her stock in trade. And every since she started taking credit for defeating Eric Cantor, there has been speculation on the fringes that she would eventually run for something. Last week, London's Sunday Times DC bureau chief, Toby Harnden, filed a story explaining Ingraham to British readers by comparing her to their own neo-fascist party, UKIP, a comparison Ingraham understood… and embraced.

[S]he is fast becoming the most powerful conser­vative voice denouncing any compromise on immigration and call­ing for the deportation of the Latin American children who are amassing on the southern border of the United  States.

At a raucous campaign event in Nashville last week, Ingraham accused President Barack Obama of "fomenting a crisis at our border that seeks to undermine the very fabric of American rule of law, our sovereignty, our national identity."

Her most withering contempt was aimed at her own party’s estab­lish­ment-- the "good old boys" and "go along to get along Republican politicians doing backroom backslapping" with Democrats, being as eff­ective as "beige wallpaper."

Ingraham has already claimed the scalp of Representative Eric Cantor, the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, by headlining a massive rally that helped to propel his obscure opponent to a shock victory in a party primary last month.

Her appearance in Nashville was on behalf of Joe Carr, a rough-edged candidate from Tennessee who has support from the grassroots Tea Party movement. He is standing on a "no amnesty" platform to oust Senator Lamar Alexander, a genteel deal-maker on Capitol Hill, in an August 7th primary. [The most recent polling show's Ingraham's nut-bag candidate losing by 30 points.]

…Ingraham, 50, has been branded a xenophobe because of the stand she has taken. The satirical comedian Stephen Colbert recently described her approach as "a tough love-- or a very soft hate."

She said accusations of racism were a sign of panic among her opponents. "I stand a lot more for the suffering of the American people of every colour or background than they can ever claim to," she told the Sunday Times.

"Plus, the last time I checked, I had three children living in my home from pretty difficult backgrounds, one adopted from Guatemala and two from Russia. I don’t wear that on my sleeve but, OK, I don’t like Latino people? It’s ridi­culous. I cared enough about the region to rescue someone who was abandoned there."

Carr, who is lagging in the polls and is vastly outspent by Alexander, said Ingraham’s support could be crucial. "For us to get her endorsement is huge. It’s real important when you get somebody with a microphone that big. For crying out loud, her show’s on more than 300 stations," he said.

Matt Studd, 57, a car haulage driver and Tea Party activist who was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the Ameri­can flag and images of Iwo Jima and the US constitution, said that the intervention of Ingraham, a Catholic convert, had energised conservative voters: "She’s awesome. She stands for the traditional Christian core values that we know she holds dear."

Republican leaders support centrist incumbents such as Alexander because they believe it is the easiest way to regain control of the Senate in November’s mid-term elections. Candidates such as Carr, they fear, would alienate moderate voters.

Ingraham said this outlook was akin to living in the past, explaining that she sensed a profound shift in American politics with a new element-- similar to Ukip in Britain-- emerging on the right.

"There are Tea Party elements but it has kind of an independent, anti-corporatist streak, a populist strain running through it. There’s a younger sensibility too," she said.

Republican grandees were fool­ish to believe that allowing illegal immi­grants to stay was a way to attract new voters, she added: "You make real headway in the Latino, black and immigrant communities not by selling a policy that would lower their wages and burden their communities, but by econo­mic rejuvenation. You have to be unafraid to say these things. UKIP's done that pretty well in Britain."

Ingraham hinted that her forays into Republican primary races this year could be the foundation for a political career of her own. "I've been approached by various people to get involved," she said. "I'm keeping an open mind about running for office in the future."

So if Ingraham runs for the House, where will she set up her circus tent? She lives in DC but she's from the Hartford, CT area. She could challenge popular Democrat John Larson there but the D+13 district gave Obama a 63-36% win over Romney and the last cycle saw Larson beat his GOP opponent, John Henry Decker 70-28%. Maybe they could debate Larson's resolution to honor Pope Francis, which radical right GOP bigots like Ingraham oppose. Or maybe she's smart enough to realize running in Connecticut isn't the way to go. Virginia is right down the road from her current home. The 3 districts in the DC suburbs, the 8th, 10th and 11th, are all very moderate and would be an awful fit for a kook like Ingraham. The 1st, 5th and 6th are more her style-- and they all have Republicans she could go after in primaries, respectively Rob Whitman, Robert Hurt and Bob Goodlatte. None of them is a moderate by any stretch of the imagination bit none of them is nearly extreme enough for Ingraham and her followers. And Goodlatte is a close ally of the hated Boehner and a co-sponsor of the resolution to honor Pope Francis that the extremists are all world up over.

Of course, Ingraham could run anywhere. She's a national figure-- like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Palin. They could all run-- form a third party or something. I'd like to see Ingraham run against a Blue Dog like John Barrow in Georgia. She'd beat him easily and her votes in Congress wouldn't be that much different than his anyway. And he's as dull as a doorknob and she would at least be entertaining, in the same way that Palin, Gohmert and Bachmann are entertaining.

Edwin Edwards-- In Louisiana He's Not Just The Punchline To A Joke

Last February we looked at the possibility-- which seemed remote-- that former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards would run for Congress. And here we are, 5 months later, and he's in the middle of a free-for-all contesting the open seat-- incumbent Bill Cassidy is running against Mary Landrieu for Senate-- in LA-06 (a blatantly ethnically-cleansed Baton Rouge plus Thibodaux). A gerrymandered mess, LA-06 has a PVI of R+21 (and, without the Afican-American neighborhoods of north Baton Rouge is 22.1% Black) while LA-02 was designed to contain as many African-Americans as possible in both New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The district is 63% African-American and the PVI is D+23.

Sorry for the tangent. The race to replace Cassidy includes 18 Republicans, a Libertarian, Edwards plus two other Democrats. The filing deadline isn't until August 22, so who knows how many others will jump in. The leading Republican in the race is state Senator Dan Claitor, although the Tea Party is running Bob Bell and there is a businessman, Paul Dietzel in the race who looks like he's also a contender. When the rest of the country is voting in the general election on November 4, Louisiana has a jungle primary. If no one gets 50%, which seems certain, there will be a run-off on December 6. The 2 latest polls both shows Edwards way out ahead, one with 32% and one with 43%. The problem is that once he comes in first in the primary, second place will go to a Republican who may only be polling 11% or 20% now but will work to consolidate the rest of the GOP vote in the month between the primary and the runoff.

A head-to-head theoretical post-primary match between Claitor and Edwards has Claitor ahead-- 52.3-47.7%, pretty close… and very doable for Edwards. As of the March 31 FEC reporting deadline, Edwards had only raised $33,171. The top-raising Republicans are way ahead of him-- Garret Graves ($320,827), Paul Dietzel ($300,178) and Dan Claitor ($158,323). Duck Dynasty hasn't endorsed anyone yet.

But, like Tom Ravenel, Edwards was not just a convicted felon but also a reality show star. His show, The Governor's Wife was a reminder that he was the longest-serving governor in Louisiana's history. This week, Eric Benson at the National Journal introduced Americans who may have forgotten Edwards to the colorful, 86 year old ex Guv making a run for Congress (where he once served-- from 1965 to 1972).

Edwin Edwards is loosely a New Deal Democrat, but he doesn't believe so much in any grand vision of America; he believes in doing favors. His version of politics is much more personal than ideological. Edwards is running for Congress in a district that Mitt Romney won by 34 percentage points-- enemy territory for a Democrat-- but he believes he can prevail by peeling off Republicans one by one, with a promise that he'll do right by each and every one of them. Sure, Edwards is competing in an era of micro-targeting and ideological purity, when retail political skills are much less central to congressional elections than they once were. But so what, his thinking seems to go. Who can resist the sly smile, the Cajun lilt, and the mischievous wink of the man they call the Silver Fox?

…In 2000, he was convicted of 17 counts of racketeering, extortion, fraud, and conspiracy in a wide-ranging case involving the granting of state casino licenses. He ended up serving eight and a half years of a 10-year sentence.

...The only Democrat in a race packed with Republicans, Edwards will almost certainly advance to the second round. (Louisiana's "jungle primary" system, which Edwards himself installed as governor in 1975, dictates that all candidates enter an open election in November and, if no one surpasses 50 percent of the vote, the top two compete in a December runoff.) But once he makes it to the second round, he is almost unanimously considered a lock to lose. "He will get crushed … and the only person who really gets anything out of it is Edwards, because he doesn't really want to win, he just wants the attention," longtime Louisiana Democratic political operative Robert Mann wrote me in an email.

Still, Edwards retains a kind of mystique that makes him impossible to ignore. "He's hard to beat, man, I'm telling you," says Roemer, the only person ever to defeat Edwards in an election. (Edwards avenged the loss by defeating Roemer four years later.) "He's not going to be a pushover this time. It would surprise me if he didn't have a battle plan. I haven't seen it yet, and I don't know what it is, but I wouldn't assume just because I was a new face and a Republican in a conservative district that he would be an easy opponent."

Always Room For Another Felon In Congress-- Remember Edwin Edwards (D-LA)?

Maybe he should have joined another conservative felon, coke dealer and former South Carolina Treasurer Tom Ravenel, on his new BRAVO reality show, Southern Charm but, fresh out of prison, like Ravenel, ex-Governor Edwin Edwards-- who had his own reality show, The Governor's Wife, already anyway-- announced he's running for the open House seat that Bill Cassidy is giving up to run for the Senate seat Mary Landrieu holds. Now, I don't think Edwards can run until 15 years passes from the end of his sentence (at which time he'll be even older than Ralph Hall is now). Bush and Obama each refused to pardon Edwards for his corruption convictions.

None-the-less, earlier today, the media was all abuzz that the 4 term governor, had decided to run for Cassidy's seat (LA-06), a deep red, bizarrely gerrymandered district that zigs and zags from Thibodaux, around Baton Rouge, to Denham Springs and beyond. The PVI, second worst in the state, is R+21. Obama got less than a third of the vote in 2012 and the Democrats didn't bother fielding a candidate.

Edwards is 86 and a little cracked and probably just speaking out of his ass but he said he wants to set up a Super PAC (which is illegal for candidates) and then run. "I'm the only hope the Democrats have here." Voters who wouldn't support him because of his criminal background, he added, "wouldn't have voted for me anyway." Sharp as a tack!

Edwards is the longest-serving governor in the state's history. He was elected four times. Judging by total votes, he is the most popular Democrat in modern Louisiana history.

He is also a free-wheeling, fun-loving, self-described "corner-cutting" politician who seems to relish his controversies. In one of his trials, the sequestered jury was accused of stealing towels from the hotel they were in. Edwards concluded that he was truly judged by a jury of his peers.

Edwards has always been a champion of civil rights in Louisiana and was immensely popular in the state's black community.

In the interview, he said that he's seen private polls showing he would easily qualify for a run-off between the race's two top finishers.

Edwards said his 40 years of experience qualifies him for Congress. "They need people there who know how to get things done."

The 86 year old Edwards has a 35 year old wife and she says, tactfully, that the Bloomberg report is wrong and that "He only said he was considering running... He had definitely said he had not decided." If he does run there are almost a dozen Members in their 80s and several others who are quite senile. As for being a felon, everyone knows criminals like Darrell Issa, Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm, Steve Israel and Joe Crowley, to name three random crooks, are no less guilty than Edwards… it's just that they haven't had their days in court yet. And if Louisiana voters could embrace David Vitter...