Back in 2003, Democrats ran an ad where they darkened the skin color of Indian-descended (India Indian, not American Indian)GOP gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal in an attempt to make him odious to rural, white Louisianans, some of whom still haven't quite got past the race issue - it worked, back then: Jindal was barely beaten by Democrat Katherine Blanco - a non-entity put up for office for the simple reason that she was a white woman with conservative credentials who could hold the governorship for the Democrats (no Republican has been elected Governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction). For Democrats, holding the seat is the only important thing - and it doesn't matter how you do it.
Now it is 2007, and Louisianans are about to head to the polls to find a replacement for Blanco, and Bobby Jindal has a huge lead...what to do? Can't try the race card again...so why not try the religion card? That is, indeed, what Democrats have tried to pull - as this piece in the Ouachita Citizen notes:
The Louisiana Democratic Party sunk to a new low earlier this week when the party unveiled a round of negative campaign advertising on television attacking Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal's faith in Jesus Christ.In the Democrat's new campaign ads, the state party took some of Jindal's writings as a young Christian out of context and twisted those words in an attempt to cast doubt among the electorate about Jindal's position on religion.
Not only do the TV ads question Jindal's faith in Christ, the ads accuse Jindal of being critical of Protestants.
Remember, it was among rural, white Protestant voters who Jindal polled poorly four years ago when he lost a close race for governor to Kathleen Blanco. Clearly, the Democrat's new ad was geared toward hurting Jindal among those rural, white Protestant voters in the 2007 gubernatorial campaign.
While we have never been a fan of any candidate for public office using his or her faith as a tool to garner votes in any election, we abhor the efforts launched by the state Democratic Party to lie to the people of Louisiana about Jindal's views on religion.
Jindal has made it clear in private and publicly that he is a Christian.
Though we have long held that a man's or a woman's opinion on religion is a private matter that should remain between a man and his God or between a woman and her God, we recognize religion has always played a role in politics, and it probably always will.
Yet, for a political party—in this case the Louisiana Democratic Party—to knowingly lie about a candidate's views on religion was a bit too much to stomach. If the state Democratic Party possessed one iota of common sense or one ounce of decency, it would pull its ads criticizing Jindal's faith immediately.
Something tells us the Democrats won't do that.
The Democrats probably won't pull the ads because they're grasping for straws to chip away at Jindal's lead in the governor's race.
The primary election is Oct. 20.
The voters would do well to remember which political party it was in this year's governor's race that knowingly distorted a man's faith in Christ for its own political gain.
While things are still looking fairly bleak for the GOP in 2008, in 2007 the GOP prospects are exceptionally bright in Louisiana - there is even some talk of the GOP taking over the State legislature; Bobby Jindal is considered a near certainty to be elected governor. This has Democrats in a panic - they have been corruptly using the people and State of Louisiana to advance their own personal desires for, well, about 125 years now, and they don't want to give it up.
Look for things to get even nastier, as Democrats will show no shame in their quest to hang on to the shreds and tatters of power in Louisiana.
Since I'm not a resident of Louisiana, I'm not particularly inclined to take sides in the labyrinthine world of LA politics.
However, the only question for YOU is this: did Bobby Jindal write those things? If you search on the Internet, you will find that he did write articles for the New Oxford Review that are rather unecumenical and uneirenical. About the only people these articles would endear themselves to are certain right-wing Catholics who are still smarting over the Reformation.
It's up to the people of Louisiana to judge whether or not Bobby Jindal can be a good governor and to vote accordingly. But you cannot deny that he wrote polemical articles arguing for the supremacy of Catholicism over Protestantism. Jindal did write those articles. He now has to live with the consequences.
Posted by: Deana Holmes at August 22, 2007 09:59 AM
Deana,
Errr...you don't want to take sides, but Jindal is rightly being punished for writing what you consider to be anti-Protestant opinions?
Really, if you are going to be a ringer sent out by the Louisiana Democratic Party to comment on blogs, you should try to do a better job of disguising it.
Posted by: Mark Noonan ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.gopbloggers.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 23, 2007 12:39 AM
Mark,
You state that no Republican has been elected as Louisiana Governor since reconstruction. Not true. Dave Treen was elected in 1979 (between Edwin Edwards' first two terms), and Mike Foster was elected in 1995 and re-elected in 1999. As a teenager, I actually helped campaign for Treen in 1983.
Interestingly enough, current Governor Blanco (a Democrat) served two terms as Lt. Governor under Foster (Louisiana elects Governor and Lt. Governor separately, which often results in such odd pairings).
Posted by: EJSawyer at September 12, 2007 02:54 PM
