[StBernard] Jindal Starts Tossing the Mud Around

[Westley Annis]

Jindal starts tossing the mud around

Sunday, September 23, 2007 

Stephanie Grace

Times-Picayune
 

Webster's New World Dictionary lists several definitions for the word
corruption, but the one that pertains most directly to politicians is
"bribery or similar dishonest dealings." Another option is "evil or wicked
behavior; depravity." 

 

Regardless of the exact meaning, it's an undeniably potent word to throw
around during political campaigns in Louisiana. 

 

Gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal certainly thinks so. 

 

Not only is Jindal promising to improve state government's ethical culture,
a concept few voters are likely to oppose. 

 

Jindal also has gone so far as to hurl the term at his opponents, even if
their supposed offenses fall way short of dishonesty, evil or whichever
definition you choose -- or if it's unclear just what the alleged
transgressions are supposed to be. 

 

It's almost as if anybody who aggressively campaigns against Jindal deserves
the label. 

 

Consider two of Jindal's ads. 

 

One early commercial showed a group of clowns climbing out of a car, while a
narrator talked about Democratic candidates "Walter Boasso, Foster Campbell
and the rest of them." 

 

"These guys are no different from the old clowns, the ones who let
corruption take over," the script continued. The ad ended with the clowns,
including the previously introduced stand-ins for Boasso and Campbell,
stuffing dollar bills into their pockets, and their mouths. 

 

A new Jindal ad makes a more direct link. 

 

Responding to a Boasso ad on Jindal's record as Secretary of Health and
Hospitals, Jindal's narrator alleges that "Walter Boasso and the corrupt
crowd are desperate to keep power. First they attack Bobby Jindal for his
Christianity. Now they're lying about Bobby's service to Louisiana." The
narrator mentions the word corrupt twice more, and the ad ends with the
written tag line: "The corrupt crowd. They won't stop until we stand up." 

 

Yet another ad, which debuted late Friday, features a doctor lauding Jindal
for cleaning up the department a decade ago. "The corruption crowd didn't
like that much," he says. "That's why those guys are attacking Bobby Jindal
right now." In just 30 seconds, the ad uses the word corruption four times. 

 

Now, as far as I've heard, neither Campbell nor Boasso has been accused of
pocketing illicit cash, unlike a previous gubernatorial candidate or two.
Nor has anyone alleged that Boasso has done anything that Webster might
consider corrupt. 

 

What he did do is launch a particularly tough attack against Jindal, one
that has clearly gotten under the front-runner's skin. 

 

Boasso's commercial features a woman whose mentally disabled brother was
released, without her knowledge, from a New Orleans nursing home on Jindal's
watch. The story Lynn McNiece tells is horrific, but it's also true. And as
a federal judge later ruled, John McNiece was indeed wrongfully denied
Medicaid assistance. 

 

The ad's language is much more inflammatory than that, of course, as when
Lynn McNiece accuses Jindal of having no heart. It's not nice. Some voters
may find it over the top. 

 

But it's also well within the accepted bounds of campaign advertising. 

 

If the ad is a "distortion and a misrepresentation," as Jindal has said,
that makes it no different from Jindal's claim that the Democratic party has
attacked his Christianity, when the controversial ad on his religion did no
such thing. 

 

Even if it's a "direct attack on my character," another phrase Jindal has
used, the same goes for Jindal's allegation that Boasso is for sale because
he accepted campaign contributions from insurance interests even as he
promised to crack down on the industry. 

 

But trying to tag a rival with the corruption label is different. It's more
insidious. It's -- dare I say it -- Rovian. And when the accusations are as
nebulous as Jindal's, it's really just name-calling. As Boasso says, he
can't answer the charges because he can't figure out what Jindal's talking
about. 

Asked to clarify, here's what Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers e-mailed: 

 

"The ad speaks for itself. Walter Boasso is the candidate of the status quo.
He is the candidate running from the state legislature. He is the candidate
benefiting from the LA Dem Party's character attack ads, which were made by
Edwin Edwards hatchet man, Mr. (Deno) Seder." 

 

She also said that Boasso "hasn't even said a word about whether or not he
would support Bobby's ethics plan -- including the prohibition on state
legislators from receiving government contracts. Probably because he has
gotten over half a million dollars in government contracts while in the
state Legislature" -- which Boasso disclosed, as required by law. 

 

Sellers also talked about Boasso's "hypocrisy" for accepting insurance
money. 

All of those things are acceptable campaign fodder. Not one of them rises to
the level of corruption. 

And until Jindal declares a moratorium on the word -- or at least starts
using it more carefully -- he won't deserve the moral high ground he's
trying to claim. 

. . . . . . . 

Stephanie Grace is a staff writer. She may be reached at (504) 826-3383 or
at sgrace at timespicayune.com.