Five of the candidates for U.S. Senate met in a Tuesday night debate, put on by the Council for A Better Louisiana and Louisiana Public Broadcasting. The name calling began immediately.
“I am the one true conservative here tonight among those who are pretenders,” Congressman John Fleming said in his opening statement.
Then Fleming went after his fellow Republican, Congressman Charles Boustany.
“Congressman Boustany says he thinks he agrees with eighty percent of Obamacare. Like Democrats, he’d like to go line-by-line and fix it.”
“I have never said I agree with eighty percent of Obamacare. That is absolutely false,” Boustany responded.
“We have documented that he actually said that,” Fleming said to the audience, before looking directly at Boustany. “You can run, but you can’t hide, Charles.”
Fleming didn’t stop there. He also attacked fellow Republican John Kennedy.
“John Kennedy was a liberal Democrat.”
That turned into open season on the State Treasurer, with Democrat Foster Campbell bringing Boustany along on the hunting trip.
“One of our opponents, Mr. Kennedy, has an ad where he jokes about suicide. He says jokingly, ‘I’d rather drink weed killer’,” Campbell began, in the round where candidates questioned each other. “The question is this: do you think Mr. Kennedy should apologize for joking about suicide?”
“Mental health is not a joking matter,” Boustany replied. “I do think Mr. Kennedy should apologize.”
“I’d rather drink weed killer,” Kennedy said.
That comment didn’t sit well with Campbell, who interrupted Kennedy’s next statement.
“I’m very proud of my legislative record. I…”
“You wasn’t in the Legislature!” Campbell said, clearly outraged.
As the only lady on the stage, Democrat Caroline Fayard was left fairly unscathed by the gentlemen. But even she couldn’t resist the urge, sniping at her fellow Democrat in her closing.
“Foster Campbell attacks my family and in so doing, denigrates me as an independent woman.”
Election Day is November 8th.