This is, of course, outrageous:
In one of the hardest hitting – Republicans will undoubtedly say “dirtiest” – television ads aired in history, the Louisiana Democratic Party is accusing Rep. Bobby Jindal of being anti-Protestant.
The bizarre charge is delivered by an unidentified woman in a new Louisiana Democratic Party TV ad produced by Carvin/Seder Communications, a Louisiana-based consulting firm whose clients have included former Governor Edwin Edwards (D-La.), Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D).
In the TV spot, the announcer charges that Jindal wrote articles that “insulted thousands of Louisiana Protestants,” and she holds up an article in which she says Jindal “doubts the morals and questions the beliefs of Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Pentecostals and other Protestant religions.”
Those making this ad should be ashamed of themselves, and there really is no excuse for it. I am, however, not surprised. The Republicans have spent the past ten years (others would argue much longer) using religious litmus tests and inserting dogwhistles in their speeches- Karl Rove would find this ad completely acceptable, although he would be smart enough to not leave his fingerprints on it. Rather than being released by the Democratic Party, we would learn that the ad was produced by “Concerned Protestants for Truth.” And really- this is pretty tame stuff compared to what Kerry and others have faced.
So while it is wrong and outrageous, it is not surprising this sort of thing would take place, and you can take comfort that at least the Republicans might stop engaging in this sort of campaigning and divisiveness once they feel the sting.
We’ll just file this under “blowback.”
*** Update ***
I may have misread things. If Jindal really said the things he is alleged to have said, then screw him. He made his bed, he can lie in it.
*** Update #2 ***
Pretty clearly a “dishonest attack.”
Zifnab
Hey, John, I’m sorry but Jindal kinda has a bad reputation of shooting his mouth off in his pro-Catholic screeds.
Yeah, I know its dirty politics bringing up stuff a politician said while not on the current campaign trail. Certainly, using religion as a wedge issue is a horrible crime when you’re using it against a person who has previously used religion as a wedge issue.
The joke, of course, is that Democrats aren’t claiming to be the pro-Protestant party in this race. They’re just claiming to be the party that won’t bust your balls for being the wrong flavor of Christian.
Democrats aren’t using religion as the wedge issue here. They’re using the fact that Jindel embraced religion as a wedge issue, as a wedge issue.
Jake
Do you have another GOP tucked away in a closet? If so you need to let it out, the one I’ve come to know and loathe will a) Whine like a bitch about the unfair attacks; b) Use it as an excuse to run outrageous lies/distortions in their ads.
After expressing a wish that the Dems would just stop being so damn nice already, all I can say is I can’t believe this is all they’ve got against Jindal.
Doctor Gonzo
As you pointed out, the Republicans started with the “what religion is the candidate?” shtick a while ago. This ad just points out what Jindal himself wrote. No Swiftboating here. I’d be happy to live in a world where a candidate’s religious beliefs do not matter one bit, but 90% of America seems to think that religious beliefs do. So this is the result.
Andrew
I’m with Atrios on this one. If Jindal hates non-Catholics, that at least he’s honest about it.
Jimmmmm
So Jindal DIDN’T say that?
Where’s the fire, John?
sidereal
You’re confusing a ‘religious litmus test’, which means preying on religious prejudices to get people to distrust a candidate (see Romney, JFK), with ‘quoting a candidate’s religiously prejudiced writings’, which is kind of the opposite.
Bubblegum Tate
Agreed. They started this bitchfight. They can deal with the blowback, then.
That said, I do wish the entire traveshamockery of candidates religiosity would just stop so we wouldnt have to deal with any of these adds.
Finally, this needs to be quoted:
Double true.
bittern
In today’s news, an ex-Hindu Governor candidate in Louisiana fightin’ the age-old Catholic-Protestant wars; Louisiana Dems then choosing to make religion an overt election topic; and polls showing the Louisiana Senator with no drop in support after outing himself as a sex-client. It’s bizarreland. I wonder from where my state looks kooky like that.
Pb
Bobby Jindal, patriot:
In solidarity with Mr. Jindal, I hope his election works out just as well as Iraq’s elections have…
Xenos
No, no, it would have to be “Concerned Christians for Truth” – these people consider themselves the be the real Christians, and everybody else to be the fakers. No fundamentalist evangelical protestant would ever describe themselves as a ‘Protestant’.
Fledermaus
I’d have to see the ad but rememeber all those people who like to run around screming anti-catholic or that John Kerry shouldn’t get communion because he is not a “real Catholic”
Well it looks like some liberal christians finally had enough of the religeous right hijacking and disparaging their faith. Bully for them.
Davebo
It’s kind of hard to determine just how bad this ad is without being able to see it, or the writings they are basing it on so I’ll withhold judgement for now.
But just as a thought exercise consider this. What would the reaction be if the writings were of an antisemitic nature? How would both sides respond?
blogenfreude
Jindal, like Vitter, is a hypocritical moral scold (only without the hookers) and a Bush-enabler. Sad we’ve reached this point, but if this is what it takes to save the people of Louisiana from the idiot, so be it. Go Piyush, go!
The Other Steve
Hard for me to be upset by this. At least the charges appear truthful, unlike the Kerry attacks that he shot himself to get a purple heart.
myiq2xu
Here’s the key issue: Did Jindal really say that or not?
If Jindal didn’t say that, or if his words were taken out of context, then the GOP has a legitimate beef.
Why is it that when some GOP member gets confronted with their own actions or words, they call it “dirty politics?”
Truth is never dirty.
Pb
To say nothing of an Evangelical Roman Catholic Presbyterian…
aliceandbob
You can’t judge (Republican) people by what they say and do! That’s sneaky, underhanded, and most likely will result in the terrists winning. You’re also ignoring the fact that Jindal is the type of guy you’d like to have a beer with. Besides, Hillary Clinton killed Vince Foster and Michael Moore is fat, so what’s a little religious bigotry between friends?
David
Eh, I find it hard to be surprised or shocked by anthing in Louisiana. After all, they re-elected a guy caught red-handed with $90K cold in his freezer ([D]-William Jefferson), they currently give a guy recently caught with some prostitutes a 66.7% APPROVAL rating ([R]-David Vitter), they re-elected a mayor who in the aftermath of Katrina urged the rebuilding of a “Chocolate New Orleans. You can’t have it any other way” ([D]-Ray Nagin), not to mention the seedy history of the office of Governor of that state… Jindal seems a bit… tame… by comparison.
Zifnab
Damn straight.
I swear, you’ve got to whip these bloggers into shape or they think they can just run around having their own ill-informed opinions like they were anybody else.
Zifnab
This is Greater New Blogostan, John. Around here, people have standards.
magisterludi
Atrios has the links to the vid. Pretty straightforward and backs it up with a website on Jindal’s writings- pretty heavy stuff.
Davebo
Seriously, you’ve gotta just love Louisiana politcs.
They make everyone else look almost sane.
Incertus (Brian)
This story isn’t even all that new. This stuff started popping up the last time Jindal ran for statewide office, but it didn’t get much traction. Guess the LA Dems figured they don’t have anything to lose, and I applaud them for it.
Cyrus
I thought Florida was the state that all the crazies out there can only aspire to. I feel so disillusioned.
jenniebee
I read the beginning of what looked to be his most inflammatory article in New Oxford, and it turned out to be not much more than a systematic rundown of why not all Christian denominations are the same and why Catholicism is the best! Woo! Woo! I wasn’t about to pay to read the rest of the article, but I’m going to have to come down on the side of the Dems have gone hyperbolic on this one. Jindal’s piece is garden variety scorecarding of how doctrine X is right with Jeebus, in a fairly dry, academic writing style.
So yes, it does mean that Jindal thinks that Catholics have an express lane to God, but no, it doesn’t mean that he’s disparaging other religions, unless you think that refusing to acknowledge that Foot-washing Baptists are the ones with the real express lane is disparaging. Which many Foot-washing Baptists do. Which is why they don’t get along with much of anybody.
Don
Fixed that for ya. Odds are good anyone who’d that loud a moralizer has some skeletons knocking around.
Incertus (Brian)
I thought Florida was the state that all the crazies out there can only aspire to. I feel so disillusioned.
I grew up in LA and currently live in FL. Florida’s downright sedate by comparison.
Tony Dismukes
So does anyone actually have links to what Jindal supposedly said that’s not behind a subscription wall? Without being able to see his actual words, it’s impossible to tell whether his critics are being fair or not.
blogenfreude
Fixed that for ya. Odds are good anyone who’d that loud a moralizer has some skeletons knocking around.
Thanks Don. I thought of that, but don’t want to throw stones. Yet.
And I agree with those commenters saying he’s made his own bed. So what if it’s garden variety Catholic chest pounding – when it comes from a priest, we expect it. When it comes from someone running for governor, the people have a right to know whether they’re electing a religious nutjob. Seriously – that didn’t work out so well for us last time.
HyperIon
exactly. where’s the beef? (hehe, a little hindu humor)
i have seen nothing of substance on this matter. but our esteemed blog owner joins in the fray: “wrong”. then an UPDATE: “i was wrong to say wrong…maybe.”
why are folks hyperventilating about this? based on what i have seen (the ad and a TPMcafe’s post) color me unimpressed. substance, please. not more hand-waving.
TPMcafe’s take: “Woah, this is one hard-hitting spot.” Happily several commenters called Bullshit.
jenniebee
Speaking of dirty… Federal porn registry.
Horrifying.
Badtux
Heh. I almost feel sorry for Jindal. Almost. He’s a right wing nut case who wants to shut down the state charity hospital system (which is the nation’s most efficient provider of public health services) and replace it with welfare for his friends the Frists (a.k.a. “expensive Medicaid health system). Now, why he wants to destroy the most economical system for delivering health care to the poor and replace it with the most expensive system for delivering health care to the poor eludes me, oh nevermind no it doesn’t, it’s all about the triumph of ideology over facts.
Besides, he’s brown. In one of the last states of the Confederacy to accept Union rule after the American Civil War, where even today racially motivated prosecutions of blacks for non-crimes against whites are commonplace. Now, if only the Democrats come up with a strong candidate to run against him…
rilkefan
Quotes from Jindal at DK. I think religion is uniformly irrational so I can’t weigh in, except to note that the Pope recently reaffirmed that it’s his way or …
HyperIon
yawn. i saw that. i hope the dems can come up with something more than this thin stuff.
Bob Munck
Worse than that, he went to Brown (class of 91) where he was President of the Brown College Republicans (see also, “oxymoron”). I thought we’d stomped those suckers out in the 60’s.
John, I think you need to find out “if Jindal really said the things he is alleged to have said, …” I believe that he did, but I’m just a guy typing into a comment box.
jesse's girl
Seriously. OMG, Jindal actually believes his religion’s hype! As far as breaking scandals go, this is right up there with Mitt’s underoos. On the other hand, depending on the breed of Protestant, this may be enough to remind them that they don’t want no mackerel snappin’ anarchist for governor.
Pelikan
……..
Mackeral snapping?
……..
jake
Is it me was the conservative talk show host look far creepier than RJ? I’m talking by a factor of 10. I’m talking you walk into bathroom and see this guy, get the fuck out quick. I’m talking you see him near a child or a house pet, shoot him.
Hi! [blink blink] We’re concerned about children [blink blink hitch upper lip].
Run. Away.
As for the effort itself, this is the sort of shit that gets laughed out of committee every year. It’s what people bring up when they’re really desperate to change the subject. But if they want to push it and hold hearings I’m sure CSPAN would appreciate the ratings boost.
Nancy Irving
There’s one weird thing about Bobby Jindal. The same weird thing is true of the other two nationally-known archconservative American Republicans of Indian descent, D’Souza and Ponnuru.
All three are Catholics. Is that weird or not? I mean, what percentage of Indians are Catholics? Three, four percent, tops? Maybe the percentage of Indian-*Americans* who are Catholics is a bit higher (I have no figures on that), but the overwhelming majority must still be Hindu.
So what’s with the conservative Indian-Americans? Is this some kind of WEIRD old-boy network?
Weird…
Pb
Nancy Irving,
Good question; see here:
The Other Steve
It conflicts with the heresy of Universalism, which more people likely believe in even though they don’t know what it means.
Religions have become less well-defined, I think in large part because the religious right has tried to blur the lines to help with politics. What Jindal is doing here is highlighting those differences with his belief that only Catholics are going to heaven.
Yes, the Dems are being a bit hyperbolic about it, but they’re just pointing out what Jindal really believes. Why would Jindal want to hide from that?
The Other Steve
One other thing.
Some of the statements from Jindal, regarding used car salesmen. I think he’s kind of right.
If you’ve listened to Mac Hammond, or some of the other evangelicals that promise you God will make you a millionare if you just give him $1000. He’s right, they are used car salesmen.
The funny thing is, these are the exactly same evangelicals who are Republicans like Jindal though.
SMM
Tempest in a teapot. Looking at the Daily Kos exerpts, it seem that all Jindal is saying is that the Catholic religion is true. This is just basic Catholic doctrine. What is the harm in that? If you don’t believe that your faith is the “true” faith, what is the point?
Charles Bird
Captain Ed actually bought the original piece that Jindal wrote, John. The Louisian Dems smeared Jindal, plain and simple.