“Mr. Villere Is More Interested In Bigotry.”

For those of you who do not know, Roger Villere is the Chairman of the Republican Party of Louisiana.

Recently, Mr. Villere and the Republican Party of Louisiana have invested in a couple of smear websites specifically targeting Democratic opponents (and without any mention of the Republican challenger(s) in those respective districts). If you have donated to the Louisiana Republican Party, then you deserve to know where your money has gone.

Exhibit A:

There is nothing quite like using the iconography of The Sopranos to attack an Italian-American man on scurrilous and unfounded charges. From The Times-Picayune:

It is the GOP’s latest political barb against state Rep. John Alario, D-Westwego, who is running for the 8th District Senate seat against Republican businessman John Roberts. The typeface for “The Alarios” mirrors the red “Sopranos” font, complete with a handgun for the “r,” and features a black-and-white photograph of Alario in dark garb, pulled from the legislator’s own campaign literature.

Alario sees no humor in the piece, saying it is a hurtful jab at his Italian-American heritage.

The Web site http://www.thealarios.com and the mailing paint Alario as part of a “shakedown” involving a bill to block the River Birch landfill in Waggaman during the mid-1990s. Alario testified as part of the case, which was a contract dispute between landfill co-owner Jim Ward and lobbyist Dan Robin, one of Alario’s associates, over an attempt to sideline a bill that Alario sponsored.

Alario was never a party in the civil case and has not been implicated, but Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere points out that transcripts of wiretapped conversations in Alario’s Baton Rouge office are posted to the site.

“It’s very degrading. It shows Mr. Villere is more interested in bigotry than he is with issues in the election and getting votes,” Alario said. “Here we are the last week, so it’s not surprising that they would bring out garbage like this.”

I believe the document is entitled FBI_Transcripts.pdf. But the document is not an FBI transcript. The story isn’t about “The Alarios;” it’s about an employment dispute between a lobbyist and a client. And from what I can gather, the document is an amalgamation of things. Despite the fact that the trial court and the First Circuit Court of Appeal all sided with the lobbyist in this dispute, in the document offered on this website, the Louisiana Republican Party dishonestly presents the minority opinion as if it is an official “FBI” record of the case. I am not sure if it is a crime for a political party to misrepresent a document to the voting public as an FBI transcript (when, in fact, it is simply the dissenting opinion of a judge), but it should be illegal. Because it is blatantly dishonest and misleading. John Alario was not a party to this case and, again, he has never been implicated in anything. Moreover, the lobbyist in question actually won this dispute and has been vindicated by the court of law. Yet Roger Villere believes it is acceptable to mock a man’s ethnicity as analogous to “criminal.”

Exhibit B:

Neil Abramson is an ambitious, Ivy-League educated attorney who graduated first in his class at LSU Law. Nine years ago, Neil was in a car accident, and he incurred around $6,000 in medical expenses. Neil was not at fault in the collision, and although he was not seriously injured, Neil was still hurt enough to warrant a visit to the hospital. The doctors ran some tests on Neil, prescribed him painkillers he’d never take, and sent him the bill. Like most rational and sane individuals, Neil recognized the causal relationship between the car accident and his visit to the hospital; he asked the insurance company of the person at fault in the accident to pay for the medical expenses he incurred as a result of the accident. The insurance company refused. Neil hired a lawyer, took them to court, and won. Then, Neil won again.

Yet if you only pay superficial attention to the website, The Real Deal on Neil, you would believe Neil Abramson was a money-grubbing faker who attempted to pillage the insurance industry (Ironically, the very industry he sometimes represents as an attorney) for more than (a whopping) $18,000 (One supposes he had to pay his lawyer).

The Real Deal on Neil is bigoted and completely misleading. Its use of the “handicapped” sign with the super-imposed face of Neil and the caption “Poor Neil Abramson” should be considered highly offensive by all disabled, elderly, and physically challenged Louisianans, their friends, and their families. It is not acceptable to manipulate a symbol for the physically challenged and juxtapose it with a caption declaring an individual to be “poor.” Such a supposition is rooted in the worst kind of prejudice and bigotry; it is the declaration of superiority over anyone who is physically or mentally challenged, injured, elderly, or disabled.

And it was all paid for by the Louisiana GOP.