Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)

I got a good rundown on some of the fun from a friend in Baton Rouge enmeshed in the battle to see that the Sauron doesn’t get his hands on the One Ring. Sorry this ‘aint chock full of links, but it was sent as an email with explicit instructions to share with those in the 6th Congessional District, and I figured the NO crew might like to know a little about it, too.

As you might know the race for the 6th Congessional District between Woody Jenkins and Donald Cazayoux (here described in the Times-Pic) is going down to the wire. And I thought it important to spread the lowdown on what a nut job Jenkins is and a little about his ambitions. It’s long, but its worth knowing what this guy is about. I included a few links at the end, but as far as I know, everything in this holds water and can be googled.

Woody Jenkins is a Dangerous Extremist

The Party Flip Flopper

Jenkins was a Young Republican since high school and worked as a page for two republican state representatives as a teenager. In 1971 he switched to the Democratic Party to run for a Baton Rouge-area seat in the State House. He remained a Democrat in the State House for 28 years. In 1978 and 1980 he ran for the United States Senate as a Democrat. In 1994, he announced his decision to change his party affiliation to Republican.

The Sore Loserman

In 1996, Jenkins ran for the Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Bennett Johnston. Although Jenkins appeared ahead during the election, a late surge of votes from the New Orleans area put Mary Landrieu ahead by 5,788 votes out of 1.7 million cast.

Jenkins contested the election results, claiming that about 8,000 votes had been illegally cast. Jenkins took his case to the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, claiming that Landrieu's win was the result of New Orleans voter fraud. A month into the Senate probe it was discovered that the detective hired by Jenkins to investigate the alleged fraud had paid and coached witnesses to claim they had participated in the alleged election fraud. The FBI rejected other witnesses stories as too bizarre to be believed. Jenkin’s detective was also found to have had a serious criminal record. (He was later killed in a drive by shooting in May of 2003). After a ten-month investigation at taxpayer expense, the committee allowed Landrieu's victory to stand. Jenkins then ran for the State elections commission pledging to clean up election fraud, losing to fellow Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell.

Taxes are for Poor People

Since cutting taxes are the apparent centerpiece of Jenkins campaign, it is interesting to note that he doesn’t believe he has to pay any taxes. Since 1990, Jenkins has had at least 20 state and federal tax liens filed against his company, Great Oaks Broadcasting, that total more than $340,000

Rules are for Other People

Another controversy swarming around Woody Jenkins’ career was the creation of a non-profit, Friends of the Americas. Jenkins refused to publicly register the company claiming that the government had no jurisdiction. This non-profit run by Jenkins and his family paid Jenkins, his wife and his treasurer $456,892 over a 2 1/2 year period.

A Sucker is Born

In addition, the treasurer of Friends of the Americas embezzled $305,997 in company funds. It took two years for Jenkins to realize what was happening right under his nose.

Jenkins' Associates

Jenkins is also associated with some questionable members of the religious right. The kind that want to control your personal life; the kind that no self-respecting libertarian would tolerate.

Jenkins has the current endorsement of James Dobson of the Focus on the Family empire. The political wing of Focus on the Family is the Family Research Council whose president is Tony Perkins. The Family Research Council is at the forefront of fighting its one-sided "culture war" in which it seeks to turn America into a completely different country.

Tony Perkins claims responsibility for Louisiana’s covenant marriage law which created a completely unnecessary and essentially religious category of marriage in which it was much harder to file for a divorce. Couples could choose to marry into this "covenant marriage" in order to show their commitment to stay together as opposed to, for instance, not getting divorced. Tony Perkin’s political mentor is Woody Jenkins.

In 1981, Jenkins and some high profile figures from the religious right (including Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and R.J. Rushdooney) formed the ultra-secretive right wing organization known as the Council for National Policy (CNP). They were funded by right-wing industrialists such as Amway founder Richard DeVos and beer magnate Adolph Coors. Jenkins was the CNP’s first executive director. Jenkins and his cohorts were aided in founding the CNP by members of the John Birch Society.

Tony Perkins was Jenkins' 1996 Senate campaign manager. Perkins paid $82,500 to a phone-banking firm tied to Klansman/Neo-Nazi David Duke for the right to use Duke's voter list. After contracting with the firm on the basis of Duke's personal recommendation, Jenkins then attempted to conceal the payments when the Duke ties became public. Jenkins' defunct Senate campaign agreed to pay a fine for the concealment. Apparently, Jenkins was able to convince the FEC to reduce the fine to $3,000 on the grounds of his inability to pay a larger fine.

Does this mean Jenkins is a neo-nazi? Not specifically, no. But it does mean that he believed that he had something to offer such people in 1996. I suspect he may still has something to offer the skin-heads of Louisiana. And in this age of guilt by association in politics, it is important to look at the people Jenkins is "associated with."

No Federal Aid

The CNP, like the John Birch Society, wallows in bizarre conspiracy theories, and issues calls for unrestrained dog-eat-dog capitalism and the dismantling of federal agencies that deal with housing or education. Jenkins echoes many of those aims and, pre-Katrina, he publicly called for the dissolution of several federal agencies who have been instrumental in assisting Louisiana with its post-Katrina woes, such as HUD and the Department of Commerce.

Jenkins has run a campaign on two main issues, that Don Cazayoux will raise taxes and that he is in league with Obama and Pelosi to put health care into the hands of "bureaucrats" (as opposed to altruistic corporate accountants). Given that Cazayoux is a John Breaux style Democrat (i.e. a moderate who will work across party lines), and that he identifies himself as pro-life, that’s about all Jenkins has to work with.

WVLA in Red Stick shows us some people trying to help poor Woody with his chronic problem with paying his taxes on time. Daily Kingfish has the video of him brazenly lying (for…Jesus?) in a campaign ad. And here is some more on the Council for National Policy where Woody presumably hangs out (via Oyster) in the treehouse with Bobby and Timmy…