U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, stopped by Temple Shalom in Lafayette this past Friday to press the flesh, field some questions and shore up the Jewish vote. But congregation member Howard Weiss held him to account for a 2011 remark likening a federal agency to the Nazi secret police.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, stopped by Temple Shalom in Lafayette this past Friday to press the flesh, field some questions and shore up the Jewish vote.
The congressman, vying to best Lafayette GOP Rep. Charles Boustany in the Nov. 6 election for the new 3rd Congressional District, was confronted by Temple Shalom congregation member Howard Weiss about this widely criticized remark likening the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation & Enforcement to the Gestapo, the infamous Nazi secret police agency that was instrumental in the Holocaust.
Landry took no small amount of heat over his remarks following a failed attempt in September 2011 to conduct an impromptu meeting at BOEMRE's New Orleans office. The agency's director, Michael Bromwich, is Jewish.
In the video below, Congressman Landry squirms a bit out of the gate but seems to hit his stride when he slides into his "Drill, Baby, Drill" comfort zone.