Boustany hurls the L word at his main rival. And, no, Jeff Landry is not a lesbian.
The offending pamphlet, from a KATC newsreel
How did we miss this? At the Gumbo Cookoff last weekend in New Iberia, members of the local delegation of FreedomWorks, the tea party group headquartered in Washington, D.C. that opened a satellite office in Lafayette a few weeks ago to take down U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, passed out pro-Jeff Landry/anti-Boustany pamphlets containing some misinformation about Boustany, or, as the Lafayette Republican congressman calls them, lies.
KATC did a story on Tuesday about the fracas after the Boustany campaign went ballistic. At issue in the pamphlet are claims that Boustany never signed crazy Grover Norquist's tax pledge - he did, and he has provided a copy of the signed pledge to prove it - and that he hasn't been endorsed by the National Right to Life Committee - he was, and he has produced the letter to prove it.
KATC interviewed Joyce Linde, the Tea Party of Lafayette organizer who, not coincidentally after being flown to D.C. for some high-end schmoozing by the FreedomWorks folks, is now a regional director for FreedomWorks, which jointly with TPL endorsed Landry over Boustany in the Nov. 6 election. Linde fessed up to the inaccuracies in the pamphlet, telling the TV station, "The tax pledge was not in our original document, and so maybe we feel that the graphic designer at FreedomWorks or somewhere inserted that." Yes, she blamed the graphics designer. As for the National Right to Life Committee endorsement, Linde told KATC, "[A]nd this is one endorsement of several that got by us."
The Boustany campaign has sent a letter (see below) to FreedomWorks' D.C. office demanding answers about how the inaccuracies made it into the pamphlet. The Boustany campaign is not, however holding its breath. At the Boustany-funded website LAFactCheck.com, the campaign excoriates Landry and FreedomWorks/Tea Party of Lafayette:
We here at LAFactCheck.com will give credit where credit is due; Jeff Landry is a pretty good politician. The man clearly knows how to talk out of both sides of his mouth, and he will tell his audience whatever it wants to hear. However, matters get a little tricky when you are passing out printed materials. As Jeff knows very well, it's not smart to leave a paper trail to your dirty deeds while lying through your teeth. Unfortunately for him, the truth caught up to him.this time.
See the KATC story here.
The LAFactCheck page can be viewed here.