…if I might be allowed to do so.

Some of our more politically in-tune readers will remember that several weeks ago long-time Baton Rouge political consultant Pat Bergeron made his way into these pages for flogging a collection of “dirt” on one of the 6th District congressional candidates which didn’t amount to much substance. Bergeron found video of Garret Graves giving Mary Landrieu a peck on the cheek by way of greeting back in August when both were at the Secretary of State’s office qualifying for their respective races, and he also found a clip of Graves using the s-word while quoting Gen. Russell Honore during a TedX talk he gave at LSU earlier this year. These horrid atrocities Bergeron presented as scandal, and our reaction was that we were less than impressed.

And since, knowing Bergeron personally and having heard him brag continuously about how he gets paid to dish dirt on political opponents, we were aware that this type of material is his stock in trade we made a point of explaining that somebody has surely hired Bergeron to attack Graves. Since Bergeron is also engaged in attacking Paul Dietzel over the fact he’s using his middle name, which was the name of his famous LSU football coach grandfather, rather than his first name, it’s safe to assuming Bergeron isn’t in Dietzel’s camp but more likely that of Dan Claitor or Lenar Whitney.

When we brought that question up, Bergeron became quite irate, and posted an angry screed on his blog entitled “RESPONSE TO THE PERSONAL ATTACK ON PAT BERGERON THIS PAST WEEK BY MR. SCOTT McKAY PUBLISHER OF THE ‘HAYRIDE’:”

That screed included this interesting bit…

The past few years I have mentored hundreds of conservative political activists through my political communications and public policy seminars. All of my adult life I have volunteered my time and played a leadership role in non-profit and charitable groups as well as Father’s clubs at three parochial schools in Baton Rouge.

People pay for my advice based on my institutional knowledge and a strong track record of success. That is why it stings when I tell the truth about a candidate’s history.

As for credibility of the source, I have been able to find no constructive activity on Mr. Scott McKay’s part whatsoever (ZERO), much less any experience that qualifies him to report on issues of politics or public policy.

I’m a huge supporter of the First Amendment but, nasty, snarky, malicious, sophomoric little quips impugning a persons integrity and character without any tangible evidence or inkling of truth can land someone in a world of hurt. 
         
Obviously, Mr. McKay is shilling for the Cussin’ Congressional candidate Mr. Garret Graves in his feeble attempt to kill the messenger. 

This messenger has been shot at many times over the past four decades by the best in the business. I shoot back… 

We found it interesting that Bergeron would take such umbrage at someone pointing out that he’s paid to conduct political advocacy on his blog, since he’s been rather open about the fact that he’s charged political officeholders and candidates for positive publicity on their part and negative publicity on the part of their enemies and opponents, for years. Bergeron used to publish LANewslink.com, which has disappeared from the scene, and it wasn’t difficult to tell who he was shilling for back then.

It’s not that difficult now, as it turns out.

The current iteration of Bergeron’s publishing empire is a site called “Louisiana Conservative Alliance,” and on Monday this post appeared with the headline “CAMPBELL LOOKS LIKE A SAFE BET FOR RE-ELECTION TO PSC.”

But on Friday, Foster Campbell’s most current campaign finance report made its way onto the web courtesy of the Louisiana State Board of Ethics. Something interesting appeared on page 16 of that report…

On one level this isn’t perplexing. After all, it’s like we said – Bergeron gets paid to tout his clients and trash their opponents. At some point we can expect something terrible to be said about Keith Gates before Election Day on his site, or after the election (or maybe before) we can expect Eric Skrmetta to be skewered by the Conservative Alliance for Pat Bergeron.

But on another level, it’s quite peculiar indeed. Because weren’t we told that Pat Bergeron has been a long-time fighter for conservative causes and a stalwart champion of principle? What is the Louisiana Conservative Alliance doing publishing glowing assessments of the electoral exploits of the chief purveyor of Longite socialism extant while its publisher is paid by said socialist?

It almost sounds like Pat Bergeron is full of guano. It also almost sounds like he’s the one lacking in credibility.