Yesterday, Louisiana’s incredibly unwise and self-destructive Lieutenant Governor took to the airwaves to start a fight nobody will benefit from. Here was Billy Nungesser babbling away on the Newell Normand Show on WWL Radio in New Orleans…

Listen to it here:https://t.co/wQdPeCiipd via @audacy

— Newell Normand (@NewellWWL) January 19, 2023

There are people about who will scoff at the idea of Billy Nungesser calling anyone else a disgrace, as there are various stories about his personal conduct which could be described in those terms.

But we don’t need to go there. What is this all about?

It’s about LAGOP chairman Louis Gurvich’s latest offering which appeared here at The Hayride on the topic of Garret Graves’ prospective run for governor. Gurvich was fairly polite, he didn’t attack Graves personally, he just said he thought it would be a bad idea for Graves to run.

And yes, members of the Republican State Central Committee and other party activists and donors are making calls attempting to discourage Graves from running. Just like they’ve made calls attempting to discourage Sharon Hewitt, John Schroder and Richard Nelson from running.

Why are they doing that?

Because the LAGOP has endorsed Jeff Landry, that’s why.

Why is this so disgraceful and deserving of opprobrium? A political party which makes an endorsement of a candidate can surely be expected to attempt to enforce that endorsement, no?

What the hell good is an endorsement if it doesn’t carry action with it? Why would Landry want the party’s endorsement if it was just going to sit on its collective rump and let an unlimited number of other Republicans enter the race?

You don’t have to agree with the decision of the RSCC to endorse Landry to recognize that trying – not perhaps as ruthlessly as it otherwise might, mind you – to clear the field for Landry is an entirely foreseeable and arguably perfectly appropriate thing for the LAGOP to be doing.

Part of the problem the party has had for a long time is its endorsements don’t carry any teeth to them. The LAGOP traditionally doesn’t have big money to speak of to throw behind its endorsements, it doesn’t control ballot access, it can’t conduct a party primary election so that its voters can choose which candidate will bear its standard in a general election. Because of those structural deficiencies, when it makes an endorsement it doesn’t mean any more than the endorsement of, say, the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association or the AFL-CIO.

Probably less, because those organizations have some money to put behind their endorsements, while the LAGOP hasn’t generally had it.

On the other hand, Landry has done something Billy Nungesser never has – he’s gone out and raised the party a bunch of money. Over a million dollars’ worth over the last four years.

Nungesser never lifted a finger to help the LAGOP. None of the other announced or prospective candidates have generated much in the way of results either.

Which is not to say the party is for sale. It is to say that inputs create outputs.

Billy Nungesser trashed the LAGOP because its members wanted to reinstitute party primaries in Louisiana. Most Democrat activists, and particularly black Democrats, want the same thing. But Nungesser doesn’t want them because he’s afraid he would lose a Republican primary, and he’s not paranoid in that fear. He likely would lose.

Why? Because Nungesser has spent the last seven years kowtowing to John Bel Edwards, including appearing with Edwards at a rally in Lafayette to push tax increases which he later said was not an endorsement of those tax increases.

He constantly attacks Republicans; never Edwards. The only example of Nungesser fighting against a Democrat politician we could think of was when he took up for Lauren Daigle against the idiotic LaToya Cantrell who threw a fit over Daigle’s prospective appearance on a televised New Year’s Eve broadcast from New Orleans.

In other words, why is Billy Nungesser a Republican? He does nothing but attack the party, its officials and its endorsees. He isn’t on board with things the party is for. He goes around with a garish elephant on a trailer when it’s time to run for office, so he’s happy to use the brand while he’s trashing it, but other than that he acts like he’d rather be a Democrat.

And based on statements he’s made since he decided not to run against him for governor, Nungesser hates Jeff Landry.

At this point one wonders why the LAGOP hasn’t found a Republican candidate against Nungesser and endorsed him or her.

Elbert Guillory, the former state senator and current conservative activist, is an announced candidate for Lt. Governor, and there are others considering the race. Unlike Nungesser, Guillory is quite complimentary of the LAGOP. He’s an unapologetic advocate for the positions and causes the party espouses. Guillory has been trying to broaden the party’s reach, and particularly into the black community.

Maybe it’s time to look at Guillory as the party’s endorsee for Lt. Governor against Nungesser. Maybe Landry ought to put Guillory on his ticket. Because at this point it’s worth questioning why, if this is how Billy Nungesser is going to act, anybody ought to tolerate a snake like that as the #2 man in state government any longer.