Following last week’s disastrous House Municipal Committee hearing (see my column from May 3), I did some more digging into the events of the day. Unsurprisingly, there was more evidence of juvenile and petulant behavior from our elected representatives to be uncovered.
For those of you who missed it, last Wednesday, the House Local and Municipal Affairs Committee heard two bills that would help rid our public libraries of a woke national agenda that is currently being funded by our tax dollars. In the biggest circus of a committee meeting ever seen (run by Vice Chair Barbara Freiberg, who was in completely over her head), good bills by Reps. Jay Galle and Kellee Dickerson were involuntarily deferred (that means that they are dead, dead, dead) by a hostile committee full of leftist Democrats and RINO’s.
I spoke to several people who were present and uncovered more unacceptable behavior from our legislators.
This time the culprit was Rep. Alonzo Knox (D-New Orleans). It appears that after the committee meeting, he went well beyond the bounds of what should be considered acceptable with some of the citizens in the hallway. People who witnessed the events stated that Rep. Knox had a heated conversation with one of the ladies who testified on behalf of Rep. Dickerson’s bill. She was apparently trying to explain that she did not appreciate the treatment that they received by the committee or the language that was used in the hearing. She probably did not expect it to get worse, but that is apparently what happened.
It was reported that Rep. Knox became irate in the conversation and the lady tried to walk away, at which point Knox said something to the effect of “Bitch, you don’t know me!”
That seems to be a favorite word of the Democrats on that particular committee. It boggles the mind how people with so little ability to demonstrate class and professionalism are elected to the highest offices of our state.
Following the committee meeting, Rep. Denise Marcelle (D-Baton Rouge) made a “sorry, not sorry” apology for her language in the committee meeting. She apologized for any hurt feelings but did not apologize for her actions. Therefore, one can only assume that she believes there was nothing wrong with her saying she was going to “kill this bitch” on a hot mic in the committee room for all to hear.
Meanwhile, there is no word of any consequences to those who exhibited such unprofessional behavior.
Speaker of the House Phillip DeVillier (R-Eunice) was apparently satisfied with Marcelle’s non-apology, and seemingly considers the matter closed. Meanwhile, two good representatives and some everyday citizens who took the time out of their days to get involved in a cause that they believe in were treated like lowly peasants. Not to mention that two good pieces of legislation were unceremoniously killed.
This really calls DeVillier’s leadership into question. He seems to be hoping that this will just go away, and everything will go back to being like it was. He needs to do better, because if behavior like this isn’t dealt with it will only get worse.
Still waiting for meaningful consequences for that debacle, Speaker DeVillier…