This is something of a tempest in a teapot, but since it seems like everybody is talking about it this morning we’ll weigh in a little.

At issue is a Substack post by Shawn Wilson, who has a blog called “Bayou Insider.” This isn’t the Shawn Wilson who was John Bel Edwards’ Secretary of Transportation; it’s a different guy. In any event, Wilson says there was a meeting at the Governor’s Mansion a week ago at which our buddy Moon Griffon was summoned in to be read the riot act by Gov. Jeff Landry over various issues…

According to a well-placed source with knowledge of the exchange, Governor Jeff Landry summoned conservative radio host Moon Griffon to the Louisiana Capitol on Monday, April 14, following Griffon’s broadcast. The source, who was informed of the meeting by someone present, described the encounter as a scolding session over Griffon’s recent on-air criticisms of the Governor’s handling of key issues—including Louisiana’s ongoing insurance crisis, the failure of Landry-backed constitutional amendments, and a growing undercurrent of conservative dissatisfaction.

The meeting, which allegedly took place in a private area of the Capitol, was said to last roughly 15 minutes. According to the source, Landry delivered what was described as a “scolding” of Griffon, challenging the host’s decision to publicly question his leadership. At one point, Griffon reportedly responded stating plainly that “the people are over this,” referring to rising frustration across the state with the Governor’s direction. Landry, the source claims, continued on with what was described as “disturbed reasoning” behind his political decisions, prompting Griffon to disengage.

While the Governor’s office has not mentioned the incident, and Griffon himself has not spoken publicly about the meeting in detail, the confrontation, if accurate, represents a significant escalation in the political tension simmering beneath the surface of Louisiana’s conservative landscape.

Griffon’s reaction to that post, when reached by the Dead Pelican’s Chad Rogers, wasn’t altogether positive…

Seeking confirmation of the meeting, THE DEAD PELICAN contacted Mr. Griffon who confirmed that he did indeed meet with governor Landry.

While Mr. Griffon confirmed the claims about Landry’s constituents being frustrated, he denied that Landry delivered him a “scolding.”

“Jeff didn’t scold me,” Griffon told THE DEAD PELICAN.

“Whoever said that Jeff scolded me is a dumb ass. You can quote me on that!”

Mr. Griffon informed THE DEAD PELICAN that the purpose of the meeting was to inform the governor about what his own constituents have been saying about him. Apparently, some of Mr. Landry’s supporters have not been happy about some of his recent actions, and Griffon told him this at the meeting. Griffon claims that Landry’s attendance of a Turkey shoot is one thing that has earned disapproval from his constituents. A recent story by Tyler Bridges details the turkey hunt, which apparently involved several trial lawyers.

Though the “scolding” is disputed, Griffon echoed the article’s claims that Landry’s own supporters are increasingly frustrated with his direction.

Mr. Griffon and Mr. Wilson’s article seem to confirm one thing: conservative frustration with Mr. Landry is growing!

So did Landry “scold” Griffon, or not?

That’s probably a matter of interpretation.

From knowing both Landry and Griffon, both are strong, Type-A personalities and sometimes communications with them will take on a gruff or combative tone.

Griffon has made a name for himself by holding very little back. That’s his brand and he comes about it honestly. He’s a passionate conservative and he has little use for the kinds of games politicians play. If you’re an elected official and you want his respect, you have to do what you say you’re going to do. If you don’t, he’ll fill his airtime shredding you for straying from your promises.

As for Landry, he’s also a Type A personality and a strong leader who places a high degree of emphasis on loyalty from people on his team. As such Landry will engage in vigorous advocacy for his projects and activities and push on his own folks a little in doing so.

There is nothing untoward in that. It’s what the guy in the big chair does. It’s what John Bel Edwards did (Edwards was tyrannical about it, in fact, as he spent eight years threatening people who disagreed with him and who represented constituencies who had no use for Edwards at all, and that was one reason why the state devolved into utter dysfunction when Edwards was governor), and it’s what Donald Trump does. Hell, it’s what the people governing the country in Joe Biden’s stead did.

People who wield power apply pressure to others, because they can and because they often need to.

Griffon knows that. He’s been around long enough to recognize that game.

So while neither man is likely to say anything about that meeting, it’s more or less a guaranteed thing that things were contentious at times, and from Landry’s perspective he needed to try to “straighten out” Griffon – because having a popular statewide syndicated radio host having at him over things like tort reform, tax policy or the fact Cleo Fields is in Congress will have the effect of softening Landry’s base.

From Griffon’s perspective, those are self-inflicted wounds and if Landry wants to firm up his conservative base vote he needs to re-earn that support by doing more conservative things.

Neither one of them is wrong.

What’s true is that a great many conservatives aren’t satisfied with the governor’s approach to insurance reform, because they see him as compromised by trial lawyers like Gordon McKernan. And that’s why the “turkey hunt” which has gotten so much play in the runup to the current legislative session has become such a sore point. The $750 million jury verdict in Plaquemines Parish in that coastal lawsuit John Carmouche, whom Landry appointed to the LSU Board of Supervisors, doesn’t help much.

And yes, the congressional redistricting debacle which handed Fields a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in a district the U.S. Supreme Court might very well throw out based on a lawsuit heard at the Court a couple of weeks ago plays into what’s seen by some as a sellout of Landry’s base.

These are all things which are going to manifest themselves in frustration Griffon will express on the air.

They’re also all fixable.

This fall, we’d bet the Supreme Court will junk Fields’ Congressional district by ruling the state’s congressional map in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Then Landry can call a special session to redraw the map and reclaim that 6th District seat for Republicans, which if it works out that way will calm tensions about Fields’ two years in Congress.

And while Landry’s optics of chumminess with trial lawyers has engendered some grousing, he’s also essentially said he’s done vetoing tort reform bills, so whatever reaches his desk from the state legislature, he’ll sign. Now, that’s a cute way to say that he expects a lot of the more aggressive tort reform measures that will pass out of the House will die in the Senate, and especially in the conspicuously trial lawyer-friendly Judiciary A committee. The Senate is a lot more in thrall to the plaintiff bar than Landry is, and the rumblings about Senate President Cameron Henry as sharing Florida condominiums with, and having a spot on the payrolls of, the big-name lawyers in the state seem like they’ve only just begun.

Is Landry to blame for that? Not really. He and Henry aren’t particularly friends, and frankly, Henry might be positioning himself to poison Landry’s governorship for the next two years and then run against him for governor in 2027. We’ve heard that rumor enough this week that we wouldn’t be surprised if it came true even though it seems bizarre to us.

But as Moon has said and so have we, the way forward for Landry is to find a way to deflate the state’s rates for car, health and homeowners’ insurance. Those rates are an even greater burden on our economic growth than are our tax policy or the quality of our infrastructure.

If the governor’s “balanced” approach to doing so works, then he’ll be fine.

Our advice has been that it would have been politically easier to have gone very hard on tort reform right away, even if that irritated the trial lawyers who either backed or at least didn’t oppose Landry. Doing so would have promoted the loyalty of his base, and it would either have resulted in more insurers writing policies in Louisiana and creating a more competitive environment for rates, or if it didn’t, then Landry would have had all the justification in the world to say that the insurance industry is at fault and it was time to cram down the rates by regulatory fiat.

But what has happened so far, which admittedly does include a number of tort reform bills passed last year and signed by the governor, has not moved those rates.

And the one thing about Louisiana having an imperial governor is that Landry can’t get away with fixing blame rather than fixing the rates. He’s at war with the Insurance Commissioner, Tim Temple, over a bill Landry backs that would give Temple the power to effect a cramdown on insurance rates, but if the bill passes and Temple refuses to cram the rates down, it’s still going to be Landry getting the blame for high insurance rates rather than Temple.

Joe Six Pack Louisiana Voter barely even knows who the Insurance Commissioner is. He knows who Jeff Landry is, and he expects Landry to make things better.

Is that fair? Probably not, but it’s true. Which is why a bunch of aggressive tort reform measures would have been a safer course than this more nuanced approach we’re seeing.

All of this might seem off the track, but the point is that this is what underlies Landry’s problems with his base which do exist. We’ve talked about it here at The Hayride, and Griffon has talked about it on his show.

But just because there are gruff conversations behind closed doors on this issue doesn’t mean that Jeff Landry is a “bully” or that his governorship is irretrievably lost. Landry is still cooking, and nobody knows how the meal will taste yet, but the conservative base voters in this state have been promised a lot and delivered relatively little, going back far beyond Landry’s time. And holding his feet to the fire is the inevitable result.

We’re pretty sure everybody knows that. So while it might be fun to talk about “scoldings,” nothing here is all that out of the ordinary.