There’s a long list of things money can’t buy you. Apparently, it can’t buy Bill Cassidy good political advice.

Or maybe he gets it but won’t take it.

Cassidy has been screaming about Julia Letlow’s refusal to join him in a televised debate, making a very big deal about her lack of interest in engaging in a statewide forum.

But Letlow has agreed to a debate, and so has John Fleming. They’re both committed to an April 28 forum on a statewide syndicated radio show – that being Moon Griffon’s program.

And Cassidy, given the invitation last week, vacillated for a few days and then, well, we’ll let our buddy Joe Cunningham, writing for Griffon’s flagship station KPEL, take over…

Though his campaign has not officially responded to a debate invitation for late April, Sen. Bill Cassidy said in a radio interview he is refusing to take part in the April 28 Louisiana Senate debate on the Moon Griffon Show.

Cassidy’s argument is that a 9 a.m. debate is not a good time for working Louisiana voters to tune in. However, the move puts Cassidy in an awkward spot: he spent weeks publicly pressuring his opponents to debate, and now he’s the one turning down a debate invitation.

Wait, what? Not at 9 a.m.? Does Cassidy know that radio programs get recorded and turned into podcasts which are archived on the internet and accessible at any time thereafter?

According to KEEL News, Cassidy told reporters the mid-morning timeslot is a problem because most people are at work or at school when the debate would air. When KEEL pointed out the debate video would be available to watch online later, Cassidy pushed back: “How many people will actually go back and watch that?”

Well, that depends, Bill. How many people watch a statewide debate live? We’ve seen the ratings – the answer is “not many.” Most of the sets of eyes those things get actually do come after the fact nowadays – just like with pretty much everything other than sporting events.

Cassidy Compares Morning Debate to Biden’s Basement Strategy

Cassidy didn’t hold back in explaining why he sees the format as a non-starter.

“Having a debate in the mid-morning when people are at work or at school is a little bit like the Joe Biden campaign strategy, hiding in the basement and hoping nobody notices,” Cassidy told KEEL.

No, actually it’s nothing like that. The Biden basement strategy was about not engaging at all, or only engaging with captive, softball audiences. What a terrible analogy.

The comparison is notable. Cassidy’s opponents have used similar “hiding” language against him in other contexts, and Moon Griffon wasted no time pointing that out.

“Cassidy says Letlow is hiding from the public. He came on my program for over a decade. After his guilty vote on Trump he has not come on my program for over five years,” Griffon said in response to Cassidy. “I just wonder what he and Biden have been talking about in the basement they’ve been hiding in for all these years.”

It’s somewhat understandable Cassidy wouldn’t want to go on Moon’s program. Moon has eviscerated him for five years, and not without reason, because the Trump impeachment vote was a major break with the conservative base that Cassidy says he represents.

How the Debate Standoff Got Here

The debate fight in this race has been anything but simple. Cassidy fired the opening shot in early March, publicly challenging Letlow to a series of statewide televised debates ahead of the May 16 Republican primary. He accepted invitations from Louisiana Public Broadcasting in Baton Rouge for an April 16 debate, as well as proposals from KTBS-TV in Shreveport and Nexstar Media.

Letlow’s response: she’d debate, but only on the Moon Griffon Show. Her campaign said the debate “should happen on a conservative platform where Republican voters are already tuned in.” She also declined the LPB debate, citing a House session scheduled for that day.

Which is what’s really going on. Cassidy wants a debate moderated by Democrats, which is what you’d get if you let the TV stations, or LPB, control the debate. But this is a Republican primary race. Democrats have zero claim to control a Republican candidate forum. Letlow’s camp gets that.

Cassidy pushed back on Griffon’s show as a venue, saying “his listenership is pretty small” and arguing a primetime televised debate would reach far more voters.

Then Griffon announced he’d host the April 28 debate. Letlow confirmed she’d be there. Fleming confirmed too. The Cassidy has not responded to the invitation, though his comments to KEEL News indicate he won’t be accepting it.

“I am extremely disappointed in Cassidy’s decision,” said Joe Cunningham, brand manager for NewsTalk 96.5 KPEL, which is Griffon’s flagship station and will be the venue for the debate. “We are in the planning stages, but we have determined we would make space and video available to any news outlet that asks for it. Considering the multiple polls floating around in this race, you would think that the Senator would understand Moon’s conservative listeners across the state are exactly the voters he needs to convince to stick with him.”

LSU Political Science Professor Robert Hogan had already flagged the dynamic before Cassidy’s latest move, noting that Cassidy’s drive to push for debates in the first place signals something about where his campaign stands.

“When you have an incumbent that is challenging his adversary to a political debate, that’s an indication that he is very worried about his own electoral chances,” Hogan said.

And then there’s Fleming, whose camp is highly amused at all this…

Fleming Has Said Yes to Every Debate

John Fleming has taken the opposite approach from both of his opponents, agreeing to appear at every debate on the table. He confirmed for LPB, KTBS, and the Moon Griffon Show.

“For the people to decide, they need to see the candidates lined up against each other,” Fleming told reporters.

Hogan noted that Fleming’s willingness makes sense strategically. Candidates trailing in the polls have more incentive to get on stage. Fleming has trailed in polling released by both the Letlow and Cassidy campaigns, but his own internal polling through JMC Analytics shows a closer race.

Hogan also raised the risk Letlow takes if she skips the televised debates. “It has the potential to hurt her, if they spend the debate time beating up and attacking the person who isn’t there,” he said.

What’s at Stake Before the May 16 Primary

Political analyst Clay Young described the race as still wide open. “You see this as being a really bunched-up race,” Young told WAFB. “I think that Fleming has performed a lot better than people would have thought weeks ago when Congresswoman Letlow got the endorsement. Senator Cassidy has a lot of money in his war chest, but Fleming is holding his own.”

The top two finishers in the May 16 Republican primary advance to a June 27 runoff. The winner of that race will face one of three Democrats, Nick Albares, Jamie Davis, or Gary Crockett, in the November general election.

Cassidy says he’s still open to debating on his terms. He has proposed three statewide primetime televised debates and told KEEL he’s ready to go whenever his opponents agree to them.

KEEL also pressed Cassidy on his history of avoiding debates. When Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins challenged him in a previous Senate race, Cassidy declined to debate. Cassidy argued the situations aren’t comparable.

“At that time, I was 20 points ahead. In this race, we are all a little bit closer. Clearly in that race, the people of Louisiana had already spoken,” he said.

With both Letlow and Fleming confirmed for April 28 and Cassidy declining, Louisiana Republican primary voters may have to decide whether the senator’s objections to the format hold up, or whether this looks like a candidate who demanded debates until one was actually scheduled.

This is a Bill Cassidy problem far more than it’s a Julia Letlow problem, and for the very key reason that Cassidy is trying to treat this like it’s a jungle primary. He wants to drag his Republican opponents into a ring controlled by Democrat moderators so that they get beaten up with left-framed questions and look like rubes. Meanwhile, he’s the incumbent with gravitas who rises above all their squalid arguments.

This is the kind of kabuki theater that most Republican voters in Louisiana saw through a long time ago and won’t tolerate anymore.

And the truth of the matter is that most of the state’s Republican voters have already decided they won’t vote to re-elect Cassidy, so none of these debates matter.

Well, no. That isn’t really true. Cassidy’s refusal makes the Moon Griffon debate the only one that does matter, because it’ll be between the two candidates who can actually win.