Getting tough questions answered like pulling teeth
Courage is indeed hard to come by these days, especially when it comes to political incumbents and candidates. Some – not all – lie, cheat and steal while pretending to be moral, upstanding, and honest – when they are in public.
The Captain Shreve Neighborhood Association, of which I am president, agreed to co-sponsor what was billed as a mayoral debate, a.k.a forum, with the Broadmoor Neighborhood Association, which has a pretty good track record of allowing tough questions to be asked. CSNA mailed a notice of the debate to the 1,700 homes within our geographic boundaries.
The result was that I received many calls and emails from our members wanting to know if it was going to be another boring event with the same old questions asked of the candidate. “Not this time,” I said. Tough questions can be asked by the audience, and everyone wanted to hear from state Rep. and mayoral candidate Patrick Williams about his double-dipping on his expenses as a legislator.
An investigation by KTBS-TV, and a separate investigation by attorney Mike Wainwright, a former assistant U.S. attorney, revealed Williams had charged the taxpayers for gasoline, hotels, travel and other expenses connected with his legislative duties. But he also billed his campaign fund for the same expenses – 45 times in 2012 to the tune of more than $4,000. That’s called double dipping and is against the law.
No forum so far had the courage to ask Williams about the revelation. So at our debate, as we preferred to call it, questions were solicited from the attendees on cards before the event began. Questions were allowed to be asked of individual candidates. And, yes, there were two questions about Williams’ finances and another wanted Ollie Tyler to justify her tenure as superintendent of Caddo Schools. Ken Krefft, president of BNA, and I reviewed all the questions before they were presented to the moderator.
But that’s where the debate train left the tracks. Krefft had solicited former Mayor John Hussey to be the moderator. He began asking various questions. As time moved on, he did not ask Williams his question nor Tyler her question. I was upset. It is not up to the moderator to decide what questions should be asked. That decision is made by the sponsors. In this case, it was Krefft and me, and we approved the questions.
I finally got Krefft to go up and tell Hussey he needed to ask those questions. Again, he procrastinated. So I asked Krefft to tell him again. He didn’t read the questions from the cards that were submitted. He weakly addressed Williams by saying there has been some talk about double-dipping. With that, Williams leaped to his feet and said, “Double-dipping is nothing that I’ve done. I’ve actually followed the rules.”
If Hussey had read the question, it would have required a more detailed response. It asked, “Mr. Williams, you said on KEEL radio that the news media was conducting a smear campaign against you. How is reporting that you broke the law 45 in 2012 a smear campaign?” Why Hussey was so reluctant to ask Williams and Tyler the questions is befuddling. I thought perhaps he might be a supporter of Williams for mayor. I also noticed before the debate began that some of the so-called “brain trust” of Williams, who had been trying to find out days in advance what the questions would be, was bending Hussey’s ear. Did they convince him not to bring up the subject of double-dipping? I don’t know. That is only speculation on my part. But something was obviously afoot, and it was an upsetting situation.
So, since I have been critical of other forums, let me say our debate was a dud. People left disappointed, and the feedback about our event has not been very positive. Several said they came because they thought, finally, tough questions would be asked.
Let me honestly say I was not very pleased with Krefft or Hussey, and I let both of them know it. I have some Cajun in me, and it takes a while to get me riled up, but once I do, I do not mince words. I went up to Hussey after the charade was over and told him that as a moderator it is not his decision about which questions should be asked.
He said he brought up the doubledipping, and I replied to him that he wimped out and had no courage because he did not read the questions as presented to him and that he destroyed the credibility of our debate.
As it turned out, except for one brief mention of double-dipping, it was another boring forum.
Lou Gehrig Burnett, an award-winning journalist, has been involved with politics for 44 years and was a congressional aide in Washington, D.C., for 27 years. He also served as executive assistant to former Shreveport Mayor Bo Williams. Burnett is the publisher of the weekly “FaxNet Update” and can be reached at 861-0552 or louburnett@comcast.net.
