Game recognizes game, people sometimes say, which is another way of pointing out that those who are good at something can often spot the same talent in somebody else.
While the mutual respect part is surely missing, Louisiana’s junior Republican U.S. senator, John N. Kennedy, must know that he’s attracted an opponent in the fall election who matches his ability to grab the spotlight.
After six years in the Senate, Kennedy’s an old pro at it. The Oxford-educated lawyer and former state treasurer has morphed into a down-home, Fox News-friendly character who leaves people wondering just what he’ll say next — the more insulting, the more viral.
Lowlights include Kennedy’s contention that it must “suck” to be as “dumb” as the ever-shrewd House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that members of the so-called Squad are the reason there are directions on the shampoo bottle, and that a Soviet-born and educated law professor who’d long since become American might as well be called “comrade.”
Kennedy recently professed deep concern that President Joe Biden’s yet-to-be announced U.S. Supreme Court nominee might not “know a law book from a J. Crew catalog,” a preemptive dig at whichever of the amply qualified Black women on Biden’s list gets the nod (If you’ve noticed that all of these attacks were aimed at women, and many at women of color, well, you’re not the only one).
This is a senator who was once lampooned on a Carnival float as “The Greatest Showman,” with his own words providing the punchlines.
These days, though, Kennedy doesn’t have the stage all to himself.
Activist Gary Chambers marked his entry into the campaign with an online ad in which he calls for decriminalizing marijuana while smoking a blunt. The video landed him all over national television, on MSNBC rather than Kennedy’s home port of Fox and as part of Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” monologue on CBS. He followed it up with a second video in which he sets fire to a Confederate flag.
The ads offer messages about entrenched racial inequities in criminal law and other areas of life, but let’s be real. That’s not why people are talking about them, any more than Kennedy’s well-honed schtick gets anyone thinking deeply about policy. The audience is here for the spectacle of it all.
You’ve got to feel for Luke Mixon, the Naval Academy-trained fighter pilot who is also challenging Kennedy in the open primary. Mixon’s campaign is premised on the hope that voters will want to lower the partisan temperature in Washington. He talks of bringing character back to the office after its current occupant voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election on Donald Trump’s behalf, and he’s got quite a point there.
But earnest talk of honor and integrity just doesn’t sell the way weird, intentionally offensive comments and visual stunts do.
There’s actually a good discussion to be had between Chambers and Mixon, who represent different Democratic constituencies. Chambers is an able advocate for the party’s progressive wing and proved through an impressive third-place showing in last year’s 2nd Congressional District race that he can get votes as well as attention. Mixon casts himself as a Gov. John Bel Edwards type who can look beyond party and find common policy ground.
And there’s certainly a worthwhile debate over policy and world views to be had if Kennedy should deign to engage directly with his Democratic opponents.
It’s hard to imagine that will happen, though. Kennedy starts with the built-in advantage of having an R behind his name, at a time when Senate elections have mostly devolved into referenda over national party preference. Despite Edwards’ two victories for governor, Louisiana tilts reliably Republican on national politics, and even Kennedy’s embarrassing behavior is unlikely to upend that dynamic.
The go-to strategy for a candidate in his situation is to refuse to appear alongside any opponents, no matter how much of a service doing so would provide voters who want to make a well-informed choice.
Call it minor consolation, then, that while we’re unlikely to get a debate worthy of the Senate seat’s importance, at least we’ll get a show.