WHY IS ROLFE MCCOLLISTER ATTACKING ME? HE NEEDS TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR!
by Pat Bergeron

It is with great amusement that I write this editorial response to Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister's scathing personal attack on me in the Daily-Report story- 'Two Cents: Politics is an ugly business.'

Unlike Rolfe, I don't really have a dog in the hunt for the Senate District 16 seat. I have been accused twice now of being paid to support Dan Claitor. LET ME SAY AGAIN, I AM BEING PAID BY NO ONE involved in this race.

The reason I am participating in the debate is the simple fact that after reading and hearing about Mr. Lee Domingue, I am absolutely convinced that he is not worthy to be state senator from south Baton Rouge. And, as I said earlier, I don't want to stand idly by and let this seriously flawed individual be elected simply because he has a lot of money and a few powerful friends.

Now, through the actions of Mr. McCollister and Mr. Polito, it appears that these forces are too politically stupid to know when it's too late. As far as Rolfe's attack on me, I view it as an attempt born of frustration that they just couldn't pull off the 'Great Senate Purchase of 2009' as planned, so now they are trying to stifle what truly caused the demise of their candidate, free speech!

Let it be said from the outset that Rolfe and I have known each other since high school. I thought we were friends! But I digress.

I have worked on several campaigns with him and in those races he seemed to greatly enjoy my style of politics.

I can recall election night at Ruth's Chris steakhouse when Bobby Jindal was elected Governor. As we sat and talked he and others including Mr. Mike Polito and Mr. Stephen Moret expressed that they were quite pleased with my work.

Again, at Bill Cassidy's victory party for Congress Rolfe didn't say anything to lead me to believe he had any problems with me.

During the Hillar Moore campaign I never received any of this negative feedback. (For the record in that campaign I was supporting my friend Hillar over Dan Claitor.)

Rolfe knows first hand that I do not lie in my publication.

That leads me to believe that Rolfe thinks I'm a scumbag when I'm against his candidates and a great guy when I'm on his side.

Most would call that hypocrisy!

During his little tirade this morning my friend Rolfe basically called me a political whore.

Let me just say for the record that I'm not the one who had to pay a $2500 ethics fine for late disclosure of contributions on my candidate's campaign finance report.

I'm not the one who made a guy who had bankrupted in Texas and is being sued for fraud and misuse of funds, Business Report "Businessperson of the Year".

I'm not the one who took $100,000 for my political action committee and then turned around and endorsed that contributor for senate.

I'm not the one who gave the maximum donation to a candidate and then endorsed him in my publication.

I'm not the one who recruited probably the worst candidate in the history of Louisiana politics to run for public office.

I'm not the one who covinced the Governor to endorse such a horrible candidate against two other Republicans.

The next time Rolfe calls someone a political whore he perhaps should just look in the mirror.

This is the second time some knucklehead involved in the Domingue campaign has attempted to besmirch my character. Again, It has been tried many times over the years by people who actually know something about politics. These guys, as witnessed by their pitifully poor effort have no clue what they are doing.

Attacking the messenger just makes your candidate look even weaker than he is, which in this case is really hard to do.

I discussed with Rolfe in the same phone conversation he referred to, that from the beginning, their candidate's insurmountable flaws will lead his candidacy to completely embarrass not only himself but anyone around him including the Governor, McCollister and any contributor that they convinced that this was a good idea.

He can't say he wasn't warned and apparently instead of thinking about how to win the race all they can think about is how to kill the messenger.

Message to the Domingue Gang: I didn't even write most of the articles that totally discredited Domingue. The Advocate did.

Why don't you quit messing with me and take it up with Mr. Manship?