Collusion In Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District? War In Syria? – Wingin’ It Wednesday

This week on "Wingin' It Wednesday", panelist Carol Ross, Mike Stagg, and Warren Caudle joined "Mornings with Ken and Bernie" to discuss possible collusion in Louisiana's 5th Congressional District race as well as looming war in Syria.

Here's what the panel had to say:

1. A number of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and even a Green Party member have qualified to run for the 5th Congressional seat being vacated by Rodney Alexander.  There have been questions about the timing of Alexander's resignation and the next day announcement of his candidacy from Neil Riser.  Some have claimed some sort of collusion between Alexander, Riser and Governor Jindal.  Do you think Riser's quick announcement coupled with an almost automatic turnout of his election website are coincidental or collusion?

Mike Stagg started us off:

I'd be shocked, shocked to find there'd be collusion here. The Republicans are desperate to hold onto the house next year. Alexander announced he was not going to run for reelection then the next day he announced he was retiring. Something happened in that 24 hour period. There's also the matter of federal election papers arriving before Alexanders announcement that he's resigning, so there's a few indicators that there might be something here, and you know, where there's some there's fire.
They had a candidate forum in Alexandria on Wednesday and supposedly Riser did terrible, so I would not be surprised if he dropped out of the race. I think he was in for the fix and not for the fight, and now he's got a fight. Clyde Holloway is his problem. In addition to being a former member of congress, he was the Louisiana Director for the USDA during the Bush administration. I think that fundamentally changed the race when Clyde Holloway entered last Wednesday and I would not be surprised to see Riser drop out.

Warren Caudle added:

Absolutely there was collusion, absolutely there was corruption and all the stuff that goes along with our current administration and the political parties we have in this state. I understood that Governor Jindal said he was endorsing everyone in this race but Clyde Holloway and I hope that was the truth because everyone Jindal endorses loses.
The national parties think that it's there job to dictate who every office holder will be throughout the land. Now they turned around and tried to do exactly the same thing again, it reminds me of the Ben Bagert vs. David Duke election when Ben Bagert was the anointed one from the Republican party and dropped out of the race.

Carol Ross Concluded:

In this particular case national Republicans haven't weighed in yet, except for Jindal. A funny thing happened on the way to the fix. What it's going to take is name recognition and a base, but the game changer is Clyde Holloway. He's a proven vote getter and the people in that district like him. The district is really strange, it goes from north Louisiana all the way to Opelousas, but Clyde Holloway knows a lot of people within the district.
I don't know if Riser, at this point, can afford to drop out, of course he doesn't lose his State Rep seat if he does drop out, so that would be a good incentive there. It all depends on how much muscle Jindal wants to put behind this, and I don't know if he's going to want to expend any political capital. I'm not sure if Jindal will want to put out for this one, but Clyde Holloway, he's definitely got it.

2. It's taking the Obama Administration an inordinate length of time to determine if the 'red line' has been crossed in Syria.  Do you think the US should get involved in Syria even if it is proven that chemical weapons were used by the Assad regime?

Carol stated:

This is bad business all around. There are so many questions to have answered. They've used chemical weapons in the past in Syria and it didn't seem to get the president's attention. Doctors Without Borders said yes, chemical weapons were used, but by whom?
Will the president call congress back for a vote before launching another attack or will he do the same thing he did in Libya  to the same result? He wouldn't sent our troops in to rescue our assists in Benghazi but now he's hot to trot here.
Why are we getting in the middle of a war of two factions who both hate us? Where is the Arab League? They've already said the don't want us to get involved and they don't want to get involved. So why do we want to get in that nasty little neighborhood once more when our military is stretched thin and our debt is what it is? The American people by a margin of over 60% have said they are against this. Yes there was a problem, they used chemical weapons and I'm against that, but I'm not sure who the good guy is in this situation.

Warren added:

The real problem with this is, is Assad a bad guy or is he not? Assad to me is just like our governor up the road being that the powers that be put him in there, I don't think he has anymore say about what goes on there than anyone else, his father put him there. His father was a ruthless brutal dictator, but show me one in that area who is not.
There's a deeper question that needs to be asked; where did the chemical weapons come from? The devil is certainly in the details on this deal. My suggestion is we stay out of it.

Mike stated:

Not only did Iraq use those weapons against Iran, they also used them against their own people. I go back to ramp up to the war in Iraq, clearly there was fabricated evidence. There were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That led us to a war based on evidence that was fabricated.
There is an element that clearly wants us to go to war, the mainstream media is beating the drum pretty heavily for this, but I would say that if the basis of this was humanitarian reasons, this would look a lot cleaner if were weren't killing women and children around the globe with drone strikes. It would be a lot cleaner stand if for a humanitarian business if we weren't doing that.

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think about today’s Wingin’ It Wednesday topics. Who got it right, who got it wrong, and who was way off? Let us know in the comment section.