This story had been bubbling around the fever swamp for a few days before breaking into what’s left of the mainstream media today and then self-destructing on the big stage. Briefly, as part of the festivities surrounding the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last weekend, a fundraiser for Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and the fundraiser’s boyfriend were involved in some sort of altercation outside of a French Quarter restaurant. And they both sustained real and serious injuries. (To be clear, it seems amply clear the two were beat up; the only question is, by who?)
Since then the story has been making the rounds of the right-wing interwebs. The claim was that the assailants were anti-Palin, anti-Jindal liberals attacking conservatives. A conservative blogger even published what purported to be a quote from the NOPD saying the attack appeared to be “of a political nature.” And that quote was picked up by a few other news organizations.
Alas, then things started going down hill. The New Orleans police denied ever saying anything like that. And now the actual police report has come out which not only contains no evidence of any partisan political intent but actually says that the assailants yelled misogynistic and homophobic epithets at the victims while the attack was taking place.
There’s no proof the assailants weren’t anti-GOP protestors. There were protestors outside the GOP event the two had been attending, though most had apparently left by that point. And it’s possible that some of them circled back to attack attendees. But this one looks like there’s not much evidence if any that politics played a role in this one.
