Bad Moon Risin' In New Orleans; Jindal Staffer And Boyfriend Savagely beaten

'Don't go out tonight/They just might take your life
Ah, there's a bad moon on the rise' - John Fogerty

Ahh, New Orleans. Even after Katrina, it still generates that steamy fetid air of the old ultraviolence if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This weekend as you know was the meeting of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference(SRLC) in the Big Easy and as you can imagine it attracted a whole slew of the Angry Left's violent anarchists, water heads and grievance mongers as 'protesters', most of whom are not the sort of folks you want to have any sort of interaction with.

What happened is that Allee Bautsch, Bobby Jindal's chief fundraiser and her boyfriend Joe Brown got into an altercation with a gang of thugs outside of Brennan's restaurant in the Quarter and were savagely beaten, with Bautsch suffering a broken leg and other unspecified injuries and Brown winding up with a broken nose, fractured jaw and a concussion.

The restaurant was the site of a $10,000 per plate dinner for the SRLC where three governors and a lot of other high rollers were in attendance, and for Bautsch and Brown the wrong place and the wrong time was in front of the restaurant right afterward, about 11:45 p.m.

Here's an excerpt from the NOPD press release:

New Orleans police are asking for assistance finding suspects who participated in a French Quarter fight on Friday that led to the injury of a campaign aide to Gov. Bobby Jindal, as well as her boyfriend.

The news release issued by New Orleans police Tuesday evening does not identify Allee Baustch or her boyfriend, but notes that the 25-year-old female victim and the 28-year-old male victim were attacked in the 600 block of St. Louis Street after leaving an event at a restaurant in the 400 block of Royal Street.

Jindal’s office acknowledged on Monday that Bautsch, his chief campaign fundraiser, was recovering from a broken leg after an altercation with a group of people in the Quarter on Friday night. Bautsch was attacked after a fundraiser for the Louisiana Republican Party at Brennan’s Restaurant, 417 Royal Street, the governor’s office said.

The 600 block of St. Louis Street, which is where the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel and Louisiana Supreme Court are located, is less than two blocks from Brennan’s.

New Orleans police say that the incident began about 11:45 p.m. when a group of three to five men made “derogatory comments” to Bautsch and her boyfriend. When the man described as the male victim “turned toward” the group of men, at least one of the men struck him repeatedly. The woman “fell to the ground and screamed,” the news release said.

Police released a description of one suspect, saying he was in his 20s, looked “dirty,” and wore his hair in an auburn-colored ponytail. The man was 6 feet, 1 inch tall with a thin build, police said. He wore a light-colored T-shirt and dark pants.

Officers in the area responded and requested EMS assistance. The woman used her purse as a pillow while waiting for help. Once she was in the ambulance, the woman realized her purse was missing, the release said.

The original story that ratcheted through the blogosphere ( and one reason I waited before jumping on this one) was that the pair had been attacked for wearing Palin pins. That's now being disputed, but it really doesn't matter.

Both the nature of the injuries and the fact that Allee Baustch still had her purse after the attack tells us that this was not just a mugging. So does the fact that this occurred in the normally safe French Quarter, just caddy corner from the Quarter police precinct.

So there are really only two possible explanations.

Possibility One is that a gang of Leftards deliberately staked out Brennan's at the end of what had been an entire day of rabid protest looking to beat down on a couple of Republican 'fat cats' as a nice finisher to the festivities and accosted Allee Baustch, who is reportedly very petite. And when her boyfriend came to her aid they both got badly stomped.

I don't buy that this was a random, testosterone fueled brawl where someone said something to Ms. Baustch, her boyfriend stepped in and things regressed from there. For one thing, their injuries were too severe for a simple street brawl, and not only was Brown thumped beyond the point these things usually get to but Bautsch was beaten as well - so badly that she had to have surgery and will need about three months to recover. For another, the gang was already in place and waiting. This was planned.

Possibility two is that this was connected to politics,but not to the SRLC or partisan politics in the least.

Louisiana in general and the Big Easy in particular are known for being some of the most corrupt places in America, and the cross connections of who owes whom and who's into who run deep.

As Jindal's chief fundraiser, Allee Baustch is a fairly high profile individual locally, as any fundraiser is.

It's quite possible in my mind that this was a message being sent to someone..maybe Jindal, maybe someone else connected to him.

The savage nature of the beat down, the planning and the location it occurred at - practically right in front of the police station - doesn't suggest a gang of leftist thugs to me. It suggests some people who were not only skilled in doling out bodily harm in just the right amount to injure severely and not do any permanent damage but who had reason to believe they weren't going to be interrupted while they were doing it.

I also note that this occurred Saturday,but it took three days for anyone to issue a statement or for the story to break...which might very well be the case if people needed to get their stories straight.

Two possibilities, and we may never find out which one's correct. That would par for the course in New Orleans, a city where secrets tend to be kept.

UPDATE:One of my notorious Little Birdies just e-mailed me an interesting tidbit. It appears that Brennan’s ownership has been heavily involved in a labor dispute involving - wait for it- the notorious SEIU. Among other incidents, the upscale restaurant is reportedly the largest donor to the LA Restaurant Association, which filed suit to block a minimum wage raise that was approved by the voters in New Orleans.

A serious beat down of a couple of upscale customers right outside the restaurant might possibly have been a message to the management in a form that's not exactly unheard of in labor/management disputes.

I wonder if any of the assailants were wearing purple shirts?

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