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Dinner with La. gov. goes $1 at auction
AP via Yahoo! ^ | December 13, 2006 | MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

Posted on 12/13/2006 6:22:07 PM PST by Brilliant

A chance to dine with embattled Gov. Kathleen Blanco fetched a winning bid of $1 at a recent fundraising auction hosted by a group of business leaders.

The president of the Monroe Chamber of Commerce, in northeastern Louisiana, said she called Blanco's office Tuesday to apologize for a "poor joke gone awry."

"It's something we deeply regret," chamber president Sue Edmunds said Wednesday. "Our organization has worked very well with the governor. We have been pleased with her efforts on behalf of this community."

Dinner with Blanco was the last item up for bid at the fundraising auction last week. Edmunds said the bidding opened at $1,000 and dropped to $500 before the auctioneer accepted a $1 bid from bank executive Malcolm Maddox, a regional chairman for Capital One.

Others were trying to bid on the dinner when the bidding abruptly closed, according to Edmunds.

"We were all stunned," she added. "It was at the end of the auction, so there was no way to go back and amend that."

An apologetic Maddox came forward Monday to donate $1,000 to the chamber, Edmunds said. He won't be dining at the governor's mansion, however: A chamber official will go in Maddox's place.

Maddox didn't immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The episode comes at a trying time for Blanco, who has been criticized for her response to Hurricane Katrina.

Republican lawmakers Wednesday blocked Blanco's attempt to spend $2 billion in newly available state funding, a plan she wanted to steer through a special session of the state Legislature before it adjourns.

Blanco spokeswoman Marie Centanni said earlier that the governor was too busy with the special session to be bothered by the apparent slight.

"She's really not even paying attention to it right now," Centanni said.

Blanco had wanted additional money for state employee and teacher pay raises, road repairs and health care, among other things.

Instead, the House passed a $300 million package of tax breaks for homeowners and parents and set aside money for incentives to attract a German steel mill to south Louisiana.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: blanco
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The high bidder really got bamboozled.
1 posted on 12/13/2006 6:22:10 PM PST by Brilliant
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To: Brilliant

Bwhahahahahhahhahahhaahhahahhahahahahahhahahahahhahaah... Hahahahhahahhahahahahhahah.. sorry.. Bhahahhahahahhahahahhhahahhaahhaha.. snicker.. :)


2 posted on 12/13/2006 6:24:16 PM PST by carlo3b ("Leave the gun, take the cannoli")
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To: Brilliant
Dinner with La. gov. goes $1 at auction

Again? The bids were low the first time.

Dinner With La. Gov. Goes $1 at Auction

3 posted on 12/13/2006 6:26:37 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat (An easy 10-team playoff based on the BCS bowls can be implemented by next year. See my homepage.)
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To: Brilliant
You couldn't pay me enough to have a burger at wendy's with the LA Gov.

On the other hand, I might pay a few bucks to have dinner with one LA Senator...

4 posted on 12/13/2006 6:30:06 PM PST by C210N (Bush SPIED, Terrorists DIED!)
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To: Brilliant

There's no better way to find the real value of an item than at a Dutch auction.


5 posted on 12/13/2006 6:30:13 PM PST by Loyalist (Social justice isn't; social studies aren't; social work doesn't.)
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To: Brilliant
LOL! Obviously Maddox considered spending a thousand dollars getting out of a dinner date with Blanco that he bought for a dollar, money well spent.
6 posted on 12/13/2006 6:31:41 PM PST by F.J. Mitchell (Only liberals and RINOS can escape full speed through crevices that would challenge a cockroach.)
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To: Brilliant
Dinner with Blanco was the last item up for bid at the fundraising auction last week. Edmunds said the bidding opened at $1,000 and dropped to $500 before the auctioneer accepted a $1 bid from bank executive Malcolm Maddox, a regional chairman for Capital One.

I would have given them at least $1.50 for this esteemed 'honor'.
:)
7 posted on 12/13/2006 6:33:24 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: Brilliant

Hee hee! I thought I'd misread and there were a couple of zeros missing. Guess the only zero is the guy who has to go to dinner w/Blanco.


8 posted on 12/13/2006 6:36:29 PM PST by Theresawithanh (Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I stuck around)
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To: Brilliant

Blanco spokeswoman Marie Centanni said earlier that the governor was too busy with the special session to be bothered by the apparent slight....."She's really not even paying attention to it right now," Centanni said.

BS.....Blanko is DREADING any direct contact with the press now because she knows perfectly well what questions she will get, LOL. So she will not be holding press conferences for awhile.......perfect!


9 posted on 12/13/2006 6:38:27 PM PST by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: kinoxi

"I would have given them at least $1.50 for this esteemed 'honor'."


Yes, but this was Malcolm "What's in your wallet" Maddox.

You don't really expect him to cough up "big bucks," do you?


10 posted on 12/13/2006 6:39:07 PM PST by Brilliant
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To: Brilliant

Heck, take the gov to Taco Bell !!


11 posted on 12/13/2006 6:42:11 PM PST by Veloxherc (To go up pull back, to go down pull back all the way.)
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To: Brilliant

At least she's concentrating on the serious issues. What a leader! - Also, I hope Aaron Broussard doesn't hear about this as he doesn't handle sad news very well...


12 posted on 12/13/2006 6:42:36 PM PST by The Worthless Miracle (I think Jamie Dupree is annoying.)
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To: Brilliant

It's the new spin; the olllllllllllllld botched joke.


13 posted on 12/13/2006 6:43:50 PM PST by CaptRon (Pedecaris alive or Raisuli dead)
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To: Brilliant
the auctioneer accepted a $1 bid from bank executive Malcolm Maddox, a regional chairman for Capital One.

Hey Governor Blanco, what's NOT in your wallet????

14 posted on 12/13/2006 7:07:05 PM PST by ConservaTexan (February 6, 1911)
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To: Brilliant

I think the bids were rigged to make the bids higher than they looked like.

Just think what dinner with Nagin will cost.

LOL


15 posted on 12/13/2006 7:09:44 PM PST by Dov in Houston (Hmmmm....)
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To: Brilliant
The high bidder really got bamboozled.

LOL!

16 posted on 12/13/2006 7:11:51 PM PST by PGalt
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To: Brilliant; Clintonfatigued; LdSentinal; Theodore R.; JohnnyZ; Kuksool; AuH2ORepublican; Torie; ...

Does somebody have the LA Freepers *ping* list ? This is great stuff.


17 posted on 12/13/2006 7:14:40 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
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To: The Worthless Miracle

We should try to give Aaron Broussard some slack here. As I pointed out in another thread a day or so ago, Aaron had reason to be upset and cry. He is the President of the Council in Jefferson Parish, nothing to do with New Orleans. He served at one time as Mayor of Kenner. Although I no longer live in the state and area, I knew Aaron and his family.
He was upset because the government and the national media were only doing the New Orleans part of the disaster. But he was crying about the lack of attention to Jefferson Parish and even more so, St. Bernard Parish to the east of New Orleans. Chalmette was under 10-12 feet of water. Dozens of old people were dead by drowning in the nursing home. Hundreds of sick people were trapped on the second floor of the underwater Chalmette Hospital. Hundreds were huddled on a dock at the river. None of these stories were being reported. Private people with boats were carrying people to helipads. The state and federal government were nowhere. Reporters were at the Superdome and Convention centers in New Orleans reporting on people who could have left town.
If you saw the dead bodies being pulled out of that St. Ritas's nursing home, you too would have cried. More so, if you watched TV and saw reporters visiting a gay bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans which was serving drinks at a time hundreds of people were lying in a hospital without food or drinking water or medicine. Aaron Broussard is not the only person who cried that week.


18 posted on 12/13/2006 7:23:11 PM PST by gb63
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To: gb63
Aaron Broussard is not the only person who cried that week.

Those tears were so fake (aka crocodile tears).

19 posted on 12/13/2006 7:29:16 PM PST by LdSentinal
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To: LdSentinal

"tears were so fake"
Of all the insensitive things I have ever seen someone say, that tops it. I pray you never lose a close member of your family in a flood. The whole parish of St. Bernard was wiped out by that flood. People died there, dude!


20 posted on 12/13/2006 7:33:46 PM PST by gb63
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