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LSU President John Lombardi Grows Frustrated

Last Wednesday, after the House Health and Welfare Committee unanimously passed HB 780 and Treasurer John Kennedy delivered a stinging public rebuke of the financing underpinning LSU’s new medical center proposal, LSU President Dr. John Lombardi spoke to an audience of supporters at a university event here in New Orleans.

Suasan Edwards of WWLTV reported on the talk as part of the station’s coverage of the day’s events but did not go into great detail. We were curious about what was said and were appreciative that LSU made audio of Mr. Lombardi’s talk available at their website. BEFORE you click that link, be warned that audio plays automatically and Mr. Lombardi, who is introduced at approximated five minutes into the clip, uses language that may not be appropriate if you’re reading from work.

While Dr. Lombardi may raise some valid points, the confrontational tone he takes toward the Legislature and toward New Orleans itself distracts from whatever substance he may have been trying to convey. We have been able to extract some examples but please do listen to the whole audio so that you can rest assured that the clips we’ve isolated are indeed emblematic of the tone of Dr. Lombardi’s speech and responses during Q & A. While not the whole story, we found Lombardi’s posturing, especially as it relates to the Legislature, to be quite newsworthy and were surprised no media accounts made mention of it.