Accounts of Jindal staffer assault remain…cloudy

Mike Riggs Contributor
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UPDATES: According to The Hayride, the blog which originally claimed that NOPD said the attack was politically motivated, writes that Della Berning, Bautsch’s mother, claims her daughter didn’t just fall. “Allee Bautsch has seven screws in her leg and five surgical scars. She didn’t just fall down, she was stomped on.” Also, according to The Hayride, “Ms. Berning did NOT want to discuss the political nature of the attack, though she de-emphasized rather than disputed the political angle.”

Minutes ago, Yahoo! News reported that the group of men who attacked Allee Bautsch, a fundraiser for Bobby Jindal, and her boyfriend outside a Republican fundraiser in New Orleans may have been politically motivated, even though the two were not wearing Sarah Palin pins.

Last Friday night, Allee Bautsch, the chief fundraiser for Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal was violently assaulted, along with her boyfriend, outside of a famed New Orleans restaurant. Initial reports on the incident were murky, but Yahoo! News has learned that the attacks appear to have been politically motivated, and that Bautsch has been hospitalized fordays to treat her injuries.

While other details of the incident are still being fleshed out, this afternoon NOPD Public Information Officer Bob Young told blogger Pat Dollard that the assault “was of a political nature.” Eyewitnesses to the incident have variably described the assailants as appearing to be left-wing activists or anarchists. While attention has recently focused on threats and anger among conservative activists opposing health care reform, the attack on Bautsch and Brown appears to be an ugly reminder that vicious behavior exists on all sides of thepolitical spectrum.

But after getting called out by Ben Politico on Twitter, who wrote “NOPD’s Bob Young says blogger’s quote on Nola attack being politically motivated is ‘completely incorrect,'” Yahoo! added this update:

This post initially didn’t note that NOPD Public Information Officer Bob Young back-tracked on his initial repeated characterization of the attacks “as politically motivated” to say he “wasn’t sure.”  We’ve added copy to make that clear.  We will have more reporting on this later today.