Moon Griffon

Blain Michael "Moon" Griffon
Born	(1961-05-16) May 16, 1961 Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States
Residence	Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana
Alma mater	Redemptorist High School University of Louisiana at Monroe
Occupation	Radio talk show host
Political party	Republican-turned-No Party affiliation
Spouse(s)	(1) Divorced from Connie Rene Moseley, since Connie Pace (born 1962) (2) Tonia Digirolamo Griffon (born 1963)
Children	Four children, including From first marriaqe: Daniel Blain Griffon Derek Charles Griffon From second marriage: Mattie Griffon Third son (born c. 2001)
Website
http://www.moongriffon.com/
Notes Griffon is sometimes called "The Louisiana Limbaugh".

Blain Michael Griffon, known as Moon Griffon (pronounced gre-FONN, born May 16, 1961), is a conservative radio talk show host who broadcasts statewide through station KMLB AM in Monroe in Ouachita Parish in northeastern Louisiana. He has sometimes been likened to the national radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh though his program reflects his distinct Louisiana accent and his own brand of politics. The Moon Griffon Show debuted on August 23, 1993.

Biography

Griffon was born and reared in Plaquemine, the seat of Iberville Parish south of Baton Rouge. One of his grandfathers was a sheriff of Iberville Parish for sixteen years until he was unseated in 1964 by Jessel Ourso. His maternal grandfather was Matherine J. Berthelot (1904-1985), a native of Morganza in Pointe Coupee Parish. Griffon's father, Charles Thomas Griffon of Plaquemine (born 1935) served an unexpired term as an Iberville Parish police juror. Griffon's mother is the former Dorothy Ann Berthelot (born 1936). Griffon has two brothers, Steven Thomas Griffon (born 1957) and Kurt Joseph Griffon (born 1962), and two sisters, Karen Faye Griffon Leach (born 1958) and Suzanne Marie Griffon Lestage (born 1964).

Griffon graduated in 1979 from Roman Catholic-affiliated Redemptorist High School in Baton Rouge. He was then recruited by coach and later athletic director Benny Hollis (1939–2011) to the University of Louisiana at Monroe to play basketball. Griffon subsequently graduated in 1983 from ULM, then known as Northeast Louisiana University. On his radio program on May 13, 2009, Griffon revealed that he had kept a pistol for protection in his ULM dormitory room. In 2013, Griffon said on his program that he owns weapons but has never been compelled to use one for either personal or family protection.

Griffon is divorced from the former Connie Rene Moseley (born 1962), now Connie Pace. His second wife is the former Tonia Digirolamo (born 1963), a nurse at a specialty hospital. Griffon has two sons from the first marriage, Daniel Blain Griffon (born 1987), like his father a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and Derek Charles Griffon (born 1989), a graduate of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. In December 2012, Daniel Griffon wed the former Elizabeth Morgan Ernst; both are from Monroe.

From the second marriage, Griffon has two children, including a special needs daughter, Mattie, born in 1996, whom Griffon frequently mentions on his program. He is an avid fisherman. Griffon was a caterer before he began his radio career.

Griffon also addresses dinners and private gatherings as an entertainer and a motivational speaker.

Talk show host

Besides his Monroe outlet, Griffon broadcasts from stations in Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Natchitoches, Shreveport, Thibodaux, and Winnfield, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi. He acquired a New Orleans outlet in nearby Slidell late in 2008.

Griffon frequently hosts the Hammond attorney and state government watchdog C.B. Forgotston, known for his carefully crafted words, fiscal conservative views, and opposition to gambling and political corruption.

An occasional substitute host for Griffon is the Monroe attorney Paul Loy Hurd, Sr. (born c. 1954), the author of Louisiana's Governmental Cesspool: The Constitutional Solution, an expose of government waste and inefficiency.

Another substitute host, John W. Sutherlin, a native of El Dorado, Arkansas, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of New Orleans, is an associate professor of political science at Griffon's alma mater, the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Sutherlin is the co-director of the Social Science Research Laboratory at ULM.

Griffon's former co-host is Ruth Ulrich of Monroe, a one-time member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee and the Republican National Committee. The co-host role is now exercised daily by Gregory Francis "Greg" Gulyas (born 1950), a native of Flint, Michigan, and the news director of KMLB AM 540 in Monroe, which carries Griffon's program. Gulyas is also a play-by-play sports reporter.

Political commentary

At times, Griffon has irritated the GOP leadership. In 2006, he invited the Shreveport catfish restaurateur Chester T. Kelley for a full segment on the program. At the time the conservative Kelley was unsuccessfully opposing the reelection of the more moderate Republican Jim McCrery of Shreveport. In 2008, Kelley emerged as an independent candidate for the U.S. House against Republican John C. Fleming, who barely managed to hold the seat that McCrery vacated after twenty-one years.

Griffon repeatedly holds Governor Bobby Jindal, whom he humorously refers to as "Campaign Bobby", accountable for a lack of reform in state government though a surplus of rhetoric. Griffon claims that Jindal, who frequently appeared on the radio program prior to his election as governor in 2007, has failed to tackle the state's financial woes, uses one-time funds in the state budget, and spends too much time campaigning out-of-state to raise funds for himself and other Republican candidates. Because of his opposition to U.S. President Barack H. Obama, Griffon supported Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. He also criticized Jindal, who had campaigned in other states for Romney, for then having made critical remarks about Romney just a few days after the Republican nominee lost the general election to Obama.

On December 10, 2007, Griffon announced his opposition to Jindal's expected support for incoming State Representative Noble Ellington as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Ellington, who was term-limited in the state senate and hence ran for the Louisiana House of Representatives, was closely tied to the Democratic former administrations of Edwin Washington Edwards and Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and was a strong supporter of numerous tax increases. Ultimately, Jindal, acting on the advice of then incoming Speaker Jim Tucker, did not recommend Ellington for the chairmanship. Griffon further voiced strong opposition to Republicans for accepting Ellington into the party when the lawmaker defected in December 2010 in what was mistakenly believed to have been a prelude to a run for House Speaker in 2012. Griffon also questioned the defection of State Senator John Alario to the Republican Party in preparation for a 2012 run as State Senate President. Griffon considers Ellington and Alario "big government" advocates, not conservatives. On October 25, 2011, Jindal endorsed the election of Alario as State Senate President; the selection was confirmed with a single dissenting vote, that of freshman Senator Barrow Peacock of Shreveport.

In 2008, Griffon endorsed the Republican U.S. senatorial candidate John Neely Kennedy, the state treasurer, in Kennedy's unsuccessful challenge to incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. Kennedy occasionally appears on Griffon's program. Griffon is also critical of several state Republican leaders for having endorsed Landrieu over Kennedy. Landrieu thereafter defeated Kennedy with 52 percent of the vote in the general election.

In November 2008, Griffon left the Republican Party and re-registered as a "no party" voter. He cited Jindal's political moves as a reason for leaving the party. "My frustration with Bobby Jindal is that he is not being a conservative," Griffon said in an interview. "Conservatives are mad as hell and they’re not taking it any more." Griffon has also criticized the late Republican Governor David C. Treen for Treen's support of Senator Landrieu and Treen's unsuccessful attempt to obtain a pardon or commutation of sentence for Treen's former Democratic rival, former Governor Edwin Edwards. On several days in late November 2008, Griffon humorously suggested that listeners mail change-of-voter registration cards to Treen and urge Treen to re-join the Democratic Party, from which he defected in 1960.

In October 2010, former State Senator Mike Smith, a Democrat from Winnfield, using his first name, "Kenneth," called the program to allege that Griffon is controlled by two unnamed wealthy Republicans. Griffon denies the allegation and claims that he alone owns his company and urged Smith to call again for further discussion on the air.