NEW ORLEANS – A week after the Star-News published an editorial pleading with Wicked Pictures contract star and aspiring United States senator Stormy Daniels to go while the getting was good, a serious of events are conspiring to do what the Baton Rouge-native may have wanted to at least put off a while longer – namely, suspend her exploratory campaign to unseat David Vitter.

Monday, Brian Welsh, a political advisor to Daniels, told a New Orleans TV station that someone had firebombed his car while it was parked unoccupied on the street, and even posted a video of the alleged attack on YouTube. He said he had acquired it from a surveillance camera in the area.

Saturday night, according to XBIZ, Daniels was arrested and charged with a domestic violence offense. The report says she was released from jail the following day after posting bond. Daniels is married to Star Factory publicist Mike Moz.

TMZ posted up more details Wednesday afternoon. “According to Tampa cops, 30-year-old Daniels was arrested on Saturday after she allegedly smashed a bunch of stuff inside her home and then beat up her husband. Stormy’s hubby, Michael Mosny, told cops she got mad over the way the laundry had been done … then lost her mind shortly after when she discovered some unpaid bills.”

It is almost impossible to tell at this point whether there is any connection between the two events, or even whether they actually transpired the way they are being currently explained. The timing is suspect but could be a complete coincidence.

Louisiana politics being what it is, the possibility that the firebombing was politically inspired by someone with a vested interest in the ensuing publicity is certainly not out of the question. But neither is the possibility that it was domestically inspired or a complete coincidence.

Whether these stories are followed to their truthful conclusions or not, and whether they are actually connected or not, their proximity to one another has nonetheless conspired to put a disturbing and confused spotlight on an already sputtering campaign. Daniels, who has comported herself very well on the road, deserves better.

But one never knows in the hardball game of national politics. As the Star-News pointed out in its editorial, “Daniels’ campaign seems to be more about embarrassing Vitter than it does about improving Louisiana’s economy, which Daniels proposes to undertake from a Senate chair. We doubt her ability to achieve the latter task and Vitter seems to have handled very well the former by embarrassing himself long before we ever heard of Daniels.”

The domestic violence incident aside, if someone associated with Vitter actually thought it was a good, or necessary, idea to firebomb the car of Stormy Daniels’ political advisor, perhaps the senior editors at the Star-News should reconsider their position regarding Daniels’ need to quit “while there’s still a few folks smiling.”

Odds are, however, they don’t think anyone close to Vitter went anywhere near that vehicle.