Congress, GOP & Prostitutes, News, Ohio
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has come into a world of hurt this week for acting like a Republican. Not for something he did, but for what he didn’t do — he didn’t veto a bill that would almost double the pay of the state’s part-time legislators.
Effective July 8, the legislators get a raise from $16,800 to $37,500, plus a generous expense budget. Of course, in a state still ravaged by hurricane damage and a permanently depressed economy, you could understand why folks would be upset at the “shameless” and greedy government goobers.
More confounding to many citizens here than the action by the lawmakers is the inaction of Governor Jindal, who came into office this year with promises to overhaul Louisiana’s reputation for dubious ethics.
During his election campaign, he vowed to prohibit legislative pay raises. Once elected, he quickly pushed through a package of measures increasing the Legislature’s transparency and stamping out conflicts of interest, basking in the subsequent glow of his image as a youthful Ivy League reformer doing battle in a shady subtropical outpost.
That image and his solid standing with the religious right helped propel Mr. Jindal, a 37-year-old former Rhodes scholar, into the front ranks of Senator John McCain’s possible running-mate choices. But now some conservative critics are saying the pay-increase episode demonstrates weakness as well as Mr. Jindal’s unreadiness for the prime time of the vice presidency.
Ah, but I see it differently. I see a bold play on Jindal’s part to curry favor with McCain. As McCain slides further toward the conservative end of the scale, he’s going to need somebody with proven Republican behavioral traits, and it would appear that Jindal’s got them:
a1: Jindal got elected for saying one thing and once elected did the opposite
b2: Jindal didn’t do anything, so he can’t be held accountable for an actual action
c3: Jindal shows he is not one to be swayed by popular opinion or indeed by the will of the people or even their needs
What pundits are calling weakness is actually extraordinary strength and conviction. Right-wing critics overlook the fact that Jindal’s nonveto protects his legislative gains — vouchers for private schools in New Orleans, government spending cuts and a program to teach creationism in public schools — all pillars of the Republican Party platform.
All in all, I think Bobby Jindal has shown himself to be an excellent choice of running mate for John McCain, based on his faithful execution of the Republican agenda. Plus, Jindal’s not Caucasian, so he’s a twofer.
Topics: Congress, GOP & Prostitutes, News, Ohio
As a Louisiana resident I just couldn’t get over how the local press and apparently most of the voters were so enchanted by Jindal. While the rest of the country seems to be moving to the left, Louisiana keeps moving to the right. And they all thought that Jindal was a breath of fresh air and would root out corruption in a state that has seen political corruption and incompetence as a way of life for decades. But they failed to see the irony in assuming that a card-carrying Republican and Bush rubber stamp like Jindal would clean up Lousiana while scores of his co-Republicans were falling from grace due to scandal after seedy scandal. It isn’t that Louisiana should copy the national trends for it historically has not. It’s just that the momentum nationwide is going in one direction while Louisiana is moving in the exact opposite direction and I don’t think that bodes well for the state.
This is an orchestrated campaign to attack Jindal on a national level, not a state level. Jindal is the democrats greatest fear as a Mccain VP…..The Dems has layed out a ground work to discredit Jindal in order to eliminate him as a potential VP….this is very apparent. Jindal not vetoing the pay raise is not big deal..first, 30K/year for legislatures is not big income. Second, when you are pose with non-progress to reform vs pay raise for the legislature, the decision is a no brainer and Jindal is making the right choice. Third, Jindal knows well that it is a political trap for him so he is smart to stay clear of it. Jindal Mccain 2008
Chris:
You missed my point. I was saying that Jindal is a GOOD Republican: he lies, he’s inconsistent, he’s a creationist Bible thumper and he’s insensitive to the needs and desires of the people he supposedly represents. Perfect match-up for McCain. And an imminently beatable match in November.
Well said, Buck. Few in Louisiana have looked closely at Jindal. His family immigrated from India and around the same time, converted to Catholicism. As is true for most converts, they are dogmatic and they follow the Vatican Line on everything. Which means Jindal supports a 100% abortion ban which would not only forbid abortions in the event of rape or incest but even as a last-ditch procedure to save a woman’s life. He also supports state funded vouchers for private and religious schools. If someone points out that this voucher program could mean the end of public education they state “So What?” Of course, Jindal doesn’t actually say that but I’m sure that’s what he’s thinking. He also supported the anti-gay marriage amendment which was put to the voters and approved. It is a particularly all-inclusive and harsh amendment which outlaws not only same-sex marriage (which was illegal anyway) but also common-law marriage and civil unions. But Jindal’s reactionary agenda is “a breath of fresh air” and it will “clean up corruption” in Louisiana. Ah Ha, Ok, whatever.
It seems Jindal was premature and naive in saying he would just not raise legislators’ salaries. It sounds like they were all way long overdue for a raise. $16k? That’s ridiculous. The NYC Council is part-time and they got raised from $90,000 to $112,000 in 2006.
Jindal probably got a lot of pressure and probably felt they deserved a raise and also probably got something from them. Votes his way. Dat’s politics. Jindal would be a great VP Choice for McCain, for several reasons.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
don’t pay legislators more
if any of them
are Republicans
.
Jindal is very ambitious. And the Republicans love him. They have few members now who they can point to with pride. Jindal is perfect for them because of his uncompromising Hard Right positions, his relative youth and his dark complexion. They love to point to members who are not Caucasian so they can claim that they are “diverse”. And Jindal fills the bill on that one too. I’ll admit Louisiana politics needed cleaning up. But do we really need a Right Wing, fanatical anti-abortion, anti-gay governor to do that? I think not.
One last thing….I know several same-sex couples who lived in Louisiana who have either already left the state or are making plans to do so. They are, in effect, voting with their feet. Why should they stay in a state that is moving farther and farther to the right? Why should they stay in a state that passed an anti-gay “Marriage Protection Amendment” that is tantamoun to a slap in the face? The amendment voids any legal recognition of civil unions.
As as liberal, I hated school vouchers but they really do help. The 80% rebate that a student takes to another school, leaves the public school with only 20% of the income at a loss right? Wrong, because they also suffer 0 cost on the students behalf, so if half the students go to private schools, the other half gain an added 20% towards them. Otherwise parents of private school students will just move leaving the district broken.