Jindal Touches The Third Rail

Today at 11:00 AM CDT Governor Jindal, shortly after the latest poll showed that the Governor Jindal’s approval rating had fallen to 40%, Governor Jindal announced to the press that he was vetoing the legislator’s pay raises.

The voter's writing has been on every wall in Louisiana, but the Governor Jindal blithely ignored their messages. Instead he stammered and stuttered inane reasons for not vetoing the legislator's pay raise from Shreveport, to Ruston, to Baton Rouge.

Finally, when the polling information reached his desk, Governor Jindal ran for cover, just the way he did when he was running Health and Hospitals and when he was running The Board of Trustees for State Colleges and Universities. Without his patrons, Mike Foster and John Breaux, when he was on his own, Governor Jindal touched the third rail.

Well, What Evil Works In The Hearts Of Men?

Yesterday the U.S. Attorney in Shreveport, Donald Washington, announced the indictment of two Friends of State Senator Francis Thompson and his brother. The charge mail fraud involving public servants profiting from the sale of land to the state of Louisiana (i.e. Poverty Point Reservoir). All three, Michael L. “Mike” Thompson, Terry D. Denmon, and William R. “Billy” Coenen, Jr.have lawyered up. “Mike” Thompson age 59 has retained M. Allyn Stroud 48 year’s old of Weiner, Weiss & Madison of Shreveport. Terry D. Denmon age 64 has retained Carey B. Underwood 32 year’s old of Davenport, Files and Kelly of Monroe. “Billy” Coenen, Jr. age 61 has retained the one and only “We’ll clean their clock in court” J. Michael Small (age unknown) of Alexandria, who I believe represents Mr. Thompson in a previous indictment.

So, how long will it take the federales to turn one or more of these “honest and dedicated public servants” and get them to role over on their “decent” colleagues? How long before the second shoe falls on other Friends of Francis Thompson (FOF), other members of his family, and possibly the Senator himself? Only the Shadow knows and he ain’t talk’n r’ght now!.

A Pall Settled Over All Of Monroe, Louisiana

Sometime after 2 PM yesterday a pall settled over all of Monroe, Louisiana, north of Forsythe Avenue, for it was at that time that the NewsStar web site reported that “Randy” Moffett the president of Southeastern Louisiana University, a 1-AA sports school with two directions in its name was named the new president of the University of Louisiana System and not Republican James Cofer, the president of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, a 1-A sports school with one direction in its name.

It seems that the board doing the selecting decided to choose the steak rather than the sizzle. That is the board selected the chief executive that had real accomplishments like an ever growing enrollment rather than the one who said during his interview yesterday his most outstanding accomplishment was changing the name of the school mascot. They decided on the executive who had done more with less than the one who had done less with more. Kudos to the board.

Betrayal

Betrayal, that's all I can call it. My Monroe City Councilman Ben Katz who repeatedly has criticized Mayor Mayo to me and many others voted resoundingly with the Mayor last evening at the City Council meeting. The issue: a series of amendments to the City's ordinances on Trash and Garbage; the most onerous being an amendment to fine, I am sorry City Attorney Summersgill/Tew, to levy a fee on an offender--not clearly defined--of $50 the first week after the transgression and doubling for every week thereafter---and with no warning.

Mr. Katz had said to me in a private conversation before voting yes to introduce the ordinance anyway, that he could not support this unenforceable ordinance. He also said he didn't care if old people and handicapped people were fined!

The community comments to these amendments were very responsible, supportive of cleaning up the city but suggesting with a carrot approach rather than with a stick. Cindy Smith, and officer in north Louisiana Interfaith was supported by seven members of InterFaith as she spoke about a more reasonable approach for the City to take, one less threatening. Baron Powell, Jimmy Inzina, and several others spoke in the same vain pointing out the practical problems of enforcing such a punishment on untraceable trash dumpers.

Persuaded by these comments the Chair of the City Council, Mr. Red Stevens, offered a motion to delay implementation of the ordinance vote by ninety days to allow for conversations with the public, saying that he was impressed by the suggestions and ideas from the community speakers. Mr. Robert Johnson seconded the motion. It was defeated by Mr. Gilmore, Mr. Marx, and Mr. Katz. Then on the original motion to implement the amendments, the vote was the same Mr. Gilmore, Mr. Marx, and Mr. Katz. Mr. Stevens and Mr. Johnson opposed.

Once again the Monroe City Council caved to the Mayor. A reasonable thinking Louisianan must conclude that Mr. Katz, who is offended by everything the Mayor does, traded his vote for the Mayor's support of his wife during the recent election for House of Representatives. Pitiful!

LOUISIANA LEGISLATIVE RAISES MAKE THE NY TIMES

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

June 24, 2008
Legislators Raise Pay, and a Governor Pays the Price
By ADAM NOSSITER
NEW ORLEANS — The reformist image of Gov. Bobby Jindal, considered by Republicans a top potential vice-presidential choice, has recently taken a beating after Mr. Jindal refused to veto a sizable pay increase that Louisiana legislators voted for themselves this month.
The increase would more than double the salary of the part-time legislators effective July 8, to $37,500 from $16,800, with considerably more money available once expenses are added in. It has touched a nerve in this impoverished state.
Conservative talk-radio show hosts and bloggers have denounced it, newspaper editorials have inveighed against it — The Times-Picayune of New Orleans called the increase “greedy” and its main proponent “shameless” — and the legislators themselves received floods of e-mail messages from angry constituents.
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.
“This pay raise is devastating him,” said Moon Griffon, a conservative talk-radio host with a wide following in northern Louisiana, the most Republican and evangelical part of the state. “I’ve gotten over 5,000 e-mails from people who say they voted for him, and who say they would never vote for him again.”
Mr. Griffon added, “People don’t like hypocrisy, and they like somebody with guts.”
The legislative session ended Monday, and Mr. Jindal now has two weeks to veto the pay increase, though he has given no indication that he will do so.
Even while denouncing the money lawmakers are giving themselves, the governor has tried to depict the matter as an internal legislative affair that does not require his meddling.
“I will keep my pledge to let them govern themselves,” the governor said in a statement last week after the State Senate passed the increase, backing off a rejection of the raise, though he also said he was “very sorry” about it. Editorialists and radio show hosts have since had a field day juxtaposing that “pledge” to the Legislature with the promise Mr. Jindal made when he was running last fall to “prohibit legislators from giving themselves pay raises.”
Jim Brandt, president of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, an independent good-government research organization in Baton Rouge, said voters did not appreciate a broken pledge.
“It puts a real dent in any sort of reform credential of either the governor or the Legislature,” Mr. Brandt said.
That theme of perceived weakness is echoed by other political experts.
“No matter where I go, they certainly are disappointed, and they are using some very unkind words related to his spine,” said Bernie Pinsonat, a pollster in Baton Rouge. “It’s pretty ferocious.” He added, “I’m quite positive his base is very upset with him.”
The legislators have not had a base pay increase since 1980 and complain that with the governor frequently calling them into special session, their job is no longer part-time. The increase would put salaries in the upper tier for similar part-time legislatures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Mr. Brandt agreed that some sort of modest raise could be justified — an independent commission recommended a 12 percent increase several years ago — but said the 123 percent rise, with additional increases pegged to inflation, was “problematic.”
Mr. Jindal’s strategy was apparently based on a desire not to jeopardize the other elements he won in his legislative wish list, like a voucher program for private schools in New Orleans, or restoring spending cuts made by fiscal conservatives in the Capitol.
“He was not about to give the Legislature any excuse to block his reform agenda,” said the governor’s spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, adding: “The governor has opposed the legislative pay increase loudly every step of the way.”
But the furor over the pay raise has put in the shadows the rest of his program, and other bills pushed by conservatives sympathetic to him, like one the Legislature overwhelmingly approved allowing science teachers to use “supplemental” material that critics say is merely a stalking-horse for teaching creationism.

bobby's folly

June 18, 2008

Dear Editor:

By awarding itself such incredible raises, the Louisiana legislature has stuck its collective finger in the eye of every single voter in Louisiana. What they have done is worse than any other government we have ever had in Louisiana.

If Governor Jindal does not veto this legislative insult to the voters, then he is no better than Edwin Edwards or Huey Long. In fact he might go down as the worst governor we have ever had. Whatever he turns out to be, if he doesn’t correct this egregious affront to the voters, he certainly is no reform governor.