Bobby Jindal wins
Thursday February 28, 2008
Categories: Louisiana, the Great State
O Fortuna, could it really be true? Serious, meaningful ethics reform passes the Louisiana legislature? Lord have mercy, I'm going to have to drink me a case of Dr. Nut just to comprehend it all. Thank you, governor....
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Dr. Nut?
Well, it's a start. On the other hand, it is thought rather curious on Louisiana political blogs that the The Ethical Mr. Jindal is adamantly avoiding campaign finance reform. Almost as if....nahhh, he's way too ethical for that!
Actually, in some cases, the Legislature strengthened what was being proposed by Jindal considerably.
THAT is the real miracle.
From the NY Times story:
In a town where legislators have been known to proclaim paid-for meals a principal draw to public service, this was an especially unpopular move. Last week, State Representative Charmaine L. Marchand of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans said the limit would force her and her colleagues to dine at Taco Bell, and urged that it be pushed to $75 per person, to give them “wiggle room.”
No public groundswell took up her cause, and the $50 limit held.
Wow. The citizens of Louisiana are a cold-hearted bunch.
Whoops! That second to last line is part of the story as well.
Dr. Nut, my dear Irenaeus, is an old New Orleans soft drink that's Ignatius Reilly's favorite beverage. Have you been with me so long? Have you not read "A Confederacy of Dunces"? You should be lashed, strumpet! Where's my lute string...
Everyone should read "A Confederacy of Dunces."
On the main topic, if the Kingfish were alive, he'd be rolling over in his grave.
I haven't got to Confederacy yet...*sigh*...just finished editing a book, working now to get another out, caring for family...I'll put it on the summer list.
FYIY, I've read almost all of Walker Percy's fiction and most of his nonfiction essays...and I love Flannery O'Connor. Forgiven?
Passing ethics bills and implementing ethical behavior on politicians would eliminate 85% of the Democrat political platform, since most of Democrat politics is based on implementing unethical (immoral) behavior. (A good place to see that is New Orleans.) Could you imagine Massachusetts & California implementing ethics on politicians? The perverts running those state and their pederasty and sapphic education indoctrination centers (public schools, BTW) would be a thing of the past. How do we get a Governor like this on the Left coasts?
Where are the Sapphic Education Indoctrination Centers? I must pay them a visit. Perhaps the ladies would enjoy some wine cakes from Holmeses, or a nice madrigal.
Ethics reform in Louisiana is like poetry readings by George W. Bush. I hope the former is more impactful than the latter. Go Bobby Go!
Irenaeus - Confederacy is a romp and a hoot. Don't think of it as something on your list of "should reads." Think of it as dessert.
Irenaeus: FYIY?*
Rod, one word: chocolate.
Wake: we already have an ethical code for politicians. It's called serving the public. One wonders (ahem) why it has been so difficult for voters to figure that out... except, of course, for those who are getting "served" better than everyone else.
* When I first encountered YMMV (your mileage may vary), instead of just asking I tried to figure it out from the context of the discussion in progress. What I came up with: you make me vomit. ;-D
Franklin:
The kind of service the public gets from the political classes is the same kind of service that the cow gets from the bull. It's the nature of the political process itself that is the problem. As long as the State apparatus can forcibly take money from one group to give money and favors to another group, public "service" will always exist.
It's almost enough to make one regret the demise of the old monarchies. At least it was possible for a king to "live off his own". Today's noble classes (the political/bureaucratic classes) live off OUR own, and at rates that would make Pharaoh's tax men blush.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
Lord Karth, why have you been hiding your light under a basket? I had you pegged as a liberal.
Rod, ever hear the true story of the Louisiana politician who told the crowd, sometime in the seventies, I think, that "It is not true that I can be bought, but I can be rented"?
In my thirty some years in D.C., the most brazen, corrupt politicians came from New Jersey and Louisiana, so I don't believe there will be any more reform in Louisiana than McCain/Feingold provided the country. Ya gotta hope, however, that BJ can put a dent in the corruption. After all, he will be at least the VP one of these days, so he needs to build a record.
Lord Karth, your response is certainly valid to the status quo; my point is the abstract, the ideal.
I have the rare honor to personally know a true public servant, a woman who exemplifies the ethics of public service. Her name is Babette Josephs, and she is the elected member from the 182nd district to the PA House of Representatives. http://www.babette.org/ One cannot know her as I and her neighbors do, just from her website, so I'll give you a comparison point: she is a Democrat in a Democrat-machine town, and the party regularly tries to replace her.
Cleveland, you remind me of the time-honored truth: you can't buy beer, you can only rent it. ;-D
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