Here’s the political shocker of the year: Gov. Bobby Jindal says that the Republican Party would be better off selecting a governor as its 2016 presidential nominee.
Wow. Who saw that coming?
Jindal might wish to ask former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney how that scenario worked out for him.
Wonder how Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida feel about that little snub?
Better yet, wonder who he had in mind? Gosh, there are so many: Chris Christie of New Jersey, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Ohio’s John Kasich and Rick Perry of Texas whom Jindal was quick to endorse a couple of years ago before Perry’s political machine sputtered and died on some lonely back road. Then there are those former governors Jeb Bush of Florida, Mike Huckabee of neighboring Arkansas, and Sarah what’s-her-name up there in Alaska.
Oh, right. We almost forgot because well…he’s just so forgettable, but there’s also Jindal who recently placed about 12th in a 10-person straw poll at that wild-eyed, frothing-at-the-mouth Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
But he’s running. You betcha (sorry, Palin, we couldn’t resist). He is so intent in his as yet unannounced candidacy that he has already drafted his own plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
Presidential candidates are usually expected to exhibit voter empathy and to be spellbinding orators who are capable of mesmerizing of voters en masse. John Kennedy comes immediately to mind. So do Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. I mean, after Clinton took two steps toward that audience member in his debate against President Bush the First in 1992 and said, “I feel your pain,” Bush never had a chance. Clinton looked that voter dead in the eye and spoke one-on-one as Bush was checking his watch.
Jindal has all the empathy of Don Rickles, but without the charisma.
As for oratory skills, to borrow a line from a recent Dilbert comic strip, he should be called the plant killer: when he speaks, every plant in the room dies from sheer boredom.
So much for his strong points: let’s discuss his shortcomings.
Jindal believes—is convinced—he is presidential timber. The truth is he has been a dismal failure at running a state for the past six years and he’s already written off the final two as he ramps up his campaign for POTUS.
Yes, we’ve been beset by hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike and Gustav. Yes, we had the BP spill. All of those provided Jindal valuable face time on national TV and still he trails the pack and when you’re not the lead dog in the race, the view never changes.
Because of those catastrophes, the state has been the recipient of billions of federal dollars for recovery. Nine years later, Jindal cronies still hold multi-million contracts (funded by FEMA) to oversee “recovery” that is painfully slow. The state received hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild schools in New Orleans. Construction on many of those schools has yet to commence. The money is there but there are no schools. (Correction: Largely white Catholic schools have received state funding and those facilities are up and running.)
Jindal tried to restructure the state’s retirement system—and failed. Yes, the retirement systems have huge unfunded liabilities but Jindal’s solution was to pull the rug from under hard-working civil servants (who by and large, do make less than their counterparts in the private sector: you can look it up, in the words of Casey Stengel). As an example, one person whom we know was planning to retire after 30 years. At her present salary, if she never gets another raise over the final eight years she plans to work, her retirement would be $39,000 per year.
Under Jindal’s proposed plan, if she retired after 30 years, her retirement would have been $6,000—a $33,000-a-year hit. And state employees do not receive social security.
Never mind that state employees have what in essence is a contract: he was going to ram it down their throats anyway—until the courts told him he was going to do no such thing.
He has gutted higher education and his support of the repeal of the Stelly Plan immediately after taking office has cost the state a minimum of $300 million a year—$1.8 billion during his first six years in office.
He even vetoed a renewal of a 5-cent per pack cigarette tax because he opposed any new taxes (try following that logic). The legislature, after failing to override his veto, was forced to pass a bill calling for a constitutional amendment to make the tax permanent. Voters easily approved the amendment.
Then there was the matter of the Minimum Foundation Program, the funding formula for public schools. Funds were going to be taken from the MFP to fund school vouchers until the courts said uh-uh, you ain’t doing that either.
Jindal’s puppets, the LSU Board of Stuporvisors, fired the school’s president and two outstanding and widely admired doctors—all because they didn’t jump on board Jindal’s and the board’s LSU hospital privatization plan. Then the stuporvisors voted to turn two LSU medical facilities in Shreveport and Monroe over to a foundation run by a member of the stuporvisors—and the member cast a vote on the decision. No conflict of interest there.
Six months after the transition, the Center for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS) has yet to approve the transition and if it ultimately does not approve it, there will be gnashing of hands and wringing of teeth in Baton Rouge (That’s right: the administration won’t be able to do that correctly, either) because of the millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding that the state will not get or will have to repay. Jindal will, of course, label such decision as “wrong-headed,” which is an intellectual term he learned as a Rhodes Scholar.
And from what we hear, his little experiment at privatizing Southeast Louisiana Hospital (SELH) in Mandeville by bringing in Magellan to run the facility isn’t fairing too well, either.
By the way, has anyone seen Jindal at even one of those north Louisiana Protestant churches since his re-election? Didn’t think so.
For some reason, the word repulsive keeps coming to mind as this is being written.
Jindal’s firings and demotions are too many to rehash here but if you want to refresh your memory, go to this link: https://louisianavoice.com/category/teague/
The LSU Board of Stuporvisors, by the way, even attempted to prevent a release of a list of potential candidates for the LSU presidency. One might expect that member Rolf McCollister, a publisher (Baton Rouge Business Report), would stand up for freedom of the press, for freedom of information and for transparency. One would be wrong. He joined the rest of the board to unanimously try to block release. Again, led as usual by legal counsel Jimmy Faircloth who has been paid more than $1 million to defend these dogs (dogs being the name given to terrible, indefensible legal cases), Jindal was shot down in flames by the courts and the Board of Stuporvisors is currently on the hook for some $50,000 in legally mandated penalties for failing to comply with the state’s public records laws.
It would be bad enough if the administration’s legal woes were limited to the cases already mentioned. But there is another that while less costly, is far more embarrassing to Jindal if indeed, he is even capable of embarrassment at this point (which he probably is not because it’s so hard to be humble when you’re right all the time).
In a story we broke more than a year ago, former state Alcohol and Tobacco Control commissioner Murphy Painter refused to knuckle under to Tom Benson and Jindal when Benson’s application for a liquor license for Champions Square was incomplete both times it was submitted. Budweiser even offered an enticement for gaining approval of a large tent and signage it wanted to erect in Champions Square for Saints tailgate parties: a $300,000 “contribution” to the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District (Superdome), whose board is heavily stacked with Jindal campaign contributors.
And:
https://louisianavoice.com/2013/02/page/3/
Jindal fired Painter. Because firing him for doing his job might be bad press, more solid grounds were sought and Painter was subsequently arrested for sexual harassment of a female employee and of using a state computer database to look up personal information on people not tied to any criminal investigation (something his successor Troy Hebert ordered done on LouisianaVoice Publisher Tom Aswell).
The female employee recanted but Painter nevertheless was put on trial and once more the Jindalites were embarrassed when Painter was acquitted on all 29 counts. Unanimously.
But wait. When a public official is tried—and acquitted—for offenses allegedly committed during the scope of his duties (the Latin phrase is “in copum official actuum”) then Louisiana law permits that official to be reimbursed for legal expenses.
In this case, Jindal’s attempt to throw a state official under the bus for the benefit of a major campaign donor (Benson and various family members), will wind up costing the state $474,000 for Painter’s legal fees and expenses, plus any outstanding bills for which he has yet to be invoiced.
So, after all is said and done, Jindal still believes he is qualified for the highest office in the land. He is convinced he should be elevated to the most powerful position in the world. If he has his way, it won’t be an inauguration; it’ll be a coronation.
So intoxicated by the very thought of occupying the White House is he that he has presumed to author a 26-page white paper that not only critiques Obamacare but apparently details his plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. Could that qualify as another exorcism on his part?
His epiphany, however, appears to be more akin to the Goldfinch that regurgitates food for its young nestlings than anything really new; it’s just a rehash of old ideas, it turns out.
During his entire administration—and even when he served as Gov. Mike Foster’s Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals—he devoted every waking moment to cutting Medicaid and depriving Louisiana’s poor citizens of health care. Even as head of DHH, according to campaign ads aired on the eve of the 2003 gubernatorial election, he made a decision which proved fatal to a Medicaid patient. That one campaign ad was aired so close to the election date that he was unable to respond and it no doubt contributed to his losing the election to then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco but he won four years later.
Nevertheless, his sudden interest in national health care prompts the obvious question: where the hell has he been for six years?
Not that we would for a moment believe that his newfound concern for healthcare is for political expedience but he apparently isn’t stopping there as he sets out to save the nation.
“This (health care plan) is the first in a series of policies I will offer through America Next (his newly established web page he expects to catapult him into the White House) over the course of this year,” he said.
We can hardly wait.
Tom, thank you for this summary of Jindal’s failures as a Governor. As your readers know, this is far from a complete list of Jindal’s shenanigans, failures, and acts of cruelty, but are highlights of his low life.
I hope our legislators will read this and correctly decide not to hitch their wagons to the fallen star that Jindal represents.
And as the GOP begins in earnest its POTUS candidate vetting, your summary should knock Jindal out in the early minutes of the first round. To that I say, “Mission Accomplished.”
Loved your article!!!!Keep getting the word out as to what’s actually going on in LA. Our Monroe News Star and Shreveport Times don’t share much that’s actually news. If it doesn’t come off the wire, we don’t see it. Gone are the days of “investigative reporting” in local papers!
Thank you again, Mr. Aswell!!! Please know how much we appreciate what you do to keep Jindal the Joker’s evil shenanigans (and backstories behind them) front & center for Louisiana citizens to see and address. Priceless!!! God bless you!
I know you didn’t have the time or space to print all of Jindal’s exploits, but I have to add in one of my favorites. Leading up to his first and second elections as governor, Jindal tirelessly visited small churches in rural areas of the state, that is, until he had no more need to show he was concerned for their wellbeing! Tom, maybe you could dedicate a one week period in which your readers post their favorite Jindal escapades. If you made it into a contest, first place could be a 1 year 8 month paid vacation to anywhere outside of Louisiana and away from this governor.
Good idea, Dr. Robinson, but where would Tom get the money? 😉
We can ask Kristy Nichols. Whenever there is a shortfall, she seems to be able to pull millions out of her colon.
“Jindal has all the empathy of Don Rickles, but without the charisma.”
You could not have better summed this up.
It is laughable (but not funny) that the governor of a state clearly going backward in the area of health care would have the audacity to claim to have a plan for national health care.
Governor Jindal may deserve at least some of the credit for Louisiana’s improved economy (though there has been no discernible improvement in the quality of state services or general quality of life).
Whether it has actually saved the taxpayers money or not (and the jury is definitely out on that), he has significantly reduced the number of state employees.
Those are his 2 accomplishments as governor of Louisiana – a better state economy and fewer state employees.
Apparently his other ideas will only work on the national level, else there would be some evidence of their success here. White papers are not worth the paper upon which they are printed if there is no evidence to support their ability to work in the real world.
I may have to frame this one. Your article is so dead on. Jitler almost sounds like a fictional character – he’s that bad! Unfortunately for us, he’s real. Do you know if it’s true that he and his entourage are seated for church services while little old grannies are permitted to stand when there is an overflow crowd? (Heard that one awhile ago.) And lifts in his shoes to make him appear taller, what about that one? I keep hoping one of his former inner circle minions will do a “tell all” to entertain the rest of us.
You may not have had enough room to mention the debacle that is our behavioral health overhaul. I really hope our legislature realizes what is going on with Magellan (or not going on), and does not renew their contract.
Thank you, Tom. It is shameful that compared to your hard-hitting exposure of Jindal’s Swindals, most of Louisiana’s major papers give that pathetic little man a free ride. Please keep it up, and please do whatever is possible to increase the circulation of the info you present.
How charming that he returned to the “wonder boy” roots with health as the first plank in his POTUS campaign. Especially after he has single handed (nearly) dismantled a public health system, which if it were groomed rather than plowed under, could have served as a true platform model for the US. Bless his heart …
This is the best recap of the failed leadership of Jindal I’ve read. Hopefully, Hannity and the talking heads will see this and open their eyes. I have not heard about the “Largely white Catholic schools” that received state funding. Please expand on that subject, which schools? And as far as the Stelly tax, it needed to be replaced because it was supposed to be the first part of a tax reform that never happened and never will. When Jindal hand picked John Alario to be his man, the hand writing was on the wall. Jindal is the good ole boy network, just a nerdy version of it.
Jindal has certainly botched a few things over the years, but Vitter won’t have the same misguided focus and will instead focus on trimming the sheer bloat and dead weight that Jindal will have left behind for him.
With all due respect, Mr. Reynolds, trimming the remaining “bloat and dead weight” will not make a dent in the black hole that has become our state’s budget. The only way to cut the budget in a meaningful way at this point is to cut services.
Inspector General’s Office = Useless and a total waste. LSU is the most bloated bureaucracy in the entire State of Louisiana which needs massive restructuring to remain viable. Jindal has played tidily winks with the state’s spending problem (and he deserves some credit for efficiencies like FARA taking over ORM), but David Vitter is the real hope for meaningful solutions to Louisiana’s per-capita spending levels. He won’t have an eye on running the state and one on running for President. He’ll focus all his attention on making the fiscal adjustments that Bobby Jindal was simply too timid to carry out.
Vitter, the obstructionist and diaper wearing john “won’t have the same misguided focus”?
I’ll bet his focus will be a whole new brand of “misguided” if past behavior predicts. Hoping we can do better than Vitter—he’s so bought and paid for and just plain NASTY.
Surely you saw (or have heard about) Wednesday’s U. S. Supreme Court ruling banning contribution limits. If you think anyone is going to be able to contend with David Vitter after that ruling, dream on!! You need to prepare for serious tax reform initiatives and complete realignment of many state agencies under Vitter. It should have been done decades ago, and Jindal lost sight of any serious progress on those fronts (if he ever had it). This business of planning to work for the state 30 years and then draw a pension for life is a relic. Jindal would get a “4” in terms of making progress on that front, but people expect a “10,” and David Vitter will deliver!
We were discussing the current gov’s track record, not supposing who or what his successor might be or do. That’s for another thread. But since you brought up the subject. If “bitter Vitter” wins I hope he installs the Vitter retirement plan … full benefits which are a lot richer than the retired state employees I know (including me and I receive twice the average compensation of most with 30 years of service) … and only after 15 years of public service. Just saying …
And I’m “just saying” there are plenty displeased with Jindal’s lack of fiscal conservatism and my comments repeatedly reference that. I’m not under any illusions that many subscribers to this list are Vitter fans, but my right to express displeasure over Jindal’s track record for reasons differing from yours are no less applicable for publication to this site than yours. I’ve not made one comment about any lack of applicability of others’ rights to express why they’re displeased with Jindal and what they perceive as a better solution, but I see when you don’t like mine, you say I have no right to express them! I know you no doubt fear a Vitter win, but find a way to live with it because it’s coming!!
One last point, voiceofshe …..Since you can brag on your state pension being so high, how about volunteering to help with the so-called budget problems the state has by removing the exclusion of state retiree pensions from state income taxation? I doubt you’ll be stepping up to the plate for that proposal anytime soon, huh?
I think you misunderstood my reply. I wasn’t bragging about my pension being high (avg. state pension after 30 years about $22K w/ no or reduced SS benefits) nor ragging Mr. Vitter (the title after all was in quotes).
You might be surprised about how much I follow and give my input on budget matters for the state’s taxpayers thus the nom de plume – voiceofshe.
But this thread started out about BobbyJ’s tome on health care (assuming from Tom’s attention) thus to be the first plank in his POTUS platform. In my 31+ years with the state, I spent the first 18 working at “big” Charity in New Orleans in progressively more responsible positions (5yrs. of which I was also married to a physician – no nepotism, good old Civil Service) across a broad spectrum of business sections there. And for my last 13 years, I directed a unit which among other programs, managed (hands on by the only other CEBS in state govt. at the time except for the head of OGB – developed specs, bid, evaluated cost/benefits ratios, legal compliance, etc. and recommended to a board) employee insurance for an agency which was not a part of State Group Benefits. So I know about health care education, delivery and costs. And I know BobbyJ instead of applying his expertise in the field to restore LA to a position of leadership in both public and private health care education, delivery and cost management, used it to end game destruction under the guise of progress and vision.
I included my credentials not boastfully but to put my experience in context. I was never an employee to accept the status quo and successfully improved processes and programs. I always believed the taxpayers should get full value for my work. And I was ambitious enough to go for the promotions when they arose and fortunate enough to get them.
I will end my thread, Chris, here with these thoughts, (and before Tom asks me to write a column). Adieu, from voiceofshe on the topic of BobbyJ’s POTUS Health Care proposal. And bless his heart for putting it in writing…
For those of you who may not know:
The first Charity was founded by a grant from a French sailor in 1736 – 67 years before the LA Purchase and therein planted the seed of physician training locally. That training is also now a mess (from personal experience with an elder relative’s care at the second oldest NO hospital) because students/residents/fellows are “cast upon the winds”. They now do the work with and for the private drs. every place, not just in the Charity system, but the billing is full out.
Mr. Aswell:
Outstanding commentary. The clown is an embarrassment to not just this state, but to the entire human race.
Oh boy, what a “winner” he is. Amazing how he can still even dream he is any sort of winner. To any sane, semi-rational person, that would have been a clue to take a hike.
One might wonder where he gets his motivation from – the secret place must be the within the confines of his bathroom at home because he must think his s— doesn’t stink and therefore he has literally flushed his common sense down the drain cause we haven’t see it since he took office!!
Well done Tom!
Let’s not forget all the 100K job appointments he made to political allies and cronies who were complete morons with no grasp of what their jobs were, or how to do them.
(The aforementioned Troy Hebert being an excellent example as well as Gautreau over Motor Vehicles.)
Jindal’s poor judgement continues to be ignored by Louisiana newspapers and television stations and leaves us only you, C.B. and a few others to try and bring the truth out.
Keep up the great work!
Mr. Reynolds if I read your comment correctly,”I know you no doubt fear a Vitter win, but find a way to live with it because it’s coming,” implies you can accurately predict the future of Louisiana’s next governor. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the recklessness of our present Governor. In my humble opinion, I believe it’s critical we do not distract from what is presently happening in our state. If Jindal is to run for the U.S. Presidency then it’s vital to his credibility that the citizens of Louisiana back him and praise him. Tom, so succinctly summarized the Jindal leadership and it’s negative impact which is still ongoing then we need to focus on what we plan to do about it. I for one will not look to the next Governor to solve the problems while they are still being created. My suggestion is let’s hold our legislators accountable and the Jindal employees who are still working for the state.
Jindal is yesterday’s news. He’s finished and we all know it. Anyone can see the sheer chaos at the Capitol to know he’s a governor in name only. His only power left is his veto authority. I certainly don’t expect the band of elected officials we have now to corral the fortitude to convene any override session, so he can just enjoy playing the role of spoiler for the next 14 months (until after the 2015 session is up). I want to focus on who his successor will be because the one thing we all seem to agree on is that he has disappointed all of us (albeit for many and varied reasons).
“Yesterday’s news,” is today’s headline news. Tom, Jindal’s spending freeze ( mid year budget cuts) are disturbing due to how funding resources are being moved around. However, Jindal and Kleckley’s incentive fund. Exactly where is the incentive fund dollars coming from? It would be great if you could expand on what the newspapers are not .
John, Glad to read you are cancer free. Ed B
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