House Speaker Chuck “The Eunuch” Kleckley Friday removed House Appropriations Committee vice chairman Cameron Henry (R-Metairie) and Appropriations Committee member Joe Harrison (R-Gray) one day after each voted for a motion by Rep. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe) that the administration opposed.
(Eunuch: (1) a castrated man placed in charge of a harem; (2) a man deprived of the testes or external genitals (3) one who lacks virility or power—Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.)
Henry was reassigned to the House Civil Law and Procedure Committee while Harrison was moved to the House Commerce Committee.
When Sen. Dan Claitor (R-Baton Rouge) jokingly referred to himself as the “former member of the Senate Finance Committee” during Thursday’s joint hearings by the House Appropriations and the Senate Finance Committee, he was closer to the truth than even he wanted to admit.
Claitor had just objected to a motion by Senate President John Alario (R-Westwego) to defer action on the proposed contract between Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) and the state that called for BCBS to take over as third party administrator for the Office of Group Benefit’s (OGB) Preferred Provider Organization health coverage plan.
His objection forced a vote on Alario’s motion and the motion subsequently passed by a vote of 11-3 but the House never got a chance to vote because Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols pulled the contract from the committees’ agenda before the House members could vote on Rep. Katrina Jackson’s substitute motion to reject the contract.
Claitor, at this writing, still has his seat on the Senate Finance Committee but that, as Jindal has shown, is subject to change on very short notice.
The latest purge brings to four the number of legislators Gov. Piyush “The Putsch” Jindal has teagued this year for having the temerity to oppose the state’s absentee chief executive. Earlier this year, Reps. James Morris (R-Oil City) and Harold Richie (D-Bogalusa) were removed from the vice-chairmanship of their respective committees.
Morris was demoted from the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee for opposing Jindal’s decision to use one-time money to fund recurring expenses in the state’s General Budget. Richie opposed tax rebates for those who donate money to private and parochial schools.
Jindal has made it abundantly clear on several other occasions that dissention will not be tolerated in his administration. There is simply no room for dialog. This incredibly petulant governor has never learned that politics is the art of compromise. He has fired department heads, university presidents, physicians, attorneys, board members and rank and file employees at the slightest hint that they are not 100 percent on board with his agenda.
Jindal spokesperson Shannon Bates, of course, issued the standard denial that the administration had requested (read: demanded) that Harrison and Henry be removed.
The administration did provide a prepared statement from the governor who, as usual, is campaigning, ostensibly, for Mitt Romney in Ohio: Speaker (“Eunuch”) Kleckley is a fair-minded and proven leader,” Piyush (or Timmy Teepell or Kyle Plotkin—who knows who writes this stuff?) said. “We support the Speaker and the decisions he makes regarding the organization of House committees.”
While he didn’t say so, it is rumored that Jindal also has some ocean front property in Kansas that he’s willing to sell.
Just how long the legislature—and the state’s citizens—will stand for his unabashed grab for absolute control of every facet of state government is anyone’s guess but Henry and Harrison were livid over their ouster.
Harrison, interviewed by LouisianaVoice, said the occupants of the State Capitol’s fourth floor “are not people of good character. Their word is no good.”
Seven members of the Appropriations Committee are elected by members of the House—one from each congressional district—and Harrison was the leading vote getter for the position from the Third Congressional District when Kleckley (aka “Gelding”) approached him and asked that he withdraw as a candidate so that the second-leading vote-getter, Rep. Simone Champagne (R-Erath) could be on the committee. “He (Kleckley) said he would then appoint me and he promised that he would not remove me,” Harrison said.
Ironically, Champagne was promoted by Kleckley to Henry’s old vice chairmanship.
“I agreed and when he called me on the phone to tell me I was no longer on the committee, I reminded him of that. I said, ‘So, you are not a man of your word.’
“He didn’t even show me the dignity of calling me into his office to fire me; he did it over the phone. And he wouldn’t even give me a reason,” Harrison said of Kleckley. “He just said some other Republicans had complained about me. I asked, ‘Which Republicans, Timmy Teepell?’ He said, ‘I don’t take my orders from Timmy Teepell.’ I said, ‘Yeah, right.’”
Harrison lashed out at the administration, saying, “Everything they do (on the legislative committees) is scripted. I’m not making this up; I’ve seen the scripts. They hand out a list of questions we are allowed to ask and they tell us not to deviate from the list and not to ask questions that are not in the best interest of the administration.
“That is not how the State Constitution defines the three branches of government,” he said. “We no longer have a legislative branch of government.
“I don’t mind following men, but I don’t follow boys,” he said in obvious reference to the gaggle of young aides with which Jindal has surrounded himself. “We’re being directed by a bunch of youngsters on behalf of a man not even in the state. How can we, in the critical financial situation this state is in, have inept youngsters telling us what the governor wants when we don’t even see the man?”
He then singled out Jindal’s former chief of staff Timmy Teepell who resigned a year ago to hed up the Baton Rouge operations of OnMessage, a political consulting firm out of Maryland. OnMessage has no Baton Rouge address or phone number and Teepell apparently runs his consulting business from the governor’s office on the fourth floor of the State Capitol.
“Teepell is the puppeteer in this administration. How can you have a man serving as de facto head of state government who never went to school and who never interacted with other people while growing up? The man is anti-social,” Harrison said.
Henry was no less critical of Jindal.
“It is the job of legislators, particularly those serving in leadership roles, to ask the difficult questions necessary to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and wisely,” he said.
“I have been at odds with the speaker and the administration over fiscal issues for the last several years, asking questions about the constitutionality of the state budget; use of one-time and contingency money, fund sweeps and disastrous mid-year budget cuts that impact healthcare systems like LSU, as well as higher education.
“This action by the speaker and the governor demonstrates that they are afraid of having legislators do the job they were elected to do. The people of Louisiana are suffering as a result.”
He said what he called a series of “irresponsible decisions by the speaker and administration” demonstrate that they are not serious about fiscal discipline and following the Constitution.
“The State Constitution contains clear and strict limitations on the budget process for a very good reason,” he said. “These sensible limitations on deficit spending exist so that we can craft realistic, fiscally-responsible budgets through a transparent and deliberative process. Following the constitution is the only way to have a stable, sustainable budget that best serves the needs of the people, families and businesses of Louisiana.”
He said he was disappointed but not surprised at the administration’s action. He said Jindal and Kleckley were trying to ensure they had “yes-men and yes-women” on important committees who would trust the administration and not challenge it.
“We didn’t get elected to trust people. We got elected to ask questions,” he said.
Louisiana Voice 
We tried to tell Harrison and Henry, but they did not listen. Should have listened to their teachers!
Unbelievable the power this little banana republic dictator has. EWE is a candidate for sainthood when compared to him. Louisiana had a chance to boot him out last election, but no, they wanted the dictator and they got him. His tactics should convince all Louisiana Republicans to change party affiliation to Democrat just in retaliation against him. I wish all Louisiana citizens could be advised what kind of dictatorial Governor they voted for.
This is the ALEC agenda and the ALEC way at the local level….
Romney will follow the ALEC agenda on the national level.
Wow. Bold even for this Administration. Representative Katrina Jackson is a true champion for the people of Louisiana. When is our legislature going to stand up for itself? Thanks for your dedication to the truth Tom!
I love you. I will always be on your side no matter what. You have cajones bigger than even John Sachs. You tell truth to power. When you need me, I will be there no matter what it takes. I admire you forever. I am only slightly drunk but that matters not even a whit. I will always have your back. I loath how Louisiana governors manage from time to time to diminish our democracy.
A Ruston High classmate
Legislators will stand up for the people when they no longer live in a state controlled by Piyush and his dynasty (LSU colleagues and alum?) ….when there’s nothing left to lose. But by that time, too late. How complicit is the judiciary …since there is no legislative branch anymore? Exactly who are all the players in this buying and selling of Louisiana and its people? Unbelievable.
We need to look back to how slick this administration was in gaining the trust of its own party (R)and enough (D) to GPS through the rest of the legislative house in the first Term of our absent Chief.The PENDULUM now is as Blind Justice, no guide as to who is being targeted next.The least of these (our children) will feal this more,where are the leaders they are taught to look up to?
Other states are saying, what is happening in Louisiana- I answer a call with this usually,We are saying what is happening in Louisiana? Gruesome!
I know this is a slippery slope, but humor me: If Jindal’s policies and procedures (RICO violations?) create an even larger indigent population, and if that population has no access to affordable health care, education, or opportunity to climb out of poverty, wouldn’t Louisiana end up with only a small group of wealthy, land/property owning company executives, legislators, or judges making arbitrary and self-serving rules everyone else has to follow? A serfdom—a neo-feudal state? Privatize the prisons—It’s “good” economics because it’s free labor… kind of like slavery was to 1% or fewer land owners a couple of hundred years ago. Privatize education (with virtual, non-certified teachers) and Louisiana universities and colleges are the ONLY corporate owned institutions accepting those students if parents have that kind of money to send a kid there. (Making sense now why Jindal wants to encourage LSU graduates to stay in Louisiana – they’ll be working for Mom and Dad at Corporation X and can be groomed as the next generation of a Jindalite Dynasty. “Jindalite” — sounds kind of artificially transparent in a vaguely attractive way, doesn’t it?) The rest can take some unskilled service job or join the militia. Privatize all state services. Then, there is no more State — and any grievance against a Louisiana corporate state department (health and hospitals, administration, education, environment or coastal restoration) will have to be taken up in cost-prohibitive civil court. Doesn’t the U.S, Constitution protect people against deprivation of rights by the STATES? OH, that’s right, there will be no state. Injury caused by negligence on the part of another person (corporations are people,too, remember) falls under tort law, not civil rights. Darn it.
Lords, kingdoms, manors, serfs, and chattel (horses and bayonets for the wealthy; credit at the plantation store for us croppers!).
Jindal and those carrying out his orders have “caste” Louisiana in a new ….dark age….. right?
Or we can all move to another state. That is their argument they will make. We must choose to live as serfs if we stay here and that is our right. So just relocate your entire family and extended family and abandon all your heritage or stop complaining.
Someone or several someones in the lege need to grow a pair or two and stand up to this tiny little man. Citizens, you need to contact your legislators and let them know that if they go along with littlbe booby and his plans that they will lose your vote. if enough people do that perhaps a “critical mass” can be reached where the legislators stand up to the little despot and he will lose his control of the legislature. We cannot afford to have little booby around any longer as the governor of this state. If he stays in until 2015 we won’t have a state worth anything by the time he and his goons have stripped the carcass of everything on it.
I was part of the effort to recall Jindal and Kleckley. We held signings on the weekends. Some of the organizers had strangers taking pictures of their houses. We had a man taking pictures of us across the street from the park where we had a signing. The LAGOP threatened the petition authors. No one would listen when we talked about what Jindal was doing to the state. They thought we were just whining teachers. Wish they would have paid attention. Maybe we could have stopped him.
I am contacted every six weeks or so by a health coach, in my case a respiratory therapist and she’s been very helpful. She said today that Blue Cross will start running OGB as of Jan. 1st and that this was her last contact today since that company will have their own personnel. I told her that OGB hasn’t been sold. In fact I even got a letter saying that Blue Cross is not buying the company. (I didn’t believe it since I already know that plans have been in the works to sell OGB–does the Blue Cross company personnel think we do not read the newspaper?) I told the person with whom I talked this morning that to my knowledge there had not yet been a sale.