This may come under the heading of beating a dead horse, but if Piyush Jindal, henceforth known as the Brahman Brutus of the Republican Party, truly has the job he wants as he has repeated ad nauseum, then why the hell doesn’t he stay in Baton Rouge and do the job he was twice elected to do?
If Piyush will satisfactorily address this one question, then we promise to leave him alone.
Lest anyone think we’re sticking our neck out by offering to lay off this pathetic excuse for a governor, fear not: there’s no way on earth he can reconcile his job to his constantly trotting off in every direction on the compass to address national issues and the problems of the Republican Party.
There’s just no way he can square up the two diametrically opposed activities.
To the remaining Piyush loyalists (and the numbers, believe it or not, are shrinking, Jeff Sadow notwithstanding), ask yourselves one question;
If Piyush truly has his sights set on being governor of Louisiana for the next three-plus years, why do you think he ignores state media and only gives interviews to national media like Fox News, the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Politico and The Huffington Post?
Again, why does he refuse all state media requests for interviews?
• Do you really think the New York Times gives a flying fig about Louisiana’s projected $1 billion budgetary shortfall projected for next fiscal year?
• Do you cling to the faintest notion that CNN worries about the fate of Louisiana’s poor who are facing the loss of medical care because of the closure of state hospitals?
• Do you entertain any shred of belief that the Washington Post is even remotely concerned about that expanding sinkhole in Assumption Parish that swallows up more land each day while threatening the area with potentially explosive gases?
• Do you feel that Politico even knows about the incredibly senseless loss of about $5 billion a year in state revenues because of ill-advised tax breaks, exemptions and credits given to corporations who provide pitifully few jobs to Louisiana residents?
• And why do you think The Huffington Post should be concerned about 1,000 state employees who have been kicked to the curb by this administration (with still more to follow with the completed privatization of the Office of Group Benefits, the anticipated attempt again to sell or, in the alternative, close state prisons?
• Do you actually expect Fox News to investigate the appointment of former legislators to six-figure state jobs to beef up their retirement—jobs for which they are plainly unqualified or to ask probing questions about the awarding of the glut of six-figure salaried jobs in the Department of Education (DOE) to people who are allowed to work part time and to work from their homes in such places as Los Angeles and Tallahassee, Florida? Or to inquire into the hiring by DOE of a former Kansas City school official who left that system under a cloud after the awarding of a $37 million contract to an insider who had worked as a consultant on the project?
In the most recent spate of interviews, Piyush the Pontificator has been quite generous in his criticism of the Republican Party in general and Mitt Romney in particular after having campaigned for Romney with all due enthusiasm during the recent presidential campaign.
So, just where was he with all his sage wisdom during the campaign itself?
You see, you Piyush proponents, he was, as he has consistently been with most issues he has confronted, blindly naïve in foresight an 20/20 vision in hindsight. But he recovers so nicely that he thinks he never leaves a trace of his rumbling, bumbling, stumbling agenda.
Perhaps Bob Mann said it best in his recent post on his web blog Something Like the Truth http://bobmannblog.com/ when he compared Jindal to a passenger on the Titanic who, seeing the iceberg, conveniently ignored the danger but later was critical of the ship’s captain for his performance at the helm.
But let’s examine the record.
The only part of Piyush’s sweeping state employee retirement program reform package that passed during this year’s legislative session was the so-called “cash balance” plan where by new hires would come in after July 1, 2013 under a 401 (k)-type pension program.
Unclear—because the Piyush administration, in its headlong rush to reform, neglected to obtain a ruling on the IRS and Social Security status of the cash balance plan.
An adverse decision could force state employees—and the state—to contribute to both Social Security and Medicare, which would add to state employee and state costs.
The Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS) board voted last week to ask the legislature to delay the July 1 start of the new program because the administration has yet to request a clarification of the IRS and Social Security status.
State employees do not pay into Social Security and thus, unless they have sufficient quarters in the private sector, do not currently qualify for Social Security benefits or Medicare.
The IRS determination period does not begin until February, according to Maris LeBlanc, deputy director of LASERS. It is not clear how long it will take to obtain a determination and LeBlanc said to her knowledge, the Social Security equivalency letter, which is required from the administration, has not been submitted.
Division of Administration (DOA) spokesman Michael DiResto said DOA would submit the letter regarding that status to federal officials this week.
The Louisiana Retired State Employees Association (LRSEA) has filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation was approved without the legally-required two-thirds vote because there was a cost involved in implementing the new program.
House Speaker Chuck “the Genuflecting Gelding” Kleckley (R-Lake Charles), predictably parroting the Piyush position, maintains there was no extra cost in the implementation and that a simple majority vote was sufficient.
The legislature’s own actuary, however, differs with Kleckley and Piyush, making the determination that there was a cost.
So, who do you believe: the one who is paid to evaluate the cost of legislation or the one who desperately wants to cling to his political appointment as House Speaker?
Meanwhile, you can look for Piyush on any major network news program—because he has the job he loves.
Louisiana Voice 
Love you Tom; you have an extreme way of sniffing out a skunk in our bunk:)
“…why do you think he ignores state media and only gives interviews to national media like Fox News, the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Politico and The Huffington Post?”
I don’t think it is because these people don’t care about Louisiana’s problems necessarily. I would ask this not-so-hypothetical question in an attempt to give a more probable reason: “If I am bolstering the myth that is my national reputation and the local media lets me get by with ignoring them, what’s in it for me to risk the national media actually taking seriously a negative report by the local media when I can short-circuit the risk by simply ignoring them?”
It is hard to believe all these national news organizations are taking their cues from Fox News and other clearly right-biased outlets, but, in general, they all seem to be on the same bandwagon and using the same sources and filters. Is this simply laziness? Maybe so. For example, when Wolf Blitzer asked Jindal outright why he so dramatically changed his tune about Romney and the Republican Party, Jindal simply told him revisiting the past wasn’t worthwhile [or words to that effect], and Blitzer pressed him no further.
I do continue to be amazed that Governor Jindal can simply refuse to talk to the local press at will and the local press and a virtual handful of others like Tom Aswell and C.B. Forgotston are the only ones who publicly complain about it. No governor prior to Mike Foster could have ever gotten by with it..
Jindal plays to the national media because his lies won’t fly in Louisiana. If the media were doing its job in verifying all the false claims spouted by Jindal and his minions, there would be little printed. Too bad someone has not taken on the press by responding to every article.
Tom, Layoff notices were sent 11.16.2012. for OGB. I missed the Happy Thanksgiving letter with it, but I am sure well intended.
Forget it. It is not the media’s job to promote or demote Jindal. He is bolstered by staying on message, and he has successfully done so since before his election. The message is, “I can say or do anything I want because my audience is ignorant and prejudiced, and will elect me or anyone I want because we are conservatives with all of the money (thanks, Citizens United). He has successfully passed most of the ALEC initiatives, which will mostly be found unconstitutional, and he has a business plan for that: buy the State Supreme Court. Good for business, the NRA and all of that money we waste on Public Education which should be going to Chas Roemer and corporate America. Just ask Judge Scalia and Judge Jefferson Davis Hughes III: Freedom of speech in campaigns. And Remember, A judge can take away your freedom with one stroke of the Pen. We wise Indians know when man speak with forked tongue.
I think it is the job of media to tell the truth and spread the word about Jindal. They speak the voice of the people. This is not something individuals can do. Look at the tiny paper the News-Star in Shreveport. They stopped an unqualified religious school from getting state money for more students than they had facilities to teach. The power of the media, especially as available as it is today cannot be underestimated. We would not have African-American civil rights if we had not seen the black demonstrators being hosed, bit and beaten in the 1960s. The media is powerful and not easily controlled and the instantaneous nature of if today puts Since the election I have heard one analysis after another about why Obama won. Romney said that Obama offered “gifts” to special interest groups—gifts like human rights and medical care. Mike Huckaby, a former presidential candidate, said that the Christians didn’t get out and vote. Bobby Jindal said the Republicans “dumbed down” their message.
What I truly DO NOT understand is how someone like me with only a high school education see right through how Jindal is singlehandedly tearing apart our State. Yes, I see the harm he is doing but I have no clue as to what I can do to help put a stop to his rampage other then vote. Then when the men and women we elect to do what we taxpayers want, GET KICKED OUT OF THERECOMMITTE POSITIONS IF THEY DON’T VOTE THE JINDAL WAY! What year are we in? 2012 NOT 1935 when Hitler was tearing apart Germany . Maybe a little to strong of a comparison but you get my point!!!
I don’t think it is too strong. I think if he could get the power of Hitler he would accept it and use it in a similar way toward gays and other minorities.
Every time that Piyush gives or is about to give an interview to any national media, the local media needs to follow up or, better, jump ahead of him with the facts about him and what he has done to Louisiana. The have to be forced to care since he is clearly, whether he admits it or not, a candidate for national office. He must pay for what he has done to our state. We may be small and insignificant in both size and political influence, but everyone in America, practically, knows about New Orleans as a vacation spot and survivor of Katrina and the BP disaster and many of Louisiana as providing 25% of America’s seafood. Every time Piyush speaks he must be deservedly tarnished until they listen and start FORCING him to answer the real questions.
Of course he has the job he wants. What other position would give him the platform and lack of accountability to pursue his national goals. He will want the job he has right up until it no longer serves his ambition.
Excellent article, Tom. Somehow you give voice to what we all feel in our hearts. You have to go as far back as Huey Long to find a governor who assumed so much absolute power in the furtherance of his own agenda. And this from a governor who was going to clean up corruption and bring about transparency. During the Huey Long era, the governor even controlled the hiring and firing of local school teachers and school bus drivers, and municipal police chiefs. There is one tiny correction in what you said about Social Security and Medicare. While the state does not pay Social Security, we did begin paying Medicare tax (1.45%) on employees hired after a certain date — I believe it was around 1990. Those employees will then be eligible for Medicare at 65, I think. Eight years ago, those older employees who were left out were offered a one time opportunity to opt in and begin paying the Medicare tax. Of course, that does not help those shoved out the door early.
All of Jindal’s little chickens will come home to roost, sooner than later.
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