Louisiana Voice

Let’s review.

Back in January, at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in Charlotte, N.C., Gov. Bobby Jindal called on the Republican Party to “stop being the stupid party.”

Fast forward to the first week in March to the National Press Club’s annual Gridiron Show. Jindal is the speaker and scores with a couple of zingers that get the intended laughs. Then he prepared a jab at the Attorney General when he said, “I see Eric Holder is with us.”

Nothing wrong with that. Decent set up line. But any stand-up comic will tell you that you must know your audience. You don’t tell nightclub jokes at a church social and vice-versa.

So what does he do at last week’s CPAC meeting in Washington, D.C.? The same line. “I see Eric Holder is with us.”

Crickets chirping.

“Hello, is this mike on?”

Eric Holder wouldn’t be caught dead at a CPAC meeting.

And neither should Jindal. If the man doesn’t have the presence of mind to edit a recycled speech, he needs to come back home to Lake Corne.

Forrest Gump would have something appropriate to say about stupid.

But if opponents are looking for a silver lining, consider this: With all the court reversals he has undergone with some of his programs on education and retirement reforms, the luster appears to be fading on his once shining star.

With the continuing reports of his creating new positions like that of Assistant Commissioner in Procurement and Technology—a job title that never existed before—that was recently handed to Jan Cassidy, sister-in-law to Cong. Bill Cassidy at a cool $150,000 per year, that star may have flickered just a tad.

After his public scolding of his political party and his subsequent bombing at CPAC, it’s for certain that his star is no longer rising.

With the backlash he’s certain to get from his tax reform proposals in this year’s legislative session he may no longer be able to shove his agenda down the legislature’s throat.

With his record of absenteeism from the state, it’s questionable if the electorate will ever be in the mood to return him to any political office. State employees, teachers, the working poor who are being deprived of adequate health care and debt-ridden college students who are being told to pony up ever-increasing tuition because of higher education cutbacks, comprise a fairly sizable voting bloc.

But if Jindal insists on continuing to prattle on with his self-righteous lectures to fellow Republicans, here’s a joke he can tell that should lighten the mood:

A man walking along the beach at Grand Isle comes across a lamp. He pulls it out of the sand and starts to rub the sand off the surface of it.

Poof! Out of the lamp pops a genie in a cloud of smoke. “Oh, Master, you have freed me from the lamp. You get a wish.”

“I thought I got three wishes,” protests the man.

“I’m not that genie. I got only one. Take it or leave it.”

The man thinks for a while and finally says, “I wish to live forever.”

“C’mon man, I can’t grant you that wish. That’s absurd. Be reasonable and make another wish.”

He thinks longer and harder before he finally says, “Okay, I wish to live until Gov. Jindal shows compassion and empathy for public school teachers, the poor and state employees.”

The genie looks down at the man, smiles, and says, “You crafty devil.”