Peter Schroeder, a writer for The Hill, has drunk the Kool-Aid.
The Hill is a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc. that covers the U.S. Congress with an emphasis on business, lobbying and political campaigns and is one of the first web pages accessed each day by those wishing to stay abreast of events in the nation’s capital.
But Sunday’s story by Schroeder has to leave readers in Louisiana scratching their heads and wondering about his credentials or his sanity—or both.
His story, The New and Improved Jindal, touts the prospects of Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-Iowa, R-New Hampshire, R-Anywhere but Louisiana) as a legitimate challenger for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/219759-the-new-and-improved-bobby-jindal
Perhaps unwittingly, however, the headline to his story may have provided an insight to what’s in store for the Boy Blunder.
By invoking the term “new and improved,” we immediately are left with the idea that he is being packaged and sold like so much washing powder or toothpaste—or perhaps more appropriately, toilet paper.
To bolster his evaluation of Jindal as a real comer, Schroeder relied on people like Tony Perkins, founder of the Louisiana Family Forum, former legislator, failed U.S. Senate candidate and president of the Family Research Council and Jindal’s former chief of staff, current political adviser Timmy Teepell and Baton Rouge political pollster Bernie Pinsonat.
The fact that Jindal and Perkins are in lock step on family values issues does not exactly make Perkins an impartial observer and Teepell certainly has much to gain if he and his consulting company, OnMessage, can ride Jindal’s coattails into the White House (or as Sarah Palin would say, 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue).
Schroeder also hangs his analysis on a single speech by Jindal last week when he cracked a couple of jokes that actually got chuckles from his conservative audience at the Values Voters Summit in Washington. “Jindal showed a dynamic style as he paced across the state,” he wrote.
What!!? Really? You’re staking your writing career on that thin bit of evidence?
Well, not exactly. There is this from Teepell:
“Most people’s impression of his speaking skills go back to his State of the Union response (of 2009), which was just a terrible speech.
“You’re having to do it (speaking) all the time, and on a number of different issues every single day, and so he just gets better and better.”
So, there you have it. By Teepell’s own admission, Jindal is making these speeches “every single day,” which leaves damned little time for him to devote his attention to the mundane duties of governor—a job to which he was re-elected by 67 percent of 20 percent of the state’s voters, a veritable mandate.
If he’s such a rising star, perhaps Schroeder can explain to us how Jindal managed to finish behind “nobody” in a recent straw poll. Maybe he can tell us why he remains a bottom feeder in the polls, along with Palin who can’t seem to get the address of the White House right.
Jindal’s supporters argue that his low numbers can be attributed to the fact that voters in the heartland don’t know him, not because they don’t like him.
News flash: we know him in Louisiana and his numbers have never been lower here and it’s precisely because we do know him.
Louisiana pollster Bernie Pinsonat said Jindal simply needs an issue that will give him national exposure.
We have several such issues:
- He was for Common Core before he decided it would be politically expedient to oppose it.
- He regularly hopped all over north Louisiana handing out stimulus money at Protestant churches and “awarding” military veterans’ pins during his first term but has not visited a single church of any stripe nor has he delivered any military pins since his re-election where only 20 percent of registered voters even bothered to vote.
- He has bankrupted the state with tax giveaways to corporations while attempting to rip state employees’ pensions from them with a patently unconstitutional legislative bill.
- He is now attempting to do the same thing with state worker health benefits while at the same time depleting the fund balance of the Office of Group Benefits.
- He has handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in questionable state contracts to consultants and favored firms.
- His hand-picked Secretary of Health and Hospitals has been indicted on nine counts of perjury in connection with one of those contracts.
- He has given away the state hospital system to private entities though the move has yet to be approved by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
- He has repeatedly cut the budgets of higher education in Louisiana.
- He has consistently promoted school vouchers and charter schools at the expense of low-income students who are left in the underfunded public schools.
- He attempted to give the State Police Superintendent a $55,000 a year retirement raise while ignoring rank and file state police and state employees.
- He has broken his promise not to use one-time money for recurring expenses—not once, but six times.
- He has enveloped the governor’s office in secrecy.
- He has cloaked himself in a mantle of self-righteousness that is betrayed by his callous lack of concern for the people of Louisiana.
“People are going to have plenty of time to get a better impression of Gov. Jindal,” Teepell said. “That (2009) speech won’t be the only thing they remember about him.”
The business of remaking or re-packaging of the new and improved Jindal reminds of the wisdom of Mark Twain who said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
As far as we’re concerned, Jindal is going to have plenty to try to remember in his quest for the brass ring that is the GOP nomination.
Or, as we prefer to think, if you’re genuine—if you’re the real deal—there’s really no need for a makeover.
And if ever a person needed a makeover, it’s Jindal.
Louisiana Voice 
Tom, I think the author of that piece needs to read your piece.
Tom, you should forward all of your posts having to do with this administration’s myriad shady deals and the “gold standard” ethics of this absentee governor to Pete Shroeder. If he still likes Jindal after a little such light reading, well, we’ll have a good idea about Mr. Shroeder’s morals and ethics as well.
You can gild a pile of crap, but it is still a pile of crap.
Good article!
At the 1/7/14 BRPC meeting (the only one at which he has been known to take unfiltered question), Jindal relayed that he was sure that days after he leaves office, he’ll ponder, “If we’d handled this item or issue differently…..” I have to believe one of those ponderings will be if he’d taken time to evaluate circumstances which he knew entailed serious ethical problems regarding his appointees and inner circle rather than hoping that, by severing ties with the ones pointing out the problems, his image may be far, far better now than the dismal failure snd hypocrite he’s been exposed to be. If that’s not one of his ponderings, his Brown degree taught him precious little or else he’s in total denial of reality, or both.
Wow, that guy has been doing more then smoking something!
Good thing he does not live in Louisiana for there are no beds available in the type of hospital he needs.
The new and improved analogy brings to mind the old road runner-Wiley Coyote cartoons: ACME new and improved!!!!
If I remember correctly none of them worked. If nothing else I got myself a chuckle to start of this week.
Thanks Tom
Quick anecdote: I have a friend of many years who was originally from Louisiana, and is an LSU graduate, but has spent most of her life in Oklahoma where she is a successful business executive. She travels the U. S. and the world. Because she is also a staunch conservative, we rarely discuss politics. She recently wrote me about how much she admires Governor Jindal. I gave her my take on him and sent her several links to respected blogs here and a few editorials and articles from our local daily press. She has clearly not been swayed by any of this and believes that the national (and apparently Oklahoma) media reports present an accurate picture of who he really is. I am convinced she is not unique, by any measure, and that Governor Jindal will end his tenure here with no discernible change in the way he is portrayed by non-Louisiana media.
As Tom implies, the local media is just now beginning to responsibly report things he and other bloggers have been writing about for years. But, even if they continue to do so, others outside Louisiana will apparently be content to simply report Jindal’s fervent appeals for reforms he has not demonstrated the ability to accomplish. It’s a lot easier to ride the tide than to go against it and doing so appeals to an important advertising base.
Quin Hillyer’s column in Sunday’s ADVOCATE newspapers manages to make some valid points about Jindal’s national versus his Louisiana image. If one redacts a single paragraph from the column (the one in which he praises Jindal’s policies and his alleged reforms), it makes a lot of sense.
Last time I checked, the article in The Hill had 355 comments. Not surprisingly, a lot of the comments were anti-Jindal. Also no surprise was that the Jindal supporters for the most part had incredibly ignorant comments devoid of merit, except to show us the level of a Jindal supporter nowadays.
Unless you were affected by Jindal, you have no idea what this man is capable of just to be able to get to the presidency.The media does not want us to see the real picture. I have contacted O’reilly @ Fox news and Anderson Cooper @ CNN. They do not want to hear what a little ole retired Louisiana state employee has to say. The “powers that be” have more influence. I wish I could get one reporter out there that wants to hear “the real story.” Of course, although it would be news worthy for everyone to hear, I am sure that the big boys will put a stop to getting the “real story” out there. We have been lied to by out state government and officials. Can you imagine how we have been misinformed by our national government & officials????????? I pray that my grand children do not suffer too much. The future does not look very bright for them. This makes me very sad.
I have 5 grandchildren, ranging in age from 21 to 9. I also have a 2 yr old great-granddaughter. I have advised the 21 yr. old and her 19 yr. old twin sisters to get the hell out of Louisiana as quickly as they can. That same advice will probably be given to the younger ones as they mature, although I still harbor a faint hope that the situation might improve over the next 10 years. We will surely be rid of Booby Jihad by then (one way or another) and, with any intelligence in the electorate, most of the mindless idiots now populating the state legislature. One can only hope.
If James Carville would just once expose Jindal for what he is, Jindal’s aspirations and current influence both in-state and out-of-state would vanish. James, if you here our plea, please do as we beg.
I guess Schroeder hasn’t seen the resume of No One, the fellow who is polling higher than Swindal up in New Hampshire 😊.
I placed a post on The Hill. 😉 Grits
I don’t know how he sleeps at night, some of the carnage he has brought on Louisiana is sad. Case in point, I went to a High School football game last Friday night, in Delhi. They barely had enough kids to field a team, no band, a few Cheer Leaders, and a small Dance line group, maybe 25 fans in the stands. Most of their fans were lined around the outside of the fence….One white kid on the team, the rest black, I asked my Grandson, who is attending ULM, in Monroe, “Where do all the white kids go to school?” He said, “Why Nana, you are looking at Government sanctioned segregation. They go to a Charter school and the poorest most vulnerable kids, get left behind, he has really hurt education on all levels, very disheartening.
Lets not forget that Jidal says he witnessed a religious miracle. All cred shot.