In the parlance of the criminal justice system, money laundering is sometimes called “washing” or “scrubbing.”
But dirty money is always dirty money, no matter what efforts are taken to make it appear legitimate.
The same is true of politics. Having just gone through a gut-wrench senatorial campaign, we’ve seen up close and personal how political ads come in all manner of misleading half-truths and outright lies. Case in point: the absurd promises of State Sen. Bodi White (R-Central), who ran ads during his recent unsuccessful campaign for Mayor-President of Baton Rouge about how he was going to improve schools, cut the dropout rate, and attract better teachers.
The problem? Neither City Hall nor the mayor have squat to do with public education; that’s the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board’s turf. What’s more, White was fully aware of this, so his ads amounted to nothing more than pure B.S., or, to be more blunt: bald face lies.
And now, thanks to Stephen Winham, our human Early Warning System who often tips us off to interesting stories, we have the laundering of Bobby Jindal’s image by some groupie/writer for the National Review named Dan McLaughlin.
The scrubbing, however, comes a tad early; even in Louisiana, the citizens aren’t likely to forget the carnage wreaked by Jindal so quickly.
McLaughlin, it seems, is an attorney who practices securities and commercial litigation in New York City. He also is a contributing columnist at National Review Online (Go figure). He is a former contributing editor of RedState (No surprise there), a columnist at the Federalist and the New Ledger. During his spare time he is a baseball blogger at BaseballCrank.com.
McLaughlin has written at least a dozen or so insipid pro-Jindal pabulum-laden claptrap-filled columns, all of which could just as easily have been written by Timmy Teepell.
In his most recent contribution to National Review (the entire story is not contained at this link because I’m too cheap to subscribe), McLaughlin WRITES that “Jindal took on the enormous challenge of cutting government in a state that is culturally deep-red but economically populist, and he paid a great political cost for his efforts.”
Apparent, he wrote that garbage with a straight face.
There’s more from McLaughlin who wrote in an earlier column for RedState that Jindal was the BEST CANDIDATE for the Republican presidential nomination and that (get this) Jindal ruled in one of the presidential debates (never mind Jindal never got past the undercard debates in which all participants were weak also-runs).
McLaughlin wrote that Jindal’s low approval ratings “and the desperate wails of his Democratic successor over the condition of the state’s budget seem to support” the view that Jindal left the state in financial disarray.
Seriously? McLaughlin conveniently overlooks the fact that the “view” that Jindal’s leaving the state in disastrous shape took shape long before John Bel Edwards and long before Jindal abandoned his post for his delusional pursuit of the presidency.
McLaughlin made no mention of Jindal’s administration coming up with a contract to give away two of the state’s learning hospitals that contained 50 blank pages.
He ignores the matter of how Jindal doled out plum board and commission positions to big contributors to his campaign, how he rolled over anyone who disagreed with him by either firing or demoting them, how he took tainted campaign contributions from felons and refused to return the money, or how he gutted the reserve fund of the Office of Group Benefits in order to try to close gaping budget deficits that occurred every single year of his governorship.
“The path to smaller government requires persistence, backbone, and a willingness to accept compromises and a lot of defeats,” he wrote.
Correction, Mr. McLaughlin: the path to Bobby Jindal’s version of smaller government requires ruthlessness, vindictiveness, and unparalleled selfishness.
While one might justifiably think that Jindal’s political career is dead and buried, is it even remotely possible that he might be plotting a comeback?
Already, there are the first rumblings that Jindal is eying the 2019 gubernatorial campaign.
Just in case, perhaps someone should send McLaughlin a copy of my book, Bobby Jindal: His Destiny and Obsession. Not that he would change his mind, but at least he would have no excuse for not knowing.
And just in case you’ve not ordered your copy yet, click on the image of the book at upper right and place your order immediately.
Louisiana Voice 
McLaughlin is obviously on LSD
I really tried to read the NR article, but I literally became nauseated trying. This is the same tired propaganda Jindal spread across the U. S. in his Quixotic quest to become U. S. Prince.
It is unfortunate that at least 95% of the people reading the NR article will believe every word of it. After all, the truth is whatever we want to make it in our post-truth world. Try reasoning with the people who support people like Jindal and Trump. Just try. Their minds are made up – There is not a problem we have today that cannot be laid at President Obama’s feet, Hillary Clinton is the Queen of Darkness, and Donald Trump is the secular Messiah – and don’t try to convince them otherwise.
Wait. Doling out plum board and commission positions to big contributors. Rolling over anyone who disagrees with him. I’m getting confused. Are we talking about Jindal or Trump? Both, you say. Oh, I get it. Both are cut from the same Alt-Right Republican bolt of cloth.
No argument here.
Jindal is Trump minus charisma.
The Jeff Sadow Virus is spreading! Time to call the CDC and the WHO!
Right now, the one bright spot re: Trump’s transition is that he doesn’t seem to know Jindal is alive. Thank God!
It’s incredible, but there are some rumblings that Jindal may seriously think he could be a viable contender for Governor in 2019. In my opinion, if he does actually enter the race, I believe he must be the most masochistic politician alive!!
Having said that, I have no doubt that JBE would love nothing more than to find a way for the runoff to be him vs. Jindal. Under that scenario (and the same is true if Angelle were his opponent in the runoff), JBE’s chances of re-election jump dramatically!
Robert, I think delusional is a better description than masochistic for Jindal. His handlers and hangers-on must continue to keep him in a bubble where he is the boy king – and they will continue to do so until he is no longer a source of revenue for them.
Jindal made himself a millionaire as governor of Louisiana. He somehow convinced power brokers he was a contender. They obviously believed he could be manipulated to enhance their own power and wealth.
If he was still in the real world (if he ever was), he would invest his money wisely and go to work for some think tank that could pay him well enough to stay in his nice home and have enough cornflakes. He might actually have some good ideas that somebody else has the ability to implement – but he’s too big for that, isn’t he? He has to be the “implementer.”
It would be really interesting to know how the NR piece got published. If Jindal truly is no longer relevant, as it seems, who is trying to make him so and why? And, why would NR use valuable space on him? That is the mystery here to me.
Jindal couldn’t make a runoff with JBE. Landry is the most popular GOP contender in the state. He beats JBE 60-40 to take the top seat.
Robert, you mentioned Angelle in your comment. Which requires me to applaud you for a comment you posted a few weeks before the election. In that comment you predicted that Higgins would soundly beat Angelle. I was skeptical, but you were on point. As for the NR article on Jindal, I think Teepil wrote it.
And don’t forget little Jeffie. PBJ will have to deal with him before he can touch JBE. They just might have to duke (no pun intendeded) it out in a schoolyard fight.
Perhaps if Dan McLaughlin had lived in Louisiana during the 8 years of plunder, destruction, and cronyism, he might have a different take on Jindal. Get ready for the same type of governance on the national level with Trump and GOP majorities in both houses of Congress.
I think the emphasis is best placed on “might” – Several allegedly knowledgeable and influential people (Rolfe McCollister, e.g.) who actually live in Louisiana sang the same song Mr. McLaughlin is singing (or parroting since there isn’t an original thought in the entire article) and continue to do so to this day. There has to be a reason, but it can’t truly be because they actually believe he was a good governor.
The same concept is in play for people who supported and continue to believe in POTUS-elect Trump’s ability to lead this country, much less the free world. It will be very cold comfort when (if ever) the Trump supporters see the error of their ways because most of us will pay the price.
To end on a slightly positive note, we can live in hope Jindal never again becomes influential enough to matter.
Idiot. No one can defend Jindal. He was a political hurricane.