New Orleans attorney Clancy Dubos and John Stanton, writing for Gambit, have dubbed Jeff Landry as the “ CLOWNFISH” in obvious comparison to another power-hungry Louisiana governor, Huey P. “Kingfish” Long.
Obviously, it is not a complimentary comparison but neither should we be dismissive of the label or of Landry’s ambition to become the most powerful Louisiana governor since Huey and possibly the most powerful governor in America.
We have already seen (in the story below) how he wants to
- Take control of PUBLIC DEFENSE SYSTEM;
- Slam the door on the our right to examine public records;
- Appoint all 11 members of the already weakened State Ethics Board. Wonder if the board’s vote to penalize Landry for failure to disclose trips aboard a donor’s plane?
- Take full control of appointing nearly all of the members of the state Civil Service Commission (sure, that’s smart: have an “independent” civil service board totally beholden to the governor. What could possibly go wrong?)
- Appoint all Supreme Court justices (I’m ambivalent about this one. Elected justices can be tied too closely to high-dollar law firms and lawyers who contribute to their campaigns).
- Shove through a new State Constitution in a mind-boggling two- or three-weeks’ time (granted, the current constitution is bloated and could use a re-boot – but in two weeks’ time with no public comment allowed? C’mon!)
- Obtain more control over higher education and its governing boards;
- Remove JOB REQUIREMENTS for industrial tax breaks (in fact, he has already issued an executive order doing just that, cratering to the interests of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry rather than placing the emphasis where it belongs – on employment and
- While we weren’t watching, quietly pushed for passage of HOUSE BILL 974 by Rep. Josh Carlson (R-Lafayette). The bill passed the House with 65 votes. Thirty-eight members had the cojones – and intelligence – to vote no.
What that bill will do, pending Senate concurrence, will remove the requirement that library directors be state-certified.
Oh, you still have to be state-certified to be a flower arranger but libraries? Why, if this bill becomes law, anyone off the street may be hired to run our libraries.
Let me re-phrase that: Any self-righteous, judgmental, Bible-thumping evangelical may – and will – be hired to decide what the public can and cannot read. Many parishes have already started down that slippery slope toward censorship. This will put them into the express lane.
These people are not our friends and what they are attempting is nothing but a series of brazen moves toward grabbing ever more control by the zealots who have chosen to blindly follow the equivalent of a side show barker who hawks the “giant Russian rat” that turns out to be a common Louisiana nutria. (I drew this comparison from a carnival in Livingston Parish several years back that pulled that exact ruse. At least it only cost me a quarter and the comparison is valid.)
Louisiana Voice 
Glad you’re back, Tom!
I think Jeff and the supermajority are accomplishing their aim. They want to cleanse the state of liberalism, drowning the woke folk in a conservative revolution. I have a solution to assuage all sides. We need to have a draft. We trade one Louisiana lib for a common sense independent or conservative. Y’all lefties can live in a California or New York utopia and leave Louisiana. You see, Jeff and the legislature are trying to eradicate dems. They are the political J and J exterminators. In the now future, we will have blue and red states and no compromise. If you live in a red state and championing trans athletes and drinking Bud Light, I’d order a Uhaul.
I believe you inadvertently revealed the real agenda of the Republicans: rid the landscape of any and all opinions that might clash with your grandiose plans for society without giving any consideration to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, there could be a grain of validity in any other position. What could possibly go wrong?
(and just so you know, I, too, am opposed to trans-athletes but I do like Bud Light, Coors, and Corona.)
Tom, to be a “Republican” today one must believe lies, speak lies, and live one’s life according to lies. You can be secure in knowing that no matter what happens you will never have to bear the burden of betraying yourself and your fellow human beings in that manner.