Louisiana Voice

Far too much attention has been given House Bill 221 by State Rep. Michael Echols (R-Monroe) who is running hard to overcome Mar-A-Lardo’s endorsement of State Sen. Blake Miguez (R-New Iberia) in hopes of succeeding Day Trader Julia Letlow, who is seeking to unseat Bill Cassidy for Cassidy’s U.S. Senate seat. Got that? Good. Let’s move on.

HB 221 is Echols’s effort to out-Trump Miguez while also hammering home the carpetbagger theme by pointing out Miguez lives about 100 miles outside House District 2 in which he, along with Echols, Sen. Rick Edmonds of Baton Rouge and Board of Regents member Misti Cordell, is running.

The bill seeks to name the proposed new bridge over the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge after Trump, aka TACO Don, aka Dementia Don, aka Cankle Ankles, aka Mar-a-Lardo. Which of those names is Echols proposing? Some observers even question if the name Yam Tits Bridge will catch on with the public, however. But all that speculation hasn’t deterred Echols—or 67 other members of the House.

The bill has zipped through committee and passed the house by a disheartening 68-26 vote, with nine members taking a walk. To see how your representative voted, CLICK HERE. It now goes to the Senate for consideration. Should it pass the Senate, it’s a lead-pipe cinch that Gov. Squeaky Toy will sign it into law.

Every session, there are benign bills introduced to name stretches of highway and bridges after local dignitaries and generally speaking, most pass without so much as a whimper of protest of negative vote.

But this year could be different.

That’s because not to be outshone as a full-blown Trumpster, another legislator has upped the ante by introducing House Bill 8647 which calls for name changes to several bridges to honor the legacies of several of the state’s own former icons of the Jim Crow era.

One of those is the I-20 bridge over the Red River connecting Bossier City and Shreveport, which may soon bear the name of staunch segregationist WILLIE RAINACH. Under the bill filed by Rep. Dogmatizer P. Jingoist (R-Zealoton). You remember Willie Rainach, right? He ran for governor in 1959, finishing third behind New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Morrison and Jimmie Davis (Davis won the runoff against Morrison). Rainach was the status-quo candidate of the Southern aristocrat wannabes. He ran on the single so-called states’ rights issue of keeping Blacks in their place, wherever that supposed “place” might have been.

Willie Rainach

About a hundred miles to the east, Monroe’s Louisville Street bridge will be renamed under Jingoist’s bill to the Richard Nixon Watergate Memorial Bridge.

The name of the John James Audubon Bridge in St. Francisville would be changed to the JOHN RARICK Memorial Bridge. Rarick was an outspoken white supremacist former judge and U.S. representative from St. Francisville who opposed any legislation beneficial to Blacks or that advanced the cause of civil rights—and who wasn’t shy about saying so.

John Rarick

The Crescent City Connection linking New Orleans with the West Bank of the Mississippi River will henceforth be known as the LEANDER PEREZ CONNECTION under Jingoist’s bill.

Leander Perez, aka Boss Hogg of Plaquemines Parish

The footbridge over the scenic Tickfaw River in Livingston Parish will for now and evermore be known as The DAVID DUKE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE should Jingoist’s bill become law. Duke, who ran unsuccessful races for U.S. Senate and Louisiana governor (forcing Edwin Edwards into a runoff in 1991) was known as one who pursued the perfect political trifecta of money, women and power through his neo-Nazi fundraising activities.

David Duke and his footbridge

Finally, as a bent-knee gesture to Trump, Jingoist’s bill would erase the name of the Sunshine Bridge near Donaldsonville in favor of a more appropriate name for the state and national Repugnantcan Party.

“Sunshine is anathema to all that we stand for,” he said. “That is why I want the Sunshine Bridge’s name expunged from history and replaced by the more administration-friendly name of the STEPHEN MILLER BRIDGE TO OPAQUENESS.”

Puppeteer Stephen Miller

“HB 8647 is the sincerest way to pay homage to the heroes of white supremacy and the principle of States Rights,” Jingoist said. “God, I miss Jim Crow.”

.