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Erstwhile power of governor to suspend local officeholders weighed against will of local voters in case of Iberia’s Ackal

August 27, 2018 by tomaswell

It was the end of February 1968 and John J. McKeithen was just completing his first term of office. (Unlike today, when statewide inaugurations are held in January, state elected officials then took their oaths of office in May.)

McKeithen had earlier upset long-standing tradition when he managed to change the State Constitution during his first term so that he could run for re-election. Previous governors could serve only a single four-year term before being required to (a) seek another office or (b) start raising funds and lining up support for a return four years hence. In other words, governors were barred from serving two consecutive terms.

But this isn’t about McKeithen’s savvy political machinations that allowed him to become the first modern-day governor to succeed himself. It is instead about another precedent set by the Caldwell Parish native: The invoking of gubernatorial powers under Article IX, Section 8 of the 1921 Louisiana State Constitution which resulted in the heretofore unthinkable act of suspending a sitting sheriff from office.

It’s about how the current State Constitution, adopted in 1974, removed that authority from the governor.

And it’s about how, given the freewheeling manner in which some sheriffs wield power in their respective parishes, it might not be a bad idea if that authority was reinstated if for no other reason than to serve as a constant reminder to sheriffs that their actions could have consequences.

Yes, sheriffs are elected officials answerable to their constituents and if they keep getting elected, what business would a governor have in being able to say otherwise, especially if the sheriff and governor were political adversaries?

And if the sheriff can fool the electorate, there are always the courts. But face it, the local district attorney and the sheriff are usually strong political allies who present a formidable team to anyone who would question their authority. There are exceptions, like DA Earl Taylor and Sheriff Bobby Guidroz in St. Landry, who don’t exactly gee-haw on much of anything.

But then there is Louis Ackal in Iberia Parish whose strong-arm tactics, especially where blacks are concerned, has become a source of embarrassment to the locals—or at least should be—and would be even more of a pariah if the local newspaper, the Daily Iberian, was courageous enough to call him out for his egregious flaunting of basic human dignity and his contemptuous trampling of constitutional rights.

In the case of Jessel Ourso of Iberville Parish, across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge, it was just a matter of a little Louisiana extortion that prompted McKEITHEN TO OUST OURSO on Feb. 9, 1968. Iberville was in the midst of a construction explosion with chemical plants sprouting up all along the Mississippi and the high sheriff was in a unique position to take full advantage of the boom.

Ourso placed his brother in a no-show job as a union steward for the Teamsters at one plant and contractors were ordered to lease equipment from Ourso’s nephew, State Trooper Jackie Jackson. The tipping point, though, was apparently Ourso’s requirement that contractors use a guard service owned and operated by the sheriff.

One witness described an atmosphere of “just plain racketeering and shakedowns through collusion of individual law enforcement officers and labor.” (Imagine that: the word collusion was being bantered about half-a-century ago.)

McKeithen’s decision to suspend Ourso was based on the recommendation of then-State Comptroller Roy Theriot, a recommendation which in turn stemmed from a report by Legislative Auditor J.B. Lancaster which laid out Ourso’s strong-arm tactics, including his preventing contractors from firing workers who were performing no work.

In Ackal’s case prisoners have died under mysterious circumstances, dogs have been loosed on helpless prisoners in the parish detention center, prisoners have been sexually abused, and women employees have sued—and won settlements—over sexual harassment claims.

A television network recently aired a documentary on Ackal’s fiefdom, concentrating on the death of Victor White, III, who, while he sat in a patrol car with his hands cuffed, was fatally shot in the chest—a shooting that was ruled by the local coroner as a suicide, as improbable as that had to be, considering his hands were cuffed behind him.

Ackal’s office has paid out more than $3 million in legal judgments and settlements in his 10 years in office—a rate of $25,000 for each of the 120 months he has been in office. And that’s not even counting the attorney fees of about $1.5 million. Those numbers are far more than any other parish in the state except perhaps Orleans.

And there are other cases currently pending against Ackal and the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Like the LAWSUIT just filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in Lafayette by Michael and Suzzanne Williams.

In that action, the pair said that sheriff’s detective Jacques LeBlanc, who has since left the department, obtained a search warrant for their home because he “thought” he had reason to believe the couple was in possession of “illegal narcotics, drug paraphernalia, currency and other controlled dangerous substance(s).”

When voices were heard outside their bedroom, Michael Williams went to the front door. When he opened it, he was ordered out of the house and deputies stormed the house. They forced Mrs. Williams outside clad only in bra and panties, refusing to allow her to dress. Williams was handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car while deputies ransacked their home.

Officers “did not find a scintilla” of illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia or illegal narcotics, their petition says. Following a fruitless search, they were released with no charges being filed.

Williams subsequently appeared at the sheriff’s office on numerous occasions in an attempt to obtain a copy of the search warrant and affidavit but were provided with neither, although they have since obtained a copy of the search warrant through other sources. They still do not have the affidavit on which the warrant ostensibly was based. Instead, they were told by Dist. Judge Lewis Pittman, who signed the warrant, that LeBlanc swore under oath that he had good reason to believe they were in possession of drugs.

They are claiming that LeBlanc knew his statement to the effect that he believed they had drugs was false and that he committed perjury in order to obtain the warrant.

They are seeking $2 million in damages in their lawsuit.

Posted in Auditor, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office, Judges, Lawsuits, Media, Politicians, State Police | 1 Comment »

No politics, no controversy, no scandals: just reflection on 50 wonderful years of marriage to a most beautiful woman

August 22, 2018 by tomaswell

Occasionally, I post something as a point of personal privilege. This is one of those times.

Looking back, it seems a lifetime ago. Yet, the time seems to have zipped by before I really had a chance to take it all in.

Because Louisiana Tech is on the quarter system (the only school in the state that is), quarter break just happens to coincide with the Thanksgiving holidays. It was one evening during Thanksgiving/quarter break in 1967 that I was working part time as a bag boy at Safeway Grocery in Ruston while awaiting my grades—with some trepidation, I might add.

That evening was like every other boring day at the store (how exciting can bagging groceries be?) until I looked up and saw the three people approaching a register with their cart. One of those was a young lady who bore a striking resemblance to Mary Tyler Moore. She was, it turned out, with her sister and her brother-in-law and they were picking up a few items after visiting the women’s father who was a patient at Lincoln General Hospital.

As the other bag boys began approaching the register, I elbowed my way to the front. “I got this,” I said.

God, she was beautiful, but how to break the ice? Suddenly it came to me: ask about her grades. If she responded in a way that confirmed she was a student, chances were good that she was single. Brilliant. (It was a wonder I didn’t have women hanging all over me,)

But it worked. “Got your grades yet?” I asked as I carried her groceries to the car. Yeah, that was smooth. (Her sister Carolyn and brother-in-law Steve, seeing through my clever ploy, were hanging back, giving us a little privacy, most likely laughing at my glibness.)

“Not yet,” was her only response. Pushing my luck, I asked her name. “Betty Gray,” she said.

So far, so good. “Can I call you?”

“I guess so. I live in Simsboro. I’m listed under my dad’s name, T.R. Gray.”

Of course, being the doofus that I am, I promptly forgot her name (I’m still awful at remembering names) but my best friend, Gene Smith, had gone to school with her in Simsboro and he remembered her. I finally worked up the courage to call her in January and we went to see a simply awful movie called Fantastic Voyage at Ruston’s Dixie Theater.

Two dates later I proposed (she was simply that wonderful). She laughed at me. Two more dates and I proposed again. She accepted.

We were married on her 20th birthday, August 23, 1968. Today is our 50th anniversary and I can state unequivocally that they have been 50 years of a lot of highs and very few lows. For one, we have a rule to never yell or scream at each other. We can disagree without resorting to saying things we can’t take back. I like to say that Betty raised four kids: three daughters and me—and that I’m a work in progress. And I’m not too far off on that assessment. But the point is, we knew each other a grand total of nine months before we got married—and it took. I guess it demonstrates that real love is not defined by time.

I also say, jokingly, of course, that a lot of people lost money after the first year and that I even lost $20 because there was just no way she’d put up with me for that long. Somebody even had some variety of win, place and show going with odds taken on one, two or three years. I suppose bettors understand how that works.

To be perfectly honest, I spent a lot of time playing and coaching baseball, playing softball and tennis, and chasing news stories while she remained home taking care of Amy, Leah, and Jennifer. And make no mistake, the credit for their successes (Amy is a school principal, Leah a nurse supervisor and Jennifer a teacher) goes to Betty. She is their rock and to complete the picture of my perfect world, all three daughters and our seven grandchildren live within 10 miles of our house.

It don’t get no better than that.

There have been some memories that stand out more than others, to be sure. Like the time doctors thought Leah, when she was a child, might have cystic fibrosis. It turned out to be asthma, which was bad enough but at least it wasn’t cystic fibrosis.

And when Jennifer, our youngest, went into labor in Denham Springs while we were on Christmas vacation at Betty’s mom’s in Simsboro in Lincoln Parish—a mere 220 miles away. I drove like a bat out of hell to get to Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge for the birth of my first grandchild—on Christmas Day! We made it by a couple of hours.

When I was doing stand up comedy, I did a Christmas show for a Baton Rouge company at a local restaurant. We were in a private dining room and after my set, we sat down to eat. The company owner/president had the bright idea of going around the table (there were about 40 of us) and have each man tell how he proposed to his wife. Being one of the last ones to speak, I had time to think about it. When it was my turn, I said, “We were having dinner in a restaurant and I looked across the table at her and said…..”You’re what?”

It suddenly got very quiet at the table—until I said I was joking. But for a moment, the company president was convinced he’d had a very bad idea.

But the funniest—and most embarrassing for me—was the birth of Amy, my oldest, in 1972. We were living in Ruston at the time and when she was born, Gene Smith and I were admiring her through the nursery window. Gene, who doesn’t have the best vision, asked what I named the baby.

“Amy Michelle,” I said.

“That’s not what’s on the bassinet,” he said.

“What does it say?” I asked, moving closer to the window.

“Ruby Gail Aswell,” he said.

Unbeknownst to me, my own vision was beginning to weaken and the power of suggestion took over, especially since one of my stepmothers (I had three of them, which goes a long way in explaining why I was raised by two of the most wonderful people on earth, my grandparents) was named Ruby and I absolutely despised her.

I peered in and could barely make out the name but sure enough, there it was: “Ruby Gail Aswell.” I exploded. I went tearing through the hospital until I found Dr. Hall who had performed the delivery. Pinning him against the wall, I began screaming invectives at him and demanding to know why he took the liberty of hanging such an offensive (to me) name on my baby. He started laughing as he removed his glasses and handed them to me. “Take another look,” he said.

I have to admit the eyeglasses did help as I was able to make out “Baby Girl, Aswell” on the bassinet.

Dr. Hall was a pretty good sport about it all. He laughed about that little episode for the rest of his life. Of course, Gene did, too—and does. And he was the one who caused the whole dad-blamed misunderstanding in the first place. (But isn’t that what best friends are for?)

There are so many other memories. My daughters’ first dates, all the teenage crises, the drama (oh, the drama), the time Amy and Leah flipped our car into a ditch (they were unhurt because I’d drilled the use of seat belts into their brain but the chilling feeling you get from that call from the state trooper is something you never forget) their weddings, the births of their own children and right there with me, all the way, has been the most beautiful, most caring, most patient, most wonderful woman I have ever known or will ever have the privilege of knowing.

It’s been a terrific 50 years with the love of my life. My only regret is that we don’t have another 50 years to spend together. We just aren’t given that much time on this rock we call call earth.

But then she probably would run me off with a mean, biting dog if she thought I was going to hang around that much longer.

Posted in Politics | 30 Comments »

Sen. John Kennedy, demonstrating he has zero intelligence, refers to top intelligence expert John Brennan as ‘butthead’

August 16, 2018 by tomaswell

Caddo Commissioner Steven Jackson wants to be the next mayor of Shreveport.

He also wants to remove a confederate monument at the Caddo Parish Courthouse.

That is not a reason to distribute fliers of a PHOTO of Jackson with a noose around his neck and a warning to “LEAVE OUR STATUE & PROPERTY ALONE & GET OUT OF THE RACE N—–.”

There is, quite simply, never a reason for such backwoods, redneck reaction. Ever.

If you disagree with him, then yes, disagree. That’s your right just as it is his right to want the monuments to a dark period in our history removed—monuments to the idea that one man has the right to own another man. The very idea is abhorrent.

I can see the idea of monument removal morphing into demands down the road to change the names of the towns Leesville, Leeville, Jackson, Zachary and the parishes of Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jackson, Beauregard, Caldwell, Claiborne, Madison, and Washington.

For that matter, the Alt Right or Unite the Right groups may well demand that the names of Lincoln, Union, and Grant parishes be changed.

For that reason, I remain somewhat ambivalent about the whole issue. But then, my ancestors were never bought and sold like livestock, so who am I to even pretend to understand?

So, whoever placed that flier at the home of a Jackson family member should slither back under that rock from whence he came.

And so also should U.S. Sen. John Kennedy who each passing day is acting more like:

  1. A doddering old fool at the relatively young age of 66;
  2. A sputtering demagogue who doesn’t know when to shut up;
  3. An aspiring Donald Trump impersonator with diarrhea of the mouth;
  4. All of the above.

Kennedy, who dearly loves to dole out his down-home wit and wisdom in sound bites before the TV cameras for the benefit of the folks back home, is at it again.

This time, though, in his unabashed effort to curry favor with Donald Trump, he has stepped in it. He called former CIA Director John Brennan a “BUTTHEAD” but was careful to do so only after Trump stripped Brennan of his security clearance. YOUTUBE

In tossing out his latest banal platitude, Kennedy said (apparently without realizing the irony in what he was saying), “I think most Americans look at our national intelligence experts as being above politics. Mr. Brennan has demonstrated that that’s not the case. He’s been totally political. I think I called him a ‘butthead’ and I meant it. I think he’s given the national intelligence community a bad name.”

So much for senatorial decorum and dignity.

Now, Senator, before I slip up and call you a d**khead or an a**hole (of course, I’d never do that), let’s reflect on what you’ve just said now that you’ve been inside the Beltway what, a whole 19 months?

  • You’re going to take it upon yourself to follow the lead of a man who is the very personification of crudeness, rudeness, brashness, impulsiveness, crassness, untruthfulness, embellishment, self-aggrandizement, egoism, narcissism, thoughtlessness and unprofessionalism?
  • You are going to stick your neck out to contradict the entire intelligence community that says there was Russian interference in the 2016 election, and take instead, the word of a man who has demonstrated his sheer inability to utter the truth, to favor a lie when honesty would serve him better? You’re going to take the word of a misogynistic swindler who has tried for years to negotiate with Putin for the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow over career intelligence personnel who could slip into a coma and, with their knowledge of espionage and counter-espionage, still run circles around you and your “aw, shucks” witticisms that you obviously think make you appear as Will Rogers incarnate?
  • And speaking of the Russians and Putin, I can’t recall that you ever gave a viable explanation as to why you were among the delegation that made its own trip to Russia. Was that one of those classic congressional “fact-finding” missions? If so, what “facts” did you find while there? And just how much did that trip cost taxpayers?
  • You’re going to latch onto the coattails of a man who claimed bone spurs in his feet to keep him out of the military but who now wants to throw a gigantic military parade in his own honor?
  • You’re going to blindly follow a despot who calls the press “the enemy of the people,” and who summarily fires anyone who has the temerity to disagree with him (or, if not fire them, revoke their security clearance—while, I might add, leaving the security clearances of family members in place, family members, by the way, who held meetings with Russians to gather dirt and with Chinese officials to sell visas and to obtain trademarks for their own businesses)?
  • In other words, Senator, you’re going to choose loyalty to your titular party leader over your sworn obligation to serve abd protect this nation?
  • And, just to make sure I’m clear, you’re most probably planning to run for governor next year, which would be your third office to run for in…four years?

Perhaps you have bone spurs in your head.

Posted in Governor's Office, Senate | 26 Comments »

Is Omarosa an opportunist? You bet. Is Trump a pathological liar? Of Course. Are there any good guys in this story? Nope

August 14, 2018 by tomaswell

Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite.

                                                            (The Snake, by Al Wilson)

 “I do listen to people. I hire experts. I hire top, top people. And I do listen.” (Donald Trump, Greenville, South Carolina, February 13, 2016).

I’ll readily jump out in front of the parade on this one: Omarosa Nanigault Newman is an opportunist. After taking full advantage of her close association with Donald Trump to score a top-paying ($179,700) job, she is now trying to sell her tell-all book about his ugly side that was already in full view for anyone with any degree of objectivity to see.

So, am I saying there are no good guys in this little dust-up?

Exactly.

You see, no one really knows what her job duties were in pulling down almost $180,000 per year and Trump’s justification for hiring her? Try this tweet on for size:

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard….

8:27 AM – Aug 13, 2018

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

…really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me – until she got fired!

8:50 AM – Aug 13, 2018

Half-an-hour later, unable to resist his addiction to Twitter, he again tweeted:

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

While I know it’s “not presidential” to take on a lowlife like Omarosa, and while I would rather not be doing so, this is a modern day form of communication and I know the Fake News Media will be working overtime to make even Wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry!

9:21 AM – Aug 13, 2018

So, he paid her 179,700 U.S. taxpayer dollars per year “because she only said GREAT things about me,” only to end up calling her “a lowlife” and “wacky.”

Good God.

I’ve heard more intelligent taunts on an elementary school playground.

People, this is the so-called leader of the most powerful nation with the biggest and baddest military might on the planet reduced to exchanging insults on social media with a subordinate he hired for no other reason than she said nice things about him—and he let you pay her salary.

It just doesn’t get any more embarrassing than this.

Or does it? He has brought on board the weirdest assortment of amateurs to ever grace the West Wing, appointees whose job it is to always tell him how brilliant he is and to never tell him he’s wrong or that he should cancel his twitter account. I know this is sacrilege to those who voted for Trump, but Bill Clinton has co-authored a pretty good book with James Patterson called The President is Missing. A single sentence on page 192 caught my eye, a sentence most likely written by Clinton: “Surrounding yourself with sycophants and bootlickers is the surest route to failure.”

Without even addressing his bizarre appointments (like Wilbur Ross, Scott Pruitt, Tom Price, Steve Bannon, Ajit Pai, et al), let’s examine the record.

  • Trump is opposed to CHAIN MIGRATION, yet his own mother and Melania’s parents took full advantage of chain migration to enter this country and to become citizens. This is no negative reflection on his mother, his wife, or her parents. No one can blame them for taking advantage of that law. But it does provide stark evidence of Trump’s double standard, or hypocrisy.
  • While he is quick to sing the praises of Vladimir Putin, Trump was unforgivably remiss in deliberately ignoring war hero JOHN McCAIN in announcing—to a military audience, no less—the signing of the Defense Authorization Bill named after the cancer-stricken Arizona senator. That in itself is inexcusable, an insult that matches—or even exceeds—the misdirected criticism of NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem for any perceived lack of respect. (A clue, Trump: the kneeling isn’t even about the anthem. Anyone with any perceptive skills knows it’s a silent protest of the profiling and shooting of blacks by police. Let’s at least try to stay on subject, Mr. Number-One-Putin-fan. You think you can do that? Never mind, foolish question.)
  • Trump hired PAUL MANAFORT as his campaign manager in June 2016 but after Manafort ran into legal problems, Trump tried to throw him under the bus as is his wont by claiming Manafort “came into the campaign very late and was with (them) for a short period of time.” I have only one answer to that: You hired him.
  • After praising personal attorney MICHAEL COHEN for his loyalty, Trump did a quick 180 and turned on his former legal counsel bigly when it was learned Cohen had taped evidence that revealed that Trump knew of the $130,000 payment to porn star STORMY DANIELS.
  • Two days after he was elected, Trump was cautioned by PRESIDENT OBAMA not to hire Michael Flynn. Did Trump listen? Hell, no. He knows more than Obama, he knows more than his generals, he knows more than the Department of Justice, he knows more than all the intelligence agencies combined, so why should he listen to anyone else? He hired Flynn. He even allegedly tried to get former FBI Director Michael Comey to go easy on Flynn. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates also tried to warn Trump. Of course, Trump would end up firing both Comey and Yates and, of course, ANDREW McCABE, just two days before he was eligible for retirement. But when things went south for Flynn, Trump tried his damnedest to SHIFT THE BLAME to Obama and Yates because, as everyone knows, Trump is never wrong.
  • GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS served as a foreign policy adviser and on a presidential international business advisory council but when he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with Russian nationals on behalf of Trump during the presidential campaign, Trump couldn’t run fast enough or far enough, tweeting (of course) “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.” Well, someone knew him well enough to trust him and to try and use him to set up meetings with a Russian oligarch.
  • And then there’s Sen. Jeff Sessions who Trump was quick to recognize on election night. He was the first member of the Senate to endorse Trump and Trump made him his attorney general. But today (August 14) he had this to say about Sessions: “If we had a real attorney general,” there would be no Russia investigation. The man does not know the meaning of loyalty.
  • And as for that infamous TRUMP TOWER meeting with that Russian lawyer, Donald Trump, Jr., said the discussion was about Russian adoptions. Turns out Donald Trump, Sr., dictated that response himself and he only last week acknowledged that the meeting was about getting “information on an opponent,” which he said was “totally legal.” Except it’s not. Trump Sr. says he knew nothing of the meeting. Omarosa says he did. Place your bets.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!

7:35 AM – Aug 5, 2018

Do you detect a trend here?

He’s a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction,

Takin’ ev’ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home.

                                    (The Pilgrim, by Kris Kristofferson)

Donald Trump’s entire 19 months in office have been marked by one CONTRADICTION after another, a character flaw he has made no apparent effort to address. Yet, those who blindly follow him in the expectation that their lives will be better under his policies (which change daily, sometimes hourly), continue to blindly follow. They demand no explanation as to why Trump feels he has to suck up to Putin while disparaging our own intelligence agencies, why he thinks he can trust Kim Jong Un when he has violated ever agreement he’s ever signed, why massive tax breaks for the very rich are supposed to benefit the very poor, why divisiveness among whites and blacks is supposed to be healthy, why caging children is a good policy, why depriving millions of people of health care is wise, why removal of policies to protect the environment, consumers, borrowers, and the economy can possibly make sense, or why he constantly—CONSTANTLY—finds himself embroiled in controversy of the crudest, crassest sort.

In their book One Nation After Trump, writers E.J. Dionne, Jr., Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann note that Alexander Hamilton warned that “Disorienting the public by blurring the line between fact and falsehood is the trick of the despot whose ‘object is to throw things into confusion that he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’” (Emphasis mine)

That’s an apt description of Donald Trump if ever there was one. When it comes to disoriented the public by blurring the line between fact and fiction and throwing things into confusion, he owns franchise rights.

Oh, shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.

Take me in, oh tender woman 
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman, sighed the snake 

Posted in Politics | 34 Comments »

In down home version of ‘Sleeping with the Enemy,’ Gov. John Bel Edwards addresses annual ALEC meeting in N.O.

August 8, 2018 by tomaswell

As a state representative, John Bel Edwards was once a harsh critic of Bobby Jindal.

That was then. Now appears to be quite different.

Edwards the legislator was often a lonely voice in the legislature, speaking out in opposition to Jindal’s destruction of the Office of Group Benefits and the raiding of OGB’s $500 million surplus from which it paid medical claims for state employees. Then.

Edwards opposed Jindal’s attempts to privatize governmental services, including prisons. Then.

Edwards the legislator was the leading critic—sometimes the only critic—of Jindal’s destruction of the state hospital system. Then.

Edwards the legislator openly challenged Jindal’s constant budgetary cuts, often asking pointed questions of Jindal or his lackeys during committee hearings. Then.

Edwards the legislator said that he was fooled into voting in favor of an amendment at the end of the 2014 legislative session that would have given a hefty—but illegal—boost in retirement income for then-State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson. Edwards, in fact, led the call for an investigation into the maneuver by State Sen. Neil Riser of Columbia. Then

But when John Bel Edwards was elected governor he suddenly began to morph into Bobby Jindal 2.0.

The first indication that the more things change the more they remain the same was when he reappointed Mike Edmonson as State Police Superintendent and Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections Jimmy LeBlanc at the behest of the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association.

The sheriffs’ association is a powerful lobby and anyone who desires to be governor must pass in review before the association and receive its blessing. The local sheriff, after all, is the single most powerful political figure at the parish level. And when you multiply that local power by 64, the number of parishes, you have a formidable political force to overcome if you don’t have their collective endorsement.

Edwards’s brother is a sheriff. So was his father and his grandfather before that. So, it was no surprise when Edwards received the association’s seal of approval.

JINDAL was joined at the hip by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and he showed it by his penchant for tax relief for big business at the expense of public and higher education and health care.

Remember when people could actually afford to send their kids to college?

Remember when there were facilities available to those in need of mental health care?

Remember when the state budget reflected some degree of sanity?

Remember when teachers could count on a pay raise every decade or so?

I can remember when there were real Democrats in Louisiana politics and not pretenders who bend with whichever direction the wind blows (see John Alario, John Kennedy, et al).

Well, thanks to the abetting of compliant legislators beholden to corporate campaign contributors, those are now just fond memories.

But when John Bel was elected, there was hope.

Instead, he has cozied up to business and industry and rather than confronting legislators, he tried to get along with them without offending them. Apparently, he didn’t learn from Dave Treen, a Republican governor who tried unsuccessfully to get along with a Democratic legislature.

And now, today, he is in New Orleans to address, of all people, delegates to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). On a lesser scale, that’s the moral equivalent to Trump colluding with…well, never mind.

ALEC is, or should be, everything a real Democrat (as opposed to a DINO) should shun like the plague. A real Democrat truly interested in promoting what is best for Louisiana’s citizens would never set foot inside an ALEC Annual Meeting, much less appear as a speaker at one.

Retired State Budget Director Stephen Winham said as much when was quoted by a Baton Rouge Advocate EDITORIAL yesterday.

ALEC is a conglomerate of BUSINESS INTERESTS that promotes a Republican agenda exclusively. Members converge on a city (like New Orleans) for their Annual Conference, sit down in highly secretive meetings (no press allowed, thank you very much), and draft “model legislation” for member lawmakers in attendance to take back home and introduce as new bills, quite often without bothering to change so much as a comma.

That’s it. Legislative members of ALEC attend these meetings so lobbyists for corporations from other states can tell them what’s best for Louisiana citizens.

In 2011, when then-State Rep. Noble Ellington of Winnsboro was its national president, Jindal was the featured speaker and received the organization’s Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award.

Now, ALEC is back and so is Jindal 2.0 John Bel Edwards.

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Elections, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, Media, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Politicians, Privatization | 11 Comments »

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