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In the four years of our existence, LouisianaVoice has poked fun at, criticized, questioned and challenged Gov. Bobby Jindal on a number of issues and finally, it has come down to the harsh reality that forces us to say what we have refrained, out of respect for the office, from saying thus far:
Bobby Jindal is a fool.
Of course we’re going to get some push back for making such a disrespectful comment about the man elected—twice—to be the chief executive officer for the State of Louisiana. Yes, we’ve called him silly and an embarrassment in the past, but his performance in London goes far beyond embarrassing.
His little tantrum at the National Governors’ Conference luncheon a year ago was an embarrassment to Louisiana; his performance in London yesterday evoked memories of Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy’s claim in Wheeling, West Virginia on Feb. 9, 1950, that he had a list with the names of more than 200 “known communists” employed by the State Department. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mccarthy-says-communists-are-in-state-department
Jindal seems hell-bent on out-cruzing Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz with his outlandish claim in his speech to the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), named ironically enough, for the late U.S. Sen. Henry Jackson, a Washington Democrat.
A little background on the Henry Jackson Society is in order here.
Created in 2005, HJS purported to offer a forum for those who believed that any form of totalitarianism required a hardline response—either diplomatic or military.
The HJS Associate Director is a man named Douglas Murray, who also is a columnist for The Spectator and Standpoint. The Spectator, a conservative magazine is Britain’s oldest continuous publication, dating back to 1828 and owned by David and Frederick Barclay. The lesser-known Standpoint was founded in 2008.
Much like their Republican counterparts in the colonies, the Barclay brothers, who also own the London Telegraph, have been accused of avoiding taxes by placing their assets under the ownership of offshore companies and controlled through trusts.
But back to HJS Director Murray, who in March of 2013 wrote an article in Standpoint in which he lamented the fact that “white Britons” were in the minority in 23 of London’s 33 boroughs (this is starting to sound eerily familiar). http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/4868/ful
Concern over the growing divisiveness of the strident organization was such that two months later, the Guardian editorialized that Britain’s Labour Party should cut ties with HJS. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/20/labour-cut-ties-henry-jackson-society
Fast forward to January of 2015 and Louisiana’s governor, who has problems back home sufficient to keep him in Baton Rouge, i.e. a budget deficit that grows daily, deep cuts pending for health care and higher education, controversy over the proposed open burning of 15 tons of munitions in Minden, crumbling state infrastructure, looming $180 million bill from Medicaid/Medicare over his hospital privatization deal, and a fast-approaching legislative session at which hard decisions will have to be made. Instead, he chooses to traipse off to London to give an inflammatory speech chock full of inaccuracies and misconceptions.
Ostensibly on a state-sponsored economic development trip (meaning taxpayers pick up the tab for his travel, lodging and meals as well as his support staff and state police security detail), he nevertheless manages to squeeze in an address meant to appeal to his rabid right wing supporters back home as he continues his quest to at least show up in David Letterman’s Top Ten List of Why Bobby Jindal Never Shows Up in the Top Ten List of GOP Presidential Hopefuls. The sad truth (for Jindal, that is) is that he doesn’t even rate a mention in any such Letterman list.
So, what, exactly, did he say that registered an 11.2 on the 10-point Richter scale of Political Absurdities?
Only that there were areas in Europe where non-Muslims are not allowed and radical Islamic law is allowed to override local law. He calls them “no-go zones.”
But when he said, “Non-assimilationist Muslims establish enclaves and carry out as much of Sharia law as they can without regard for the laws of the democratic countries which provided them a new home,” Jindal got it all wrong. When he added, “It is startling to think that any country would allow, even unofficially, for a so- called ‘no-go zone,” he got it all wrong.
“I’ve heard from folks here that there are neighborhoods where women don’t feel comfortable going in without veils. That’s wrong. We all know that there are neighborhoods where police are less likely to go into,” Jindal told CNN. “I think that the radical left absolutely wants to pretend like this problem is not here. Pretending it’s not here won’t make it go away.”
He got that all wrong, too.
That’s all wrong as in Joe McCarthy’s outrageous—and unsubstantiated—claims that ultimately hastened his political demise.
When challenged by CNN, Jindal was undaunted: “I think your viewers know absolutely there are places where the police are less likely to go. They absolutely know there are neighborhoods where they wouldn’t feel comfortable.”
When asked by CNN if that was because of crime and not because of a concentration of Muslims, our governor said, “This isn’t a question.” He stuck to his guns, saying the left “wants to make this into an attack on religion and that’s not what this is. It’s absolutely an issue for the UK, absolutely is an issue for America and other European and Western nations.”
He “absolutely” repeated his “no-go zone” claims, throwing in a few more absolutelies in the process, later in the day during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEjlHY2caIs#t=48
Jindal even managed to evoke the “American exceptionalism” claim in the Blitzer interview—while standing on a busy street corner….in London, no less. The only thing absolutely missing was a court jester’s hat for Jindal to wear for the CNN interview.
The problem is he got his information from Faux News which later issued corrections that there was “no credible information” that such “no-go zones” exist in France or Europe.
Lest one think his London speech was not “political,” Jindal even managed to slip in attacks on Hillary Clinton, apparently on the supposition that she will be his Democratic opponent in next year’s presidential election (insert chuckles, chortles and guffaws here).
The Democratic National Committee (DNC), fully cognizant of his budget problems back home in Louisiana, was quick to criticize Jindal, saying he was “just embarrassing himself now” and that he is “very interested” in being president but not so much in governing.
But we disagree with the DNC; he long ago transcended embarrassment. He embarrassed himself many years ago when he insisted on dropping his Indian first name (Piyush which, by the way is still his legal name, calling into question the legality of all documents signed as “Bobby”) in favor of adopting the name of a character on The Brady Bunch sitcom. (We still say it was his good luck that he wasn’t a fan of The Beverly Hillbillies: We just don’t believe Jethro Jindal would’ve caught on.)
He embarrassed himself when he wrote an essay for the New Oxford Review entitled “Beating a Demon: Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare” about his supposed exorcism of a female classmate at Brown University.
He embarrassed himself when he gave that awful response to President Obama’s State of the Union address in 2009.
He embarrassed himself when he insisted against all expert engineering advice to the contrary on building those $250 million sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico in an unsuccessful attempt to stem the flow from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill onto the Louisiana coast—unsuccessful because the berms washed away in a matter of days, sinking tens of thousands of dollars of cranes and bulldozers with them.
He embarrassed himself when he, a Roman Catholic, went to all those Protestant churches in north Louisiana during his first term to speak about his “born again” conversion to Christianity—while aides were passing around forms for congregation members to complete with their names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses for future political contribution solicitations (it’s illegal to solicit campaign contributions in the church itself).
No, he didn’t embarrass himself this time. Oh, that he had only limited the damage to embarrassment.
Instead, he showed himself to the world to be the fool he really is and in the process, made the citizens of this state who twice elected him, appear as hysterical, hate-mongering David Duke and Joe McCarthy disciples of demagoguery.
And for that, we should all be embarrassed—or worse, humiliated.
Posted in Budget, Finances, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, Legislature, Politicians, Revenue | 33 Comments »
At the repeated suggestions of several readers, we have added a feature to LouisianaVoice which we hope will increase our readership. (At least that’s what we’ve been told.)
At the bottom of each story we now have links readers may go to share our stories with others via Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Linkedin, and others.
And I personally have never really gotten into social media, there is even a button readers may click on to “like” us—whatever the heck that is. My car, after all, still has an 8-track player and my cell phone has a rotary dial and I still watch movies on Beta tapes—though they and the 8-tracks are getting harder and harder to find.
After adding these links we scrolled through a few stories to see what kind of hits we were getting and found that our story on U.S. Rep. Steve Scalese’s speech to David Duke’s group has already been forwarded more than 3,000 times on Facebook.
And that’s a good thing…we think.
At any rate, please feel free to avail yourselves to the new LouisianaVoice feature.
As for us, well, we’ll just keep writing about good ol’ Louisiana politics.
—Tom Aswell, Editor
Posted in Politics | 12 Comments »
When it comes to making a distinction between the duties of official public servant and campaign worker during the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal, the lines are often blurred as individuals move back and forth between state and campaign payrolls seamlessly and with few apparent changes in their duties.
Jindal deftly juggled the payroll of his closest advisers between his campaign payroll and taxpayer-funded salaries as part of his staff in his two successful runs for the governor’s office in 2007 and 2011, civil service and campaign records show.
At least three of those moved just as easily from the governor’s office in Louisiana to the re-election campaign of Florida Gov. Rick Scott in 2014 and Timmy Teepell moved from Jindal’s 2007 campaign manager to his chief of staff once Jindal took office and he later left briefly to work for the national Republican Governors Association as brother Taylor Teepell moved from advisor to former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to first deputy legislative director and later deputy chief of staff for Jindal.
Timmy Teepell left Jindal’s office following the 2011 election to head up the southern office of OnMessage, a political consulting firm out of Maryland to which Jindal has paid more than $5 million from 2007 through the end of 2013.
Jindal’s campaign paid Teepell $110,000 in 2007 and $120,000 for four months during 2010 (Aug. 1 through Nov. 4) and five months during 2011 (July 1 through Nov. 30) but from Jan. 14, 2008 through July 30, 2010 and from Nov. 5, 2010, through July 1, 2011, he worked as Jindal’s chief of staff at a salary of $165,000 per year—paid by Louisiana taxpayers.
Teepell did receive one payment of $3,880 from Jindal’s campaign on Nov. 11, 2010—10 days after he begin his second stint as Jindal’s chief of staff but the overlap was probably a delayed payment for campaign work done before he re-joined the governor’s staff.
Taylor Teepell, worked for six months in Jindal’s 2007 campaign, earning $29,000 before going to work for former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour who was serving as president of the Republican Governors Association.
Taylor Teepell entered Jindal’s office on Nov. 21, 2011, as older brother Timmy was departing. He first came on board as deputy legislative director at $90,000 but in less than a year, on Oct. 16, 2012, was named deputy chief of staff and given a raise to $130,000, the same salary Jindal makes. This was in the middle of a period in which state classified workers have received no pay raises.
Other attempts by Jindal to shuttle supporters back and forth between campaign and public payrolls are almost laughable in their transparent efforts to make everything appear to be above board.
Take the case of Melissa Sellers who received $35,600 from the Jindal campaign between March 30 and Nov. 8, 2007 and another $12,860 in two separate payments of $6,430 on Oct. 14 and Oct. 24, 2011. Jindal won re-election to his second four-year term on Oct. 22, 2011.
Civil Service records show that Sellers began as a state employee in the governor’s office as press secretary on Jan. 15, 2008—the day after Jindal was inaugurated for his first term—at a salary of $85,000. After being promoted to director of communications and given a raise to $90,000, she resigned on Oct. 7, 2011 but returned to the governor’s office in the same role only 18 days later, on Oct. 25. The campaign payments were during her brief hiatus from the governor’s office.
That means she pulled in $12,860 for working 18 days for Jindal’s campaign—a pay scale of more than $300,000 per year. But if the Oct. 24 represented a 10-day pay period (the first paycheck was on Oct. 14), then her first pay period would have extended at least as far back as Oct. 4—three days before her resignation from her state job. In any case, it appears there may well have been some overlap between the time she started working for the campaign and the date she resigned from the governor’s office.
More significant than her salary, however, was the timing of the move. By that time, Jindal and everyone else in the state knew he would win re-election easily over only token opposition, so what was the purpose of her taking an 18-day break from the governor’s office to work in a campaign that was already in coasting mode?
But then, upon returning to the governor’s office on Oct. 25, she remained barely more than a month, leaving again on Dec. 1, ostensibly to enroll in seminary to study for the ministry—a commitment that apparently did not last very long.
Instead, she next turned up in the re-election campaign of Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott and now serves as his chief of staff. Along the way, she managed, along with two other Jindal campaign workers, to become involved in a scandal that resulted in Scott’s firing of popular Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Commissioner Gerald Bailey.
The three—Sellers and husband and wife team Frank and Meghan Collins—managed to acquire the dubious identity of “The Louisiana Mafia” for the heavy-handed manner in which they attempted unsuccessfully to jerk Bailey around.
They first demanded that state police provide transportation for Scott campaign workers but Bailey refused, explaining that he was obligated by law to provide transportation for the governor and his wife, but not campaign aides.
Next, the Florida Republican Party attempt to foist a $90,000 check onto the FDLE as payment for shuttling campaign workers but Bailey again said no, that it would be inappropriate for his department, which is supposed to be independent of partisan politics, to accept money from a political party.
Scott, or those representing him, then attempted to bring Bailey into a conference call to discuss Scott’s platform for the coming four years but again Bailey declined to involve his department in partisan politics.
And when he complained to Scott’s chief legal counsel, that he had received solicitations for campaign contributions to Scott on his state computer, the attorney, Pete Antonacci, advised him to “just delete” the emails—in violation of Florida law prohibiting the destruction of state records.
And then there is Frank Collins, one of the “Louisiana Mafia,” who should still be smarting from his experience in Jindal’s office.
Paid only $7,500 to work four months in Jindal’s 2007 campaign, he eventually succeeded Sellers as press secretary, but at $65,000—which was $20,000 less than Sellers made for the same position three years earlier. He left on Oct. 6, 2012, and like Sellers and wife Meghan, eventually ended up with Scott’s re-election campaign and now works as Scott’s deputy chief of staff while Meghan Collins is a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education.
Jonathan Ringo is a $110,000-a-year director in the governor’s office who once told Robert Burns—but then denied that he ever said it—that the Office of Inspector General “concurred” in Burns’ removal from the Louisiana Auctioneer Licensing Board. Before bellying up to the public trough, however, he was paid more than $18,000 by Jindal’s 2007 campaign.
Matthew Parker has been director of legislative affairs for the governor’s office at $120,000 per year since Oct. 16, 2012. Before that, from Nov. 28, 2011 until being named to his current position, he was director of intergovernmental affairs at $95,000 per year.
But other than Timmy Teepell, Parker was the highest-paid Jindal campaign staffer, knocking down nearly $35,000 in seven months in 2007 and more than $79,400 in the first 11 months of 2011 for a grand total of more than $114,000.
Perhaps it’s only coincidence that Parker is Timmy Teepell’s brother-in-law.
The two lowest-paid employees in the governor’s office who also worked for his campaign at least have the consolation of getting frequent rides in state police helicopters.
Tyler Brey, who received $18,500 for working for seven months in the 2011 campaign, went on the state dime on March 11, 2013 as a $33,000-per-year external affairs liaison, whatever that fancy title entails. Last Oct. 1, even as state classified employees were going without a pay increase for a fifth consecutive year, Brey received a $1,300-per-year raise to $34,300. Brey also made 42 trips on the state police ‘copter, always accompanying Jindal as his sycophant, to such exotic getaways as Monroe, Springhill, Ruston, Jena, Winnfield, Delhi, and Mansfield, among others.
One of those trips Brey made with Jindal and communications director Kyle Plotkin, was to Minden on Feb. 3, 2013, eight days before he officially became a state employee.
The other frequent flyer was Daniel Kirk, who was paid $24,000 by the Jindal 2007 campaign before joining the governor’s office on Jan. 14, 2008, the same day Jindal was inaugurated for his first term.
He started as a $35,000-a-year administrative assistant and four months later was named a program manager at the same salary. But on Feb. 22, 2010, he was named a director in the governor’s office. It wasn’t altogether clear what a director does, but it must be pretty impressive considering he got a $30,000 bump in pay—to $65,000 but still $45,000 less than fellow director Ringo.
Kirk got to visit some of the same locales as Brey and got the added treat of flying to Georgetown in LaSalle Parish and Kinder in southwest Louisiana. He and Jindal also made a hop to Columbia, home of State Sen. Neil Riser, just about the time U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander was getting ready to announce his retirement so that Riser could run for his seat—unsuccessfully, it turned out.
In all, Kirk made 49 trips with Jindal in the state police helicopters, 19 of those during the 2011 election year and the other 30 in 2010, the year leading up to Jindal’s re-election run.
It’s impossible to say with any certainty that Jindal and his campaign-workers-turned-state-employees were using the state helicopters for campaign purposes, but with Jindal making nearly 200 ‘copter trips in 2010 and 2011, often accompanied by Sellers, Kirk or Timmy or Taylor Teepell or Brey, compared to only 86 during the next three years combined, one has to wonder.
And with the controversy sparked by Sellers and Meghan and Frank Collins in Florida in their attempts to commandeer state vehicles for campaign purposes, one also has to wonder if the “Louisiana Mafia” was only trying to repeat in Florida what they may have done with impunity in Louisiana in 2010 and 2011.
Posted in Campaign Contributions, Civil Service, Corruption, Elections, Ethics, Governor's Office, Politicians, State Police | 7 Comments »
Three people, including a married couple, who previous worked for Gov. Bobby Jindal have been implicated in purported campaign irregularities and demands that state police provide transportation for campaign workers in Florida in last year’s gubernatorial campaign that resulted in Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s firing the state’s top law enforcement officer following his re-election.
The two, Melissa Sellers and Frank Collins, worked for a time in Jindal’s office and Sellers worked briefly for both Jindal and in his 2011 re-election campaign.
Sellers was Scott’s campaign manager and since the election has been serving as his chief of staff.
The Florida incidents appear to have been the result of a clash between a feeling of entitlement carried over from their stints working for Jindal and Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Commissioner Gerald Bailey who refused to allow his department, which is supposed to be independent, from becoming involved in partisan politics.
Bailey’s office denied requests by Scott’s campaign that it transport Meghan Collins, a campaign staffer who was assigned to first lady Ann Scott. FDLE said while it was responsible for providing transportation for the governor and the first lady, campaign workers were not allowed to avail themselves of state transportation vehicles.
Since Scott’s re-election, Collins was moved onto the state payroll as chief spokesperson for the Department of Education.
Her husband, Frank Collins, worked for Jindal from Jan. 14, 2008, immediately after Jindal first took office, until his resignation Oct. 6, 2012. He was first employed as assistant press secretary at a salary of $35,000 but was promoted to press secretary and received a salary increase to $65,000 on Dec. 2, 2011. He was named a policy assistant on April 17, 2012 at the same salary and remained at this post until he resigned to join the Scott campaign with his wife.
Sellers began in Jindal’s office one day later than Collins, on Jan. 15, 2008, as press secretary at a salary of $85,000 (no complaints of lower pay for the same job there) and on Oct. 2 that same year, she was promoted to Director of Communication and raised in pay to $90,000.
Inexplicably, she resigned on Oct. 24, 2011, only to return the next day at the same position and same salary, civil service records show, until she resigned again on Dec. 2, 2011, to join the Scott campaign in Florida.
Meghan and Frank Collins and Sellers quickly became known in Florida as the “Louisiana Mafia” as tensions mounted over demands made on Bailey, whose office was in charge of investigating wrongdoing by Florida public officials. http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/gov-rick-scotts-ouster-of-fdle-commissioner-followed-months-of-tension/2213534
Bailey was asked Scott or his staff to take part in a June 2014 conference to discuss “the governor’s platform for the next four years. Bailey refused, saying he felt it inappropriate for him, as a law enforcement officer, to participate in partisan politics.
Bailey also complained to Scott’s chief legal counsel Pete Antonacci that he had received solicitations to contribute to Scott’s re-election on his state computer. Antonacci, he said, simply told Bailey to “just delete it.” In Florida, like Louisiana, it is illegal to destroy public records.
Scott said no state employees received email solicitations unless they gave an email address to the campaign but Bailey said he never provided his email address to the campaign.
Perhaps the incident that might cause some in Louisiana, particularly in Shreveport, to recall the George D’Artois-Jim Leslie saga of 1976 occurred in March of 2014.
The Florida Republic Party, acting on Scott’s behalf, sent a $90,000 check to FDLE to cover the costs of transporting Scott campaign workers (supposedly that included members of the “Louisiana Mafia”) in state vehicles to ensure that no state cars were used for campaign purposes.
D’Artois, Shreveport’s Public Safety Commissioner at the time, had, on the other hand, attempted to pay Shreveport advertising executive Jim Leslie for his work on D’Artois’ re-election campaign with a city check, which Leslie refused. D’Artois re-sent the check, telling Leslie to take it and keep quiet but Leslie threatened to go public if the commissioner persisted. In July of 1976, Leslie, who had worked on behalf of proponents of Louisiana’s Right to Work bill, was gunned down in a Baton Rouge motel parking lot after attending a party to celebrate passage of the bill. D’Artois was later implicated in the murder but died before he could be tried.
Like Leslie, Bailey refused the money from the Florida GOP, saying it had no legal authority to accept it and that moreover, it was inappropriate to accept money from a political party. A second check was written to the state general revenue fund in April of 2014. “We properly reimbursed the state,” said Scott spokesperson Jackie Schultz. “Everything was paid for properly,” she said.
But the damage was done and Scott, like Jindal, apparently is not the forgiving sort.
Bailey, 67, a veteran of more than 35 years in law enforcement, 30 of those with FDLE and the last eight as the state’s top cop, said Antonacci arrived at his office on the morning of Dec. 16 with a three-word ultimatum: “Retire or resign.”
He said he was told by Antonacci to write a brief letter of resignation, pack his things and leave his office by 5 p.m. His two-paragraph made no mention of the word “resignation,” even though Scott continues to insist Bailey resigned. “He resigned. I’ll say it again, Commissioner Bailey did a great job.”
But Bailey said Scott is lying. “I did not voluntarily do anything,” he said. “If he said I resigned voluntarily, that is a lie.”
Sellers, 32, who has been Scott’s chief of staff for five weeks now and who is considered his most influential adviser, has declined to comment. “I have nothing further to say on the record,” she said.
FDLE, which has about 1,700 full-time employees and a $300 million budget, has been investigating a series of suspicious inmate deaths in state prisons and also has been assisting in the search for human remains at the former Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.
The agency also has investigated the destruction of emails during Scott’s transition to the governor’s office in 2010.
Public records obtained by LouisianaVoice have revealed that Sellers and others who worked in Jindal’s 2011 re-election campaign, took numerous trips on state police helicopters. We will examine those flights in subsequent posts.
Posted in Corruption, Elections, Governor's Office, Politicians, State Police | 12 Comments »
