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More ruminations on Jindal’s power consolidation, more profitable legal work for Faircloth, Obama Katrina failure

August 28, 2013 by tomaswell

Consolidation of power or rats deserting sinking ship?

Gov. Bobby Jindal appears to be consolidating his power base as he moves toward his final two years in office by positioning key allies as caretakers to watch the store in his four-year hiatus—a break he will no doubt us to seek higher office of latch on with some right wing think tank.

What Jindal is doing in the placement of former Chief of Staff Steve Waguespack as president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) and Division of Administration spokesman Michael DiResto with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) as senior vice president for economic competitiveness is eerily similar to Huey Long’s lining up all his toadies before moving from the governor’s office to the U.S. Senate.

He earlier had helped get Scott Angelle, who almost certainly would have been replaced as Secretary of Natural Resources by Jindal’s successor, elected to the Public Service Commission and only recently he orchestrated the “retirement” of Congressman Rodney Alexander by placing him in a $130,000-a-year job as head of Veterans Affairs, a job, which if he remains three years, will boost his state retirement from about $7,500 to $82,000 per year.

By convincing Alexander to hang up his congressional spurs, Jindal opened the door (he hopes) for State Sen. Neil Riser to move into Alexander’s former Fifth District slot. That little coup may yet backfire as there has already been considerable pushback to that blatant back room deal.

Though BRAC did not say so, an additional duty for DiResto might be to help identify and sanction “legitimate” news media representatives. Nearly two years ago, DiResto arbitrarily decided that our sister organization, Capitol News Service, was not “legitimate.” That was the reason he gave—before relenting more than an hour later—for denying a copy of Jindal’s executive budget to CNS.

More lucrative work for Faircloth?

Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White’s ill-fated voucher plan has run into another obstacle in the form of a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit to block vouchers in 22 of 34 parish school systems currently under federal desegregation orders.

It’s not the first time this issue has come up but the filing of the lawsuit adds a new dimension to the voucher controversy and it could be a new opportunity for Jindal’s favorite lawyer Jimmy Faircloth.

Financial windfalls don’t come along very often—unless you are Faircloth, who has already received some $1.1 million in fees while unsuccessfully defending the administration on a number of issues ranging from vouchers to retirement to lack of transparency in the selection of a new LSU president.

Now he has a golden opportunity to once again start the legal meter running.

At this rate, he could retire when Jindal leaves office.

Jindal invests in state retirement system even as he trashes its stability

You may remember all the hoopla about the state’s busted retirement systems. Jindal paraded administrative appointive officials before legislative committees to sound the alarm that the retirement systems were broke, kaput, bankrupt, broken and otherwise unsalvageable—unless the legislature approved Jindal’s radical program for state pension reform. That the “reforms” would have been devastating to state employees and would violate employee contracts was besides the point.

This was one of the dogs that Faircloth was asked to defend in state court. And it was one of several cases in which Faircloth was shot down in flames.

But wait! Even as the retirement systems were circling the drain (according to Jindal), Jindal was surreptitiously buying back his retirement from his prior service with the state in order to increase his own state pension.

Kinda makes you wonder  if he really believed his own Chicken Little falling sky rhetoric, doesn’t it?

Republican indignation over voucher suit

Hayride blog columnist Kevin Kane dutifully parroted the administration line that it was such a shame to trap kids in lousy schools.

Jindal called the lawsuit “shameful,” and said it was imperative to give every child, “no matter their race or their income, the opportunity to get a great education.”

It certainly is interesting to see these elitist types become so concerned with the education of black children so late in the day.

Katrina Obama’s fault, Louisiana GOP poll shows

A recent poll, admittedly conducted by the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, is one of those surveys that Jindal has chosen not to trumpet as proof that he’s doing a “heckuva job.”

The poll showed that 29 percent of state Republicans said that President Obama was responsible for the poor federal response to Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans eight years ago tomorrow (Aug. 29).

Obama may be many things—indecisive, weak, occasionally confused—but one thing he was not, was president. He was a freshman in the U.S. Senate, still three years away from being elected president.

At least Timmy Teepell didn’t try to saddle Obama with the Katrina debacle in his infamous tweet exchange with Baton Rouge blogger Bob Mann recently.

Posted in Courts, Education, Governor's Office, Vouchers | 6 Comments »

Our random observations on freedom of expression, ATC, questionable meeting and action by Jindal’s LSU Board

August 26, 2013 by tomaswell

We’ve come across a few odds and ends lying around that we feel might warrant a second look.

Another take on blood tests and one-vehicle accidents

First we would like to acknowledge that we initially wrote a piece based on erroneous information from certain people whose judgment we trusted but who were wrong. Because of their advice, we also were wrong in saying that blood alcohol tests are “routine procedure” in one vehicle accidents. It turns out that is not the case and we respectfully defer to the state trooper who investigated Attorney General Buddy Caldwell’s accident last week. The trooper said in his report that Caldwell did not appear to be impaired and accordingly, he did not take a blood sample for testing. We have been informed by State Police and others that it is not “routine procedure” to take blood tests in single-vehicle accidents.

ATC moves in with State Police, not so the ATC director

The Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control has been moved from its former headquarters at United Plaza on Essen Lane in Baton Rouge to the Louisiana State Police compound on Independence Boulevard, ostensibly to save money.

ATC Director Troy Hebert and his administrative assistant Jessica Starns, however, were allowed to remain at the United Plaza offices and to even rent additional space for Hebert’s office.

What’s with that? Shouldn’t an agency director be physically located at the same address as his employees and not several miles across town? That would be like having a governor who spends all his time in other states. Oh, wait. We already have that, don’t we?

Baton Rouge publisher opposes freedom of expression

Normally, a member of the Fourth Estate would be up in arms at any suggestion at muzzling a critic of government, a suggestion any publisher, editor of reporter would quickly point to as a threat to the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.

Such is not the case of one Baton Rouge publisher, we’re told. Reports have it that this publisher, a staunch supporter of Gov. Bobby Jindal, has gone on rampages in his office, ranting to his subordinates and anyone else who will listen that he wants Robert Mann stripped of his tenure at LSU—and fired.

Mann, who has worked with three U.S. senators (Russell Long, Bennett Johnston and John Breaux) and former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, currently holds the Manship Chair in Journalism at the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU.

A journalist and political historian, Mann also just happens to author a controversial political blog called Something Like the Truth http://bobmannblog.com/ in which he generally takes the Jindal administration to task for its roughshod trampling of all who dare disagree with him, be they state civil service employees, doctors, college presidents or legislators.

Mann is careful to feature a prominent disclaimer which says, “Opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of the author, not LSU, the Manship School nor the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs.”

But that apparently is not enough for this publisher, who dutifully prints every inane press release by the governor that purports to make the state look good despite reams of negative national surveys on poverty, obesity and health care.

So much for a fair and independent press serving as a watchdog on behalf of the citizenry. We’re just sayin’…

Cerise Memo: LSU Board quorum?

Remember our story last week about that July 2012 meeting in the LSU President’s conference room where former Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine pitched the privatization plan for LSU’s 10-hospital system?

There was a key sentence then-head of the LSU Health Care System Dr. Fred Cerise included in his memorialization of that meeting regarding Levine’s presentation:

“The LSU board members present indicated they want LSU’s management to pursue this strategy,” the Cerise Memo said.

But wait. The LSU Board of Supervisors consists of 15 voting members, all appointed by the governor, and one student member who has no vote.

The Louisiana Open Meetings Law, R.S. 42: 4.2, headed “Public policy for open meetings; liberal construction,” reads thusly:

  • “Meeting” means the convening of a quorum of a public body to deliberate or act on a matter over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power. It shall also mean the convening of a quorum of a public body by the public body or by another public official to receive information regarding a matter over which the public body has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power.
  • “Public body” means village, town, and city governing authorities; parish governing authorities; school boards and boards of levee and port commissioners; boards of publicly operated utilities; planning, zoning, and airport commissions; and any other state, parish, municipal, or special district boards, commissions, or authorities, and those of any political subdivision thereof, where such body possesses policy making, advisory, or administrative functions, including any committee or subcommittee of any of these bodies enumerated in this paragraph.
  • “Quorum” means a simple majority of the total membership of a public body.

The statute further stipulates that “every meeting of any public body shall be open to the public unless closed pursuant to R.S. 42.6, R.S. 42:6.1 or R.S. 42:6.2.”

First of all, R.S. 42:6 clearly states that a public body “may hold executive session upon an affirmative vote …of two-thirds of its constituent members present.”

R.S. 42:6.1 simply lists the reasons an executive session may be held which you may explore in greater detail here: http://www.lawserver.com/law/state/louisiana/la-laws/louisiana_revised_statutes_42-6-1

R.S. 42:6.2, re-designated as R.S. 42:18 in 2010, applies only to the Legislature. http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=99494

But let’s return to R.S. 42:4.2, that pesky little law about quorums.

Remember, the Cerise Memo said that the “LSU board members present” indicated their desire for the LSU administration to move forward with the Levine proposal.

Remember also, the LSU Board of Supervisors is comprised of 15 voting members.

But there were only four members of the LSU board present at that meeting, according to Cerise’s notes. They included Rolfe McCollister, Bobby Yarborough, Dr. John George and Scott Ballard.

Hardly a quorum.

But then, it was the likely intent of those present to avoid having a quorum because a quorum (eight voting members, in this case) would necessitate public notices of such a meeting and making said meeting open to the public.

Obviously, that was not the wish of the board members who did attend. They wanted, above all else, to avoid a full quorum so that the meeting could be conducted in secret.

If you check out our masthead, we recently added an anonymous quote:

  • It is understandable when a child is afraid of the dark but unforgivable when a man fears the light.

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (Nov. 13, 1856-Oct. 5, 1941) is credited with coining the phrase, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

But in avoiding the necessity of opening up that July 17, 2012, meeting to the public by purposely skirting the requirement of a quorum so as not to qualify as an official meeting, those four board members were legally barred from taking any official action.

Yet, that minor point of law did little to deter them from directing the LSU administration to pursue Levine’s plan.

Yes, we are fully aware that the four board members not only spoke for the entire board but for Gov. Bobby Jindal as well. As Elliott Stonecipher recently noted in his blog Forward Now, state ethic laws prohibited Levine from conducting business with the State for two years after his departure as DHH Secretary. http://forward-now.com/?p=8403

Levine’s last day at DHH was July 16, 2010. The meeting at which he presented his plan to LSU administrators and board members was on July 17, 2012.

And we don’t believe in coincidences. And anyone who doesn’t believe Levine was in constant contact with the administration in the days, weeks and months leading up to that July 17 meeting is…well, a fool.

Such is the Gold Standard of Ethics that Jindal has bestowed upon the people of Louisiana.

Posted in ATC, Attorney General, Boards, Ethics, Governor's Office, Health Care, Politicians, Privatization, State Agencies, Transparency | 15 Comments »

Cerise, Townsend firing came soon after fateful 2012 Levine meeting with LSU officials to discuss LSUMC privatization

August 21, 2013 by tomaswell

LouisianaVoice has obtained a copy of the minutes of a meeting in Baton Rouge a little over a year ago which led to the firing of the head of the LSU Hospital System and the CEO of Interim Louisiana Public Hospital in New Orleans by the Jindal administration.

LSU Health Care System head Dr. Fred Cerise and Interim Louisiana Public Hospital CEO Dr. Roxanne Townsend were fired just days apart last year—Cerise in late August and Townsend in early September—following a July 17 meeting at which former Secretary of Health and Hospitals (DHH) Alan Levine pitched a plan to privatize the state’s system of LSU medical centers.

Levine was at the meeting on behalf of is firm, Health Management Associates (HMA) but was recently hired as president and CEO of Mountain States Health Alliance.

Present at that meeting, besides Cerise, Townsend and Levine were then-LSU President William Jenkins, DHH then-Secretary Bruce Greenstein, LSU Medical Center Shreveport Director Dr. Robert Barish, HMA CFO Kerry Curry, LSU Health Science Center Shreveport Vice Chancellor Hugh Mighty and LSU Board of Supervisors members Rolfe McCollister, Bobby Yarborough, John George and Scott Ballard. LSU Health Science Center New Orleans Chancellor Larry Hollier and Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans Frank Opelka also participated by teleconference.

Opelka was promoted to Cerise’s position when Cerise was replaced.

The meeting was held in the LSU president’s conference room.

Both Cerise and Townsend expressed reservations about Levine’s proposal but several members of the LSU Board of Supervisors who were present at the meeting “indicated they want LSU’s management to pursue this strategy,” according to a summary of the meeting prepared for Jenkins by Cerise prior to his being replaced by Opelka.

Along with his two-page summation of the meeting, Cerise also submitted a third page containing a list of five concerns he had with the privatization plan pitched by Levine. It was that list that list of concerns which most likely got Cerise removed as head of the LSU Health System via an email from Jenkins.

HMA, headquartered in Naples, Florida, was the subject of a scathing report by CBS news magazine 60 Minutes less than six months after Levine and Curry met with LSU officials in Baton Rouge and Levine has since moved on to become the CEO of Mountain States Health Alliance.

The thrust of the 60 Minutes story which aired last Dec. 2, was that profits, not patient care, was the driving force behind HMA’s emergency room decisions and that emergency room doctors were pressured to admit emergency room patients “regardless of medical need” to boost the company’s bottom line.

Some speculation had HMA squarely in the mix insofar as the proposed privatization of LSU’s 10-hospital system but the 60 Minutes story apparently thwarted those plans.

Levine denied that in an interview with the Baton Rouge Advocate last October. “I have had no conversations with LSU about taking over any of the existing LSU hospitals,” he told the paper. “I was there (in Baton Rouge) as a former (DHH) secretary. I was not there to pitch my company.”

Little more than a month later, following the 60 Minutes story by CBS correspondent Steve Kroft, Levine found himself trying to salvage the HMA image.

HMA, which owns 70 hospitals in 15 states, was accused on camera by several former employees of setting admission targets and that doctors were coerced into admitting more patients. The former employees said doctors who did not meet quotas were threatened with their jobs.

Despite Levine’s denials that HMA was interested in managing the LSU hospitals, Jenkins seemed to think otherwise. “I would say he would be interested in business,” Jenkins said in the same story containing Levine’s denial. “You would be surprised how many companies across the country are interested in these hospitals.

Levine, according to Cerise’s notes, recommended as an initial step that LSU sell its hospital in Shreveport (LSU Medical Center) and use the proceeds to “offset budget cuts for the rest of the LSU system.”

He suggested that the buyers would form a joint venture with LSU, invest capital into the facility and develop a strategy for LSU “to more aggressively compete in the hospital market.”

“The LSU board members present indicated they want LSU’s management to pursue this strategy,” Cerise’s notes said. “Greenstein stated that LSU should look to generate two years of funding to address the state funds shortfall in the system through the sale of Shreveport’s hospital.”

It was at that point that Cerise indicated his concern that such a strategy would take time to develop and that LSU would likely need to go through a competitive public procurement process and “likely legislative approvals.”

It was subsequently determined that legislative approval was not legally required; all that was required was for the legislature to be informed of the administration’s actions.

“There appeared to be agreement that LSU develop a plan that would not result in closure of hospitals,” Cerise’s notes said. “When the question was posed to the group, ‘Will LSU close hospitals,” George responded, ‘We hope not.’ The clear message was that the board members did not want LSU to proceed with any hospital closures at this point.”

Since that meeting, Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge and W.O. Moss Medical Center in Lake Charles have each closed.

“Cerise asked Greenstein if he would allow LSU to draw federal funds to try to fix part of our problem and he replied, ‘Yes.’”

Among the concerns expressed by Cerise in an addendum to the meeting meetings which he addressed to Jenkins:

  • There is no commitment by DHH to mitigate the budget reduction while we work on the very complex Shreveport deal. Therefore, if later in the year, we realize that w cannot close a Shreveport sale by year end, we will run a deficit which is against the law and grounds for removal of those causing the deficit;
  • There will be a significant community/political reaction to LSU assuming a competitive posture with a profit partner while receiving favorable Medicaid and uninsured financing from the state;
  • We could see a significant negative community reaction to a plan that sells the Shreveport hospital and spends a large amount of the proceeds on hospitals in south Louisiana. There are also local contractual relationships which might be adversely affected and objected to;
  • We need to be transparent with the legislature. If our plan is to spend as if we will complete a “joint venture” and secure funding later in the year, the board and the legislature need to realize that wer have no alternative solution if the plan fails later in this fiscal year. This will put Shreveport and New Orleans at risk as well as put LSU at risk of running a deficit;
  • The only certain way for LSU is to live within its newly assigned budget is to close multiple facilities now. If we do not do this, we are running the risk of delaying and creating an unmanageable budget crisis later in the year that will put Shreveport and New Orleans at risk. That risk includes others blaming LSU for not taking actions earlier.

“I am asking that you share this memo or at least the substance of it with the full board to ensure they are informed and that their direction to us that we delay definitive budgetary action until the end of August to better assess the likelihood of a Shreveport sale with a statewide distribution of the proceeds is clear and unambiguous,” Cerise said in his memorandum to Jenkins.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Jenkins called for the creation of a task force to include then-Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, Greenstein, George, Yarborough, McCollister, Ballard, Mighty, Barish, Hollier, Cerise and Townsend.

But in a matter of weeks, Cerise and Townsend were gone.

And a year later, a blank contract was agreed to which allows Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana (BRF), an organization with no appreciable cash flow and no experience in running a hospital, to assume control of LSU Medical Center in Shreveport and E.A. Conway Medical in Monroe—facilities with combined revenues of about $400,000.

Moreover, BRF will receive all the facilities’ assets with the state getting the liabilities.

Posted in Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Health Care, LSU, Privatization, Public Records, Transparency | 31 Comments »

Delhi Recovering Republican Henry Herford qualifies as Libertarian candidate for Alexander’s congressional seat

August 21, 2013 by tomaswell

Henry G. Herford, Jr., of Delhi, who was hospitalized following a scuffle with police during the Louisiana State Republican Convention in Shreveport in June of last year, filed papers on Tuesday, officially entering the race for the Fifth District congressional seat being vacated by Rodney Alexander of Quitman.

Herford is a recovering Republican of sorts, recently ditching that party in favor of the Libertarian label for the Oct. 19 primary because, he says, there is “not a dime’s difference” between the Democrats and Republicans.

It was just over a year ago that Herford was wrestled to the floor, dislocating his prosthetic hip in a skirmish with Shreveport police after Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere of Metairie refused to yield and ordered Herford removed from the convention floor immediately after Herford was elected convention chairman by Ron Paul supporters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZSferdzaOM

Following Herford’s hospitalization and arrest by police, delegates went on to elected a new chair and a slate of 27 Ron Paul supports to fill 12 of the 18 district delegate slots and 15 of 20 at-large delegate slots.

Herford has since filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court naming Shreveport police, the Louisiana Republican Party and others as defendants in what he terms a “wrongful arrest.”

In claiming that the two major political parties have lost touch with the electorate, Herford said, “I’m ‘us,’ and they’re ‘them.’”

He said the Libertarian Party supports freedom through less government. “You can’t throw money at every problem,” he said. “We spend more on our military budget than Russia and China combined.”

Many observers feel that Alexander’s announcement that he would step down, following in quick succession by a job offer by Gov. Bobby Jindal, the announcement by State Sen. Neil Riser that he would seek Alexander’s seat and the immediate endorsement by the state’s Republican congressional delegation was orchestrated by Jindal.

A possible giveaway of the scheme may have been inadvertently revealed when Alexander’s announcement said he had “agreed” to step down, an indication that there were old-style political back room negotiations leading up to his decision.

The offer by Jindal of a $130,000 a year job heading up the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs, which will bump Alexander’s state retirement from his days in the legislature from approximately $7,500 to about $82,000 per year did nothing to assuage the suspicions of smoke-filled rooms and political chicanery.

Posted in Congress, Governor's Office, Politicians | 12 Comments »

Jindal reveals only polls that favor him but diregards fact that polling company OnMessage is ‘OnPayroll’ for $1.2M

August 20, 2013 by tomaswell

There are only two ways to describe political polls if you are a candidate who turns up in one.

If the poll favors the candidate, it’s a trend—sometimes a significant trend. If not, the numbers are meaningless.

But for pure spin, there seems to be no one who can top Gov. Bobby Jindal and his treatment of the latest numbers is merely another illustration of his ability to taint, distort, twist and skew data to his political advantage.

Harsh words? Of course, but sadly accurate. We have seen over and over his willingness to tout to the point of ad nauseam the latest survey that shows Louisiana with a favorable business climate or some such statistic that, taken as a stand-alone point, would favor his administration. Disregarded, ignored and unpublicized are other, more credible studies that show Louisiana wallowing in obesity and poverty, its citizens existing in an environmental morass and in a state with one of the highest percentages of residents without health insurance.

We have seen him pop up immediately at the site of a natural crisis of one of someone else’s making, as with the BP spill or the recent derailment in Lawtell in St. Landry Parish. Yet, it literally took months and a chorus of demands from area residents to convince him to finally visit that ever-expanding sinkhole near the Assumption Parish community of Bayou Corne, a crisis precipitated in part by permits issued by his own Department of Natural Resources.

But now we have two separate political polls—both by political conservative organizations—that show vastly different results. One shows his approval rating hovering around 50 percent while the other has him at an abysmal 35 percent—one of the lowest rankings of any governor in the history of Louisiana.

Others, it turns out, have also written about the conflicting polls. http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/item/521755-jindal-poll-pipeline-is-louisiana-governor-at-50-or-35-percent

http://cenlamar.com/2013/08/20/gop-poll-if-bobby-jindal-ran-for-president-hillary-cli/

So which poll does he choose to hype? Silly question. Of course, he trots out the one reflecting a 50 percent approval rating, boasting of the impressive 12-point increase from an April poll. Surely, the rebound must reflect strong public support for his policies in education reform, budget slashing, hospital privatization, health care and massive employee layoffs. Right?

Not so fast.

Never mentioned (by the Jindal folks, anyway) is the fact that the 50 percent approval rating was the result of a poll by OnMesssage of Alexandria, VA.

OnMessage. Sound familiar? It should. It was OnMessage that hired one Timmy Teepell to head up its Southern operations in Baton Rouge—except there was never a Baton Rouge address or telephone number in Baton Rouge for the company and Teepell’s Jeep has remains parked in the back lot of the State Capitol since his hiring.

Despite recent rumors of OnMessage’s dissatisfaction with Teepell’s failure to attract clients for the political consulting firm, there is the matter of some $1.2 million that can’t be ignored when considering those rosy OnMessage poll results.

That’s the amount that Jindal’s Believe in Louisiana non-profit, tax-exempt propaganda machine paid OnMessage through last September. That figure included $456,551 paid in March of 2012, ostensibly for polling and research.

It’s enough to make one wonder how much Jindal (or Believe in Louisiana) paid OnMessage for the latest good news.

If one knew no better, it would appear a question of professional honor when OnMessage partner Curt Anderson challenged last April’s poll by Bernie Pinsonat which showed Jindal’s approval rate at 37 percent.

But Pinsonat was quick to point out the close relationship. “He (Anderson) works for Jindal. I do not. I would expect him to defend his client,” he said.

OnMessage also seemed to bolster Jindal’s rejection of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The OnMessage poll showed that 62 percent opposed Obamacare.

The numbers should come as no surprise considering that more than 86 percent of those polled have health insurance.

Yet, at 17.8 percent, Louisiana has the second highest percentage of citizens with no health insurance. It would have been interesting to see the poll results had a greater number of non-insured residents been included in the sampling. But isn’t it interesting that even with 86 percent of those polled having health insurance, only 62 percent opposed Obamacare?

Without cozying up to any candidate, suffice it to say we all know polls can be constructed as to produce almost any desired results. A recent example is an automated, or robocall poll with questions so obviously couched to favor Congressman Bill Cassidy over incumbent U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu as to be laughable. I received one of the poll’s calls and while I usually hang up, for some reason I stayed on the line and completed the poll.

Given the manner in which the questions were phrased, it would have been difficult for the most die-hard, Yellow Dog Democrat not to have bared his fangs at Landrieu. So, it was no surprise two days later when the poll results tilted in favor of Cassidy.

Still, it is worth noting that last April Pinsonat’s poll, commissioned by conservative Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby, showed Jindal trailing Obama by five points—in Louisiana.

Even more interesting is another poll last week, by Harper Polling for Conservative Intel (that’s the one that has Jindal at a 35 percent approval rating) said that Jindal, occasionally mentioned (but often by the day) as a 2016 presidential contender, “has some work to do back home first.”

That poll, in a hypothetical 2016 presidential matchup, has Hillary Clinton beating Jindal by 44 to 42 percent—again, in Louisiana.

Losing to both Obama and Clinton on his home turf should be humiliating to Jindal but because has insulated himself in some sort of impenetrable buffer that apparently shields him from bad news, he bravely soldiers on, grabbing any and every opportunity to speak to conservative groups outside (but never in) Louisiana.

Still, it is interesting to read some of the comments at the bottom of online news stories about the Boy Blunder:

  • His political star is falling…handicapped by an intellectual base little different from that of the John Birch Society of the 1950s and ‘60s.
  • It is hard to see any of the current GOP presidential contenders righting the GOP ship when none of the contenders have both oars in the water.
  • He is a member of the stupid party.
  • But he’s a legend in his own mind.
  • He’s the only one who thinks he’s all that.
  • Poor Piyush! Like most TeaPots and GOPers, the more their constituents get to know them, the more their constituents despise them.
  • Look at his state; do you want that for your state?

Posted in Governor's Office, Politicians, Transparency | 13 Comments »

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