Jindal appoints Manuel to take Sittig's PSC post

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal got a rare chance to appoint somebody to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, because it is an elective position where this chance only comes because of vacancy of the office, and decided so because of the dynamics surrounding that particular position and the entire commission.

Jindal appointed E. Pat Manuel, an Alexandria-area businessman and GOP stalwart to replace Democrat Dale Sittig who took over as Jindal's new appointee to head the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port. Manuel was a large contributor to Jindal for his gubernatorial campaign but will not run in the special election to fulfill the remainder of the term ending in 2010.

This gives for the first time a Republican majority on the Commission although Sittig tended to vote more in the conservative direction along with other Republicans Jay Blossman and Jimmy Field than with Democrats Lambert Boissiere III and Foster Campbell. This would tend to less unnecessary state interference in the areas the Commission had jurisdiction - utilities and road transportation - and thereby produce a better economic climate.

But obviously Manuel was not the long-term solution for Jindal to keep the seat in GOP hands. The challenge to both Jindal and the party especially is great because already announcing for the job is Democrat term-limited state Sen. Joe McPherson who in many ways is the antithesis of reform movement in Louisiana. McPherson is well known as one of the last populists and one of the best of the good old boys.

McPherson also is no fan of Jindal. When the new Legislature convened earlier this year Jindal made sure McPherson didn't get the chamber's top spot was demoted from a committee chairmanship the latter used to favor the industry in which he makes his living, nursing homes. They also clashed on the scope and role of government and on ethics reforms. McPherson has not been shy in expressing his views on Jindal, sarcastically promoting Jindal's chances to be named Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate in order to get him out of the state, such havoc had Jindal wreaked on McPherson's political way of life.

Hurricanes blow hope into race for 2nd District

As previously discussed, election delays brought about by hurricanes indeed have provided an opportunity for indicted Rep. William Jefferson to salvage his chances at reelection to the Second Congressional District.

To review, lagging candidates and those who had greater ability to draw upon political resources would be advantaged by the delay of party nomination contests from Sep. 6 to Oct. 4. Jefferson fit the bill on both; his polling numbers were unimpressive particularly for an incumbent, and because of his legal woes his campaign treasury was anemic, again especially for an incumbent.

But Jefferson has other non-pecuniary resources of incumbency he can draw upon and was given the extra time to use them while other candidates, without these, had a diminished ability to campaign due to distractions caused by New Orleans area cleanup after Hurricane Gustav. This cannot hurt the political position he appeared to be in right before the storm, leading the Democrat field with 18 percent of the intended vote - largely composed of die-hard supporters or those who had thought nothing of the campaign and went with the incumbent's name that they know.

Typically, informed speculation would consider 18 percent a dangerous number for an incumbent, especially given twice that amount remained undecided. But with the next closest candidate the non-black Helena Moreno at 16 percent and four other black males in the higher single digits in a primary contest from an electorate that is 60 percent black, Jefferson's position is not bad. A majority of the non-black vote will go to Moreno so she is likely to top 20 percent, as is Jefferson although neither probably will go much beyond that number. Even so, it means among the other four realistic challengers in order to get to that figure, one would have to sweep up at least a third of the remaining vote meaning, in practical terms being anywhere from a third to a half of the undecided vote.

Whether any of the other four can achieve such a consolidation is less than three weeks is rather debatable. Put both Jefferson and Moreno at 20 percent (which would be underperforming significantly among the undecided voters) and then split out the remaining candidates proportionally with the remaining undecided vote (meaning they significantly overperform among these voters) and none of them catch the top two. In other words, somebody from that other four must break out of the pack and do significantly better among undecided voters for there not to be a Jefferson-Moreno runoff for the Democrat nomination.

Whether one candidate, in the more-confused immediate post-hurricane environment whose strategies were based upon a …
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Big Easy comes up in Big Oil scandal

A bit of a government scandal touched Louisiana as scathing reports about the ethics and integrity of a government agency were issued. No, it's not from any state or local government, but the federal government. But more interesting is the reaction from certain politicians desperate to use the issue to try to reverse their party's waning fortunes.

Turns out that some officials in the U.S. Mineral Management Service have been having a grand old time - a senior male official reported to have made booty calls and snorting coke with subordinates along pursuing with an illegal outside consultancy, and engaging in other breaches of integrity, while two female officials better known by randy and/or wary private sector clients as the "MMS chicks" were documented having considerable party experiences in New Orleans, among other places, all the while violating a number of ethics standards, and as many as 15 others also seemed to get in on the act in less lurid but equally corrupt fashion. A couple of proposed deals involved Louisiana properties.

So it's a sad tale of government employees, even as it was documented they were well-trained on the appropriate ethical standards, with financial powers backed by the power of the federal government that let themselves act corruptly, right? Not according to certain Democrats in Congress. "This is why we must not allow Big Oil's agenda to be jammed through Congress," snorted Sen. Bill Nelson, while Sen. Charles Schumer bloviated, "This IG report has it all - sex, drugs and the Bush administration officials once again in cahoots with Big Oil."

So "Big Oil" is to blame, never mind that the oil companies (including a few regional firms of small size that apparently when Democrats use the phrase it must mean every business connected to petroleum larger than a corner gas station) did not force the employees to violate ethics laws? And it's "Bush administration officials" that are the miscreants, even though none of those involved are political appointees and it was the Bush appointees in fact who blew the whistle and ferreted out the wrongdoers? If the amount of brains of Nelson and Schumer were gunpowder, it's clear combined they couldn't blow each other's noses.

The reason why they are trotting out explanations that insult intelligences is that they are looking for any excuse to deflect from maybe the biggest issue on the political radar now, that Democrats for decades have …
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Landrieu urges House to oppose Democratic bill

Sen. Mary Landrieu's apparent pro-oil drilling, pro-additional state revenues advocacy represents just another disingenuous attempt on her part to appear to be something that she isn't during an election year.

Landrieu addressed two of the biggest issues for Louisianans, increasing domestic oil production and revenues sharing of federal money to the states, in her statement in opposition to her own party's House colleagues' plan modeled after one onto which she signed with (now) 19 other senators. Her plan largely is cosmetic and would do little other than shift money from energy consumers in the public to favored environmental causes of Democrats but even so the small difference with the plan backed by House Democrats, revenue sharing removed from theirs, brought her rebuke.

But we must understand the additional sham she is perpetrating other than her original plan. House Democrats leaders say their version can't include revenue sharing because it would violate the "pay-as-you-go" (PAYGO) rules re-established in Congress at the beginning of 2007 courtesy of Democrat campaign pledges. They sounded impressive: if legislation reduces predicted revenues, spending must be cut to match.

However, PAYGO as a concept has been violated by Democrats so much they would make Storyville of a century ago look like a nunnery. From the start its form was riddled with loopholes and exceptions and since then it has been ignored on numerous occasions. In fact, at the end of last year Landrieu's Senate Democrats gave up on it, ending the pretense to show its real purpose is to be used as an excuse to prevent permanent tax reductions from being realized while creating the chimera of fiscal responsibility.

Still, the House Democrats continue to prop up this charade which is what provided Landrieu the perfect excuse to try to demonstrate she cares about Louisiana. She knew House Democrats could use PAYGO as an excuse to ignore her, even as they have routinely waived its applicability in the past. In exchange, she comes across making an apparently bold statement allegedly showing she's not a slave to the party line and bringing more attention to her bogus plan.

If the heat gets too much for Democrats on the drilling issue, their House contingent simply will waive PAYGO again and go along with the plan, making Landrieu look even more heroic which she desperately needs in her quest to fight off Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy for reelection. Voters must recognize the manipulative game she is waging here on two levels: first in trumpeting a plan …
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Voters got a break from attack ads

It's true that perhaps the only person who benefitted from Hurricane Gustav was Sen. Mary Landrieu. But just a little bit, even if that little bit might go a long way.

Gustav's coming did interject a pause into the contest for U.S. Senate in Louisiana as the Democrat aims to hang onto the seat against a formidable challenge by Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy. It's not so much incumbents who get favored by campaigning forced to cease temporarily, but those who lead those races, and in all cases in all races in the state incumbents, even if narrowly, would appear to be doing that with the probable exception of Rep. Don Cazayoux's troubled bid for a full term.

As explained previously, those who are behind in contests want campaigning to go on as long as possible, so they (usually challengers where there are no open seats) have more time to catch up. But the only meaningful contests this cycle, except for the two mentioned above, in the state are for open seats so realistic challengers were not only not advantaged by the prospect of extra time but also because no realistic challengers were in a position to take advantage of delays because the nature of their party primaries were uncontested so that the general election still would be held on Nov. 4; only general elections which feature open seats would likely be pushed back to Dec. 6.

The Senate race with no party primary challenges will not be delayed. With Kennedy trailing to a small degree according to the few impartial (and, admittedly, small sampled) polls about the race, having a few days taken away for campaigning won't help him.

But just as Landrieu got lucky with the involuntary curtailment, Kennedy did with its timing if there was going to have to be a break. Gustav began to dominate attention right when another event would have done the same - first the Democrats', the then Republicans' national conventions, especially filled with drama as vice presidential nominees were chosen only on the eves of them. Campaigning for lower-level offices to win the general election usually is ineffective during these two weeks, with so much potential voters' interests elsewhere politically.

That situation typically lasts a week or two after the conventions as many voters finally begin to pay attention to and to make up their minds about the presidential vote. For most, only after that most important decision will they begin …
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Thursday, September 11^th, 2008
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BOBBY JINDAL VS SARAH PALIN

IN 2012?

 For most of us living along the Gulf Coast, national politics has not been of major concern in the past week.  Our focus has been post-Gustav and pre- Ike.  Many homes did not have electricity in the waning days after Gestalt’s demise, so few were able to spend any time watching the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.  Sarah who?

  About the best I was able to do was to take an occasional look from my Clear Channel radio studio to catch a glimpse of my oldest kid on CNN, just to be sure she looked healthy.  So last Sunday morning, with a generator riving up my small portable television set with rabbit ears, I sat back with the morning papers and listened to the Sunday morning talk shows. 

 Barrack Obama started off on ABC’s "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos.  Talk about Mr. excitement.  He rambled, hesitated, and could not been more diffident and blaze.  When it came to the puzzling McCain pick of Governor Sarah Palin for Vice President, Obama was asked whether she met the minimum test of being "capable of being president?"  You would have thought he would have jumped on that one.  His answer?  "Well, you know, I'll let you ask John McCain when he's on ABC.”   Some knock out punch.

 Stephanopoulos went on to ask Obama's reaction to an attack on him by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the Republican convention.  "He immersed himself in Chicago machine politics,” said the former New York Mayor. Well, didn’t McCain jump full force into Arizona politics when he "chose" this state to go and run for office?  All the candidates were involved in party machine politics.  So how did Obama come back full force with an aggressive in-your-face answer?  "It's a real puzzling thing." he said in a laid-back fashion.  Some tough response.

 Then it was time to look for Sarah.  I had seen a lot of her on the Internet.  Well, at least airbrushed photographs that had been e-mailed to me from friends across the country.  I did …
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Lessons to be learned ... quickly

An opinion column written by John Maginnis presents a largely valid view of the state's efforts to deal with major storms, in light of the most recent assault by Hurricane Gustav. For the formation of better public policy, however, a few points need re-thinking, expansion, or correction.

The crux of the matter is whether the state ought to be in the paternalistic business of providing emergency shelter. There seems to be general agreement among all policy-makers that it should be and to not would be inconsistent with existing social welfare policy that promotes dependency. As it seems to be settled as a question of broader policy, this reality must be incorporated into more specific policy regarding sheltering evacuees.

More specifically, the most-encompassing policy concern depends upon the expected incidence of hurricanes potentially striking the state. The more the likelihood, the more one could argue for vaster, longer-term, and thereby more expensive solutions. While Maginnis blithely states "Climatologists attribute the increasing size and strength of recent hurricanes to global warming," he clearly failed to educate himself on the matter. In fact, the last several studies on the topic have come to the opposite conclusion at least on the question of number.

And this of course not only assumes that there is actual global warming going on - and there hasn't been for a decade - but that it also is mainly man-made, another assumption increasingly being debunked as unproven. As a result, this reduces the necessity for large, dedicated shelters to be built using taxpayer dollars.

More cost effective would appear to be the current plan of renting temporary structures, although here the state must take care. Presently, they are contracted for considerable periods of time including periods of the year they would be highly unlikely to be used for anything. Yet greater efficiencies of taxpayers' dollars could be wrought and Louisiana would do better to create a program that stays in contact with real estate agents to discover in the spring the availability of large facilities that could be rented for something like July through October.

In pursuing this course, these facilities likely would not provide much in the way of amenities which became a problem in a few shelters because of contractor failures. Still, while they are undesirable such failures are by no means the end of the world and if evacuees have to go outside for toilets and miss taking a shower for a few days - which in the larger scheme of things would leave them, in terms of hygienic convenience, …
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