Lawmakers give Jindal whatever he wants

Bobby Jindal is the much-criticized Republican governor of Louisiana. The Jindal administration has made Louisiana a miniature version of the bunker politics that characterized the almost limitless power that was exerted by the Bush regime when the GOP controlled Congress.

I've collected several articles about Jindal's wacky views. For instance, Jindal does not believe in the constitutional clause that forbids religious tests for public office. And when conservatives praise a politician as the next Newt Gingrich, you have to keep an eye on the subject of this adoration.

Louisiana lawmakers have finished a special session in which they rubber-stamped everything Jindal asked for. Every single bit of it. Not exactly a testament to the state having checks and balances, is it? The initiatives backed by Jindal range from questionable to probably harmless to perhaps necessary to utterly fetid.

Perhaps most controversially, one of the truly miserable bills supported by Jindal gives a tax deduction to exclusive private schools - in a state that already gives more taxpayer funding to private schools than perhaps any other place in the whole country. This very notion is legally questionable itself. (Louisiana has been known for special perks for private schools thanks largely to current U.S. House candidate and right-wing extremist Louis Jenkins. If Jenkins loses the upcoming election, I wonder if he'll cry about it being rigged like when he lost the Senate election some years back.)

Still Jindal portrays himself as more pragmatic than he is. At an ego-building press conference, Jindal bragged, "The country's watching us ... We know they'll like what they see." We're watching, all right, Bobby. And what we see is an administration that clings to discredited ideas after everyone else has rejected them.

(Source: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1205560209224150.xml&coll=1)