The Louisiana Jindal Ethics Show Gets An Oscar

When Hollywood was handing out the Gold for performances last night, Louisiana could have received one best political documentary, of sorts

What we have seen this Ethics Special Session has been a stirring documentary of what could have been, but wasn’t. As the law makers make it down their own red carpets, the session on financial disclosure, ethics, conflict of interests bans will taking its last bow this week. Many will be debating whether Louisiana has achieved the Gold Standard award, as we have desired and have expected, and many will say, no, just a neat show..

HB1 which passed both houses but in different versions last week certainly is a substantial piece of legislation. There are time delays regarding when the “ethics” legislation goes into affect. There is still many pieces of bills that will lay on the junk floor of history. Governor Bobby Jindal will take credit for passing the major planks of his legislation and we will all go home happy knowing that our government officials and candidates must report more, will receive less, cannot compete with the rest of us as in our businesses on government contracts and won’t get as many freebies.

Governor Jindal certainly worked hard. But, he failed to call legislators out, as promised. He failed to call “session after session” as threatened. In the idea world, all government officials and legislators would have been forced to report everything, would have been compelled to pay for everything, would not be able to do business with the state at all and would have been held to the highest of standards as possible without any counter-letters and acts of favoritisms. Also, we would be have gotten rid of all “funny money” pass through mechanisms to make sure that we know exactly who is giving, how often, who they work for and where the money ultimately goes. For added measure, all of this legislation would go into affect immediately, not a couple of years from now. Money that government officials raise for their campaign funds would have evaporated after the campaigns. The notion that an elected official somehow and suddenly owns their campaign money and can do what he or she wants for virtual perpetuity is ludicrous. They money is given for one campaign, not as a dowry.

There is no reason that any government officials except for clear business purposes should receive any additional perks than the average person. They should have been completely prohibited from all meals or gifts or tickets and everything should have been on their own dime.

This is not what our Ethics Oscars has bestowed upon us. The special session has had some success in terms of the scope of its endeavors, but it did not get us all the way, at all.

Part of the problem with the failure to hit “gold” is the Governor hit a speed bump numerous times since taking office. While he is very well intended, some people serving him undermined him and he did not either demote them, or fire them or reprimand them or even pay for fines out of his own pockets even when matters were not at fault. Instead, he took the political road and did not answer the direct questions asked on the ethics charge issue. He did not ride the high horse with the white hat and days were wasted away before he was able to pick up speed. Nor did he distance himself from high and close campaign and transition staff who raised money privately to push his agenda. No telling what Bobby will owe Rolfe.

With the session possibly coming to an end on Tuesday, many of the new members of the legislature got their first test under fire. The overwhelming amounts of bills they had to plow through made it difficult for them to focus. Incredibly, the session will not continue until the weekend as designed and there will be much left on the table. But, the legislators worked hard and played hard and we are left with a shell of a statute.

Louisiana will be a better place to do business after this adventure in civics. Our new Governor Jindal will hopefully have a rest and look over his legislative bounty. So, will the rest of us. In my view, it will not be Gold we will see. It will be shiny but how it is ultimately defined and described will be by those handing out the final scoring. Personally, I would give it a six out of 10, considering what we could have done and what we will ultimately receive.

Then, I am not the official judge, so, the envelope, please.

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