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Well, looky here, there's suddenly money for everyone in our ever-expanding state budget now that legislators have gotten theirs.

Just 24 short hours after our part-time public servants decided that being a member of the House or Senate is not just a job, it's a high-paying adventure, legislators stopped watching LSU baseball's ninth-inning heroics long enough to go on a spending spree typically reserved for drunken sailors.

A Senate finance committee restored millions of dollars for health care and education faster than Blake Dean's game-winning, three-run double slammed off Rosenblatt Stadium's left field wall.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, who claims to vehemently oppose legislators instantly doubling their own salary but won't do a damn thing about it, said there's your quid, and Senators responded with a pro quo that includes returning the $100,000 Rep. Hunter Greene cut from LED Secretary Stephen Moret's salary and hiking the pay of several other Jindal political appointees.

Always willing to take care of themselves, the committee wrapped up the day by pumping up the pork in their districts, earmarking cash for such things as fairs, festivals, museums, religious charities and nonprofits. The Baton Rouge area alone got $2.1 million in newfound love.

What’s comical, I guess, is that much of the Senate's largesse restored money that earlier had been slashed by the House. In fairness, the House made those cuts back in those halcyon days when underpaid and overworked legislators were concerned with such things as restraining the growth of state government and eliminating the practice of spending "one-time" surplus revenue on recurring expenses.

What were those crazy kids thinking back then?

Following the public outcry over legislators first proposing to triple their pay and then agreeing to double it, the response appears to be this: Let's throw taxpayer money at the problem. Which, of course, follows in the great populist tradition of a chicken in every pot and an NGO grant for every angry voter.

Seriously, if you've got a funding request now's the time to ask.

I guess the cliché is true, "The more money a legislator makes, the more money a legislator spends." Or, as The Notorious B.I.G. rapped, "Mo' money, mo' problems."

What I can't decide is what's funnier: legislators—or leges, for short—believing they can spend their way out of trouble, or the back-peddling explanations many are offering to angry constituents?

Take Rep. Erich Ponti, the Baton Rouge Republican, who called to complain my last column ["Return of the banana republic"] made it appear as if he favored a massive pay hike when he really opposed it. I promised I'd set the record straight, so here goes:

Ponti says that despite his yea vote in committee supporting the tripling of legislative salaries, he really didn't support the bill but voted for it only so that it could be debated by the full House. Then, after there was exactly zero debate allowed before the full House, Ponti voted against any pay raise. Yet Mr. Ponti's name is nowhere to be found on the list of legislators who have agreed not to accept the salary-doubling raise.

(For the record, area legislators not accepting the $20,700-a-year raise are: Rep. Clif Richardson, Greenwell Springs; Sen. Jody Amedee, Gonzales; and Sen. Bill Cassidy, Baton Rouge. That's it, that's the list. )

So, here's the translation of the clarification: Ponti voted in favor of a pay raise he didn't support, then voted against a pay raise he's accepting.

OK, so maybe Republican House Speaker Jim Tucker was right when he said, "If we're going to have an educated, qualified Legislature, you have to have decent pay."

Just as bizarre is the response of Gov. Jindal, who promised 2 million voters on the campaign trail he would "prohibit" legislators from giving themselves a pay raise that took effect immediately. Rather than honor the pledge and veto a raise he claims to oppose, Jindal says he'll do nothing and let the bill simply become law.

What? Jindal and his supporters argue that legislators threatened to derail his agenda if he derailed their raise and that succumbing to extortion is a necessary evil to keep the hope of a better Louisiana alive.

One problem (among many) with this logic: Stuff like this pay raise and the sleazy way in which it was handled is exactly why residents of this banana republic have so little hope in the first place.

So if pretty much everyone in the state opposes the pay raise why would leges so brazenly give it to themselves?

Maybe they're guessing most will forget by the time elections roll around in three-plus years. (I seriously doubt that's the case based on some of the creative Photoshop work recently spotted on the Internet.)

Maybe it’s because the ethics reform measures passed earlier this year cut so deep into the way leges have historically made money that they're left with no other way to make ends meet.

After all, somebody's got to pay for that S500 Mercedes Benz in Sen. Ann Duplessis' parking spot. Right?

And who better than the taxpayers of the great state of Louisiana?

Such political arrogance hasn't been spotted in these parts since The Kingfish, Huey Long, was at the height of his populist power. Not even Edwin Edwards had the onions to pull something like this. Rather, he made his money the old fashioned way—kickbacks.

Which is why we close today with a song, inspired by The Kingfish himself, in tribute to the greed and sleaze of our friends in the Legislature.

So, with apologies to Gov. Long and Randy Newman, please join in the singing of "Every Lege A King:"

Why weep or slumber in Baton Rouge

Land of L-S-U

With billions in spending and NGOs

All from us to you

Evry lege a king, evry lege a king,

For we should all be millionaires

There's a pay raise belonging to all of us

There's enough for tax-payers to share

When it's sunny June and December too

Or in the winter time or spring

There'll be cash without end

Even Jindal's our friend

And evry lege a king!

[Editor's note: To hear Mr. Newman's original version, or to sing along with the new lyrics, click here.]