As he goes about closing state facilities with short notice, some may call the governor heartless and ruthless, but they can’t say he’s unfair. He treats affected legislators all the same: that is, shabbily. It matters not that the state mental hospital to be closed in Mandeville is in the district of Senate Finance Chairman Jack Donahue, or that the prison to be closed in Calcasieu Parish is nearby to Speaker of the House Chuck Kleckley; both key allies of Gov. Bobby Jindal got the word just shortly before their constituents did. Across those two regions, legislative friends and foes alike bristled at the personal insult to them on top of the injury to longtime workers at those institutions. What would it hurt for those legislators to get a little heads-up about the bad news coming? They might phone the governor’s office to protest, but so what? He doesn’t take their calls anyway. This Legislature has gone from being told what to do to only being told after it’s done. There is little that lawmakers can do about Jindal’s bedside (or deathbed) manner, for they can’t legislate courtesy. As for the governor’s actions themselves, many Republicans may philosophically agree with the fiscal responsibility of tough budget cuts, as long as they occur in the other guy’s district. But the forecast is for the situation only to get worse, and to begin hitting close to nearly every lawmaker’s home. Read the full column here.
(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)
