Because of a conflicting personal project, I’ve stayed away from my derelict gunslinger blog for a few weeks. However, I can’t resist commenting on the failure of the national media to fact check Bobby Jindal’s recent proclamations as they relate to his performance as Louisiana’s Governor.   

In criticizing fellow republicans, Governor Smarty Pants seems to have adopted Forrest Gump’s mantra, ”Stupid is as stupid does.” He exempts himself, although the word, “stupid” is appropriate in describing many of Jindal’s policies in governing his homestate—at least when he bothers to visit the capitol city of Baton Rouge. The fulltime frequent flyer and part-time exorcist seems intent on leading Louisiana back to the bad old days, which in my opinion, qualifies his governing as stupid.

During Jindal’s five years as governor, he has cut funds to education and health care, played games with the state ethics code, avoided transparency in his administration, alienated teachers and state employees, made a concerted effort to reduce the overall quality of life of the poor and elderly, and thrown up roadblocks to scrutiny by the timid local media that has been remiss in holding him accountable for his actions.

Ironically, Jindal relentlously stalks the national media. In the aftermath  of hurricanes, oil spills and other Louisiana catastrophes,  television photographers and network reporters have to hide from the governor. However, in recent days Jindal has been on a roll by getting extensive coverage for his provocative warning that the GOP must “stop being the stupid party.” And after getting considerable attention for similar remarks following the presidential election, Jindal has begun to sound like a wind-up doll by repeating himself over and over again.

His self-promotion reached a high point todayby writing a Washington Post op-ed commentary claiming that Louisiana and other states were being overwhelmed by the anticipated expense of Medicaid following the implementation of Obamacare.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bobby-jindal-to-fix-medicaid-listen-to-governors/2013/01/28/ff5c8e5e-6711-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html?hpid=z2

Jindal cares so much about this issue that last July he inexplicably turned down federal funds to help Louisiana’s Medicaid program. 

http://theadvocate.com/home/3307312-125/jindal-move-causes-stir

After all, the governor is a man of principle. That is if the definition of principle is hypocrisy. The truth of his rejection is he expected Mitt Romney to win the election and end Obamacare—”on day one of presidency,” Romney regularly proclaimed.  

Jindal’s alleged principles have been a huge setback for Louisiana. In a state facing a major budget crises Jindal went so far as to reject federal stimulus funds in 2009.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/jindal_rejects_32_million_in_s.html

So far, the so-called mainstream media has given Governor Smarty Pants a free ride—notable exceptions being his embarrassing 2008 response to  President Obama’s state-of-the-union speech, and the frequent comic commentary about Jindal’s attempted exorcism of a sinful woman while he was a student at Brown University. The free ride may be ending though. Most recently, Paul Krugman made note of Jindal’s regressive proposal to abolish income tax in Louisiana and increase sales taxes, which have the greatest impact on low income folks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/opinion/krugman-makers-takers-fakers-.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Despite the low state of the state of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal continues to live under the delusion that he will one day be a viable candidate for the presidency—presumably President of the United States. But before he throws his hat into the ring, he should speak with a fellow Ivy Leaguer and Rhodes Scholar named William Jefferson Clinton. 

Unlike Jindal, Clinton was a actually a good Governor—one of the best in the history of Arkansas. However, when he sought an unlikely promotion to lead all 50 states, Clinton learned that the national media can be awful nasty. After his public policies more or less passed muster, reporters zeroed in on Clinton’s personal morals and business activies. Hello Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky and other alleged Bill Babes. And welcome to Whitewater Estates, the two-bit real estate development which launched a $70-million bogus investigation that amounted to nothing more than a waste of taxpayer money. Indeed, a team of closet pornagraphers led by Christian crusader Kenneth Starr were never even able to answer the lingering question of whether blow job is two words or hyphenated.  

I doubt that Governor Jindal will be vulnerable on moral issues unless they involve his failure to abide by the teachings of Jesus to help the poor. And since Jindal’s career has always been at or near the public trough, he will probably be exempt from questions about business dealings. That means he will have to answer for his failures as Governor.

Given his record in Louisiana, a serious presidential run will afford the national media an opportunity to overcome its incompetence by digging in Jindal’s record as Louisiana’s chief executive.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me is available at amazon.com, soft-cover or Kindle and at independent bookstores. It offers $19.99 worth of laughs and  much more. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) investigative reporting career and the characters I encountered during 30 years of muckraking. 

My momma described many people during her lifetime as being “smart, but without an ounce of common sense.” No doubt, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is smart. After all, he is an Ivy League graduate and Rhodes Scholar, which suggests he has an ounce or two of common sense.

Nonetheless, he seems to jump a few steps beyond sensibility. In some respects, Governor “Smarty Pants is like a failed meat cutter who decides to take up brain surgery without bothering to attend medical school. After pushing through legislation that butchered Louisiana’s education and health care systems, as well as carving big holes in numerous other quality of life programs in the state, Jindal now proposes solutions for the nation’s “edge of the cliff” budget woes.

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/bobby-jindal-opinion-fiscal-cliff-diving-84647.html?hp=l1

Given Jindal’s record as Louisiana’s absentee Governor, what makes him think he has solutions for the country. Yet, he hangs on to the delusion of becoming President. Most recently, he was sucking up to casino magnate Sheldon Adelson who invested $150-million in losing Republican candidates—foremost being Mitt Romney.

http://theadvocate.com/home/4608068-125/jindal-meets-with-casino-magnate

Adelson embraced Romney to lead the country after his first choice, serial philanderer Newt Gingrich fell by the wayside as a result of his own considerable weight. Now comes Jindal begging for campaign mone. About the only thing  he has in common with Adelson is supporting losers.

Louisiana’s fulltime frequent flyer and part-time exorcist was the first prominent Republican to jump on the off-key presidential bandwagon of neighboring Texas Governor Rick Perry. Like most voters, Jindal soon discovered that Perry’s band was completely tone deaf  and when Perry departed the campaign to take more music lessons, Jindal attached himself to the former Massachusetts Governor Romney—at least until Romney lost.

Not one to defend losers, Jindal verbally dumped on Romney and other GOP candidates.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/268633-jindal-republicans-need-to-stop-saying-stupid-things

I don’t know when Governor Jindal’s presidential delusions first took hold. Maybe they connected to the hallucinations of deranged radio ranter Rush Limbaugh—the ex-disc jockey and pillhead who is taken seriously by a venting segment of society that finds relief from their anger, fears and frustrations by listening to his hate-filled talk show. Limbaugh casually mentioned Jindal a couple of years ago, apparently causing the Louisiana Governor to become so excited he probably wet his smarty pants.

The Limbaugh plug was enough to send Jindal on a quest to set a world record for accumulating frequent flyer miles by speaking before republican gatherings far and wide—with or without invitations. His meddling in an Iowa state Supreme Court election prompted the Des Moines Register to suggest that he get his skinny ass back to Louisiana.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/charlie-mahtesian/2012/10/jindal-takes-heat-for-campaign-travel-137801.html

Sadly, Jindal’s national political ambitions have caused him to become a stalker of television cameras—except when he is asked for interviews on controversial state policies by Louisiana newspaper and television reporters. Instead of answering questions face-to-face, he puts out news releases. How he gets away with such evasions puzzles me.

In my day many years ago as Baton Rouge’s mini-Mike Wallace, I would have been following Jindal to the ends of the earth for comment. And that was not necessarily of my own choosing. The people I worked for insisted that reporters confront politicians on important public policy issues. The same was true at CNN and other venues where I worked in my thirty year muckraking career.

Times have drastically changed. Lack of accountability now feeds the fantasies of self-important politicians like Bobby Jindal, who believes his alleged genius allows him to leap from meat cutting to brain surgery with no steps in between. 

A majority of voters may not be as smart as Bobby Jindal. But fortunately, they sure as hell have more common sense.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me is available at amazon.com, soft-cover or Kindle and at independent bookstores like the Cottonwood in Baton Rouge. It offers $19.99 worth of laughs and much more. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) investigative reporting career.

I promised not to gloat after the presidential election. But I can’t resist saying, “I told you so.” Actually, my prediction was conservative—290 Electoral votes compared with 303 presently and a likely total of 332 when Florida finishes its count.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been asked (not too often) about my absence from the derelictgunslinger blog. The short answer is I don’t like declaring rain is wet. Anyone viewing these posts knows my politics. So why aggravate my wing-nut family members and friends. Better to let the outcome speak for itself. And besides, this blog was mainly created to sell  my non-best selling memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger. Please buy the damn book and make me happy—though I can’t imagine being much happier than I was at 11:00 p.m. Tuesday night.

In the aftermath of the election, there is no need now to worry about  offending friends and far-right members of my family, several of whom make Ann Coulter and Michele Bachmann look like bed-wetting liberals. Most of them are already apoplectic about President Obama’s re-election. I only wish they would stop throwing out words like socialism, communism and marxism—terms they are too ignorant to define in terms of Obama’s policies. If these folks looked inward, they would discover another word that describes their attitudes toward the president. Racism.

Much of the winger post-election whining deals with minority influence on the outcome and the disproportionate number of votes they cast for the president. A coalition of African Americans, Hispanics and women (if, in fact, they are considered a minority) undoubtedly played a major role in Barack Obama’s re-election. But how about the minority class to which I belong? Angry white southern males.

Born, bred in the deep south and now living in red-state Louisiana, I’m a double minority—a liberal “yellow dog” democrat. Worse, I no longer shoot unarmed animals, cast for fish or drink whiskey straight out of the bottle—activities that are all part of my past. Nor am I angry at anyone. At least today. But as evidence of my southern heritage, I still stuff myself with gumbo, fried seafood and chicken, and in the privacy of my home, I’ve been known to loudly fart and belch—much to my wife’s chagrin.

Although my confession is slightly embarrassing, it is certainly not as disgraceful as the actions during the election of cycle of many prominent pundits, public figures and so-called journalists. Fox “News,” aka the Republican Propoganda Network, is of course in a class by itself. I don’t begrudge the First Amendment freedoms of its stable of lunatic commentators to express opinions—no matter how bizarre. However, the network reaches the level of disgrace when it tries to pass off political propoganda as news. And that happened frequently during the presidential campaign.

But no need to belabor criticism of Fox “News.” I’ve beat that issue to death ever since this blog was started. Nor will I devote many more words to ex-disc jockeys Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and others of the their ilk like “birther” Donald Trump, who is often given time on Fox to humiliate himself. All the aforementioned characters personify the failure of the nation’s mental health policies of deinstitutionalzation of the marginally nutty, a thin line these guys tend to cross on a daily basis.

In handing out disgrace plaques, Louisiana Governor Bobby (Smarty Pants) Jindal deserves special recognition. Hopeful of a high post in a Republican Administration, the part-time exorcist and fulltime frequent flyer abandoned the state he was supposed to lead to travel for days on end as a Mitt Romney surrogate. Jindal did accomplish one goal. He ensured his legacy as the worst governor in Louisiana’s history. And that is saying a lot.

I guess the one piece of bad news that comes out of the election for Louisianans is the fact that Jindal will be around for another two years to continue devastating the states education and health systems and reducing  the quality of life in taking the state to third world status. 

But despite all that happened during the election campaign, one disappointment stands out for me—the full page newspaper ads by the Billy Graham Crusade that were in effect an endorsement of Mitt Romney and the Republican Party. Long ago, Billy Graham stated in an authorized biography—A Prophet with Honor—that his support of President Richard Nixon taught him to avoid becoming publicly involved in partisan politics. The book was written by Rice University sociologist Dr. William Martin, a leading expert on evangelism and a friend of mine from the days when I was doing exposés about spiritually exploitative TV preachers. 

The recent ad was allegedly signed by Billy Graham—a spiritual leader I’ve always admired. And it probably expressed his views on gay marriage and abortion accurately. Still, I have a hunch the world famous 94 year old evangelist was victimized by son, Franklin, a 60 year old hemorrhoid on his daddy’s ass. Franklin has made a career of creating discomfort for the evangelist. So my disgrace plaque goes to Franklin instead of his father.

That said, I’m just glad the campaign is finally over. Though it will take time, I hope all the sore losers will finally shut the hell up. And if we are lucky, let us hope during the president’s second term for the departure of a couple of U.S. Supreme Justices responsible for the Citizen’s United decision that put unlimited secret money into political campaigns.

Don’t you know that all these big Romney donors are experiencing PESD—Post Election Stress Disorder. That makes me happy.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me is available at amazon.com, soft-cover or Kindle and at independent bookstores like the Cottonwood in Baton Rouge. It offers $19.99 worth of laughs and much more. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) investigative reporting career.

Maybe Rush Limbaugh was under the influence of pills. Or perhaps he has fallen farther off his rocker, rendering him delirious. Whatever the case, Rush’s most recent act of stupendous stupidity was his potential career-ending advocacy of freedom of expression in the United States—the First Amendment protection that allows him, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and a whole host of far-right, profiteering propogandists on Fox “News” to exploit the fears, bigotry and anger of people by spreading political disinformation, distortions and outright lies.   

Earlier this week, one of Rush’s rants criticized President Obama for a speech before the United Nations defending our nation’s freedom of expression.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81662.html?hp=r2_b1

According to Limbaugh’s twisted logic, the President’s mention of a controversial film that set-off Muslim riots in several countries was, in effect, a promotion of the amateurish, hate-filled video. AM radio’s most notorious hemorrhoid must have been under the influence in the days prior to Obama’s U.N. speech or he would have noticed that except for folks trapped in the wilderness without cell phones, everybody in America and even in darkest Africa already knew about the film trailer. 

I jest, of course, because Limbaugh was well-aware of his distortion. That’s his style. He believes his listeners are brain-dead. And in many instances, he is probably correct. But then again, consider his biggest fan—Louisiana Governor Bobby (Smarty Pants) Jindal, an Ivy League honors graduate and Rhodes scholar.

Limbaugh made the off-handed remark one day that Governor Smarty Pants was destined to become President. Jindal believed him and became so excited he forgot all about what state he is supposed to govern. Indeed, he was flitting about Iowa this week telling voters to vote against one of their state Supreme Court Justices who cast a ballot in favor of gay marriage. 

Not so coincidentally, Iowa is where presidential campaigns begin. And ever since Rush’s  comment, Jindal has kept busy feeding his delusions of grandeur. He has struck fear in the hearts network TV photographers by stalking every one of them within a ten mile radius.  Instead of governing Louisiana, he has devoted his efforts to accumulating frequent flyer miles while traveling around the nation on self-promotional tours. Left behind is a state facing gigantic size budget problems, serious quality of life crises and an educational voucher system that teaches Louisiana students  the earth is flat—or some sort of science nearly as ridiculous.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/08/crazy-facts-students-will_n_1758003.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics

What are the motives of the Rhodes Scholar’s policies? Could his voucher system be part of a right-wing conspiracy to indoctrinate Louisiana kids to grow up and become Limbaugh listeners. After all, Governor Smarty Pants owes the pill-head talk show host bigtime.  Thanks to Rush, Jindal is about to enter into the Guinness Book of Records for collecting the largest number of frequent flyer miles in the shortest period of time on record—enough to fly him to Mars and beyond. Hopefully, he will take Rush with him.  

And that’s my freedom of expression.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me is available at amazon.com, soft-cover or Kindle and at independent bookstores like the Cottonwood in Baton Rouge. It offers $19.99 worth of laughs and much more. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) investigative reporting career.

Anyone who has read my liberal rantings on this blog probably realizes I’m the last person to defend GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney—an animated paper mache department store mannequin that tilts in the wake of every breeze from blowhard right-wingers. But despite my belief that Romney is completely out of touch with anyone except fellow millionaires, I think the guy is getting a bad rap from his inarticulate comments about the 47% of voters he demeans as deadbeats.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiser

It doesn’t take a political genius to figure out that Romney’s comment to room full of high-rollers is consistent with the general theme of his campaign. In this case, dissing nearly half of the nation’s electorate is more direct than in his prepared remarks on the campaign trail.

More to the point, grainy undercover video gives his remarks a sinister nature. The same is true about th gaffes of other politicins, including President Obama’s 1998 remarks about redistribution of wealth and his 2008 “guns and religion” comment at a fundraiser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZWaxjiQyFk

My point is that in unguarded moments candidates say strange things when speaking extemporaneously. Secretly recorded video—especially video lacking context—distorts the impact of their statements.

Too many years ago to count lurked around Miami, Florida secretly filming mafia characters in the wild. I caught them doing such things as talking to friends in residential driveways, going to the post office, or in the case of so-called organized crime “financial wizard”  Meyer Lansky, having a high cholesterol breakfast of bacon and eggs after avoiding grand jury subpoenas because of an alleged heart condition. But no matter how mundane the activities of these guys, the video looked sinister—so sinister in fact that the mafia series for Miami’s NBC affiliate  received the second of my four Peabody awards (a little bragging never hurts, though the mafia prize falls into the category of “What the hell was the Peabody panel thinking?”).

Anyway, I didn’t send the award back. And in retrospect I learned a lesson about the use and abuse of undercover video which is useful, but only in rare situations. I’m not big on protecting my own privacy, as indicated in Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, a memoir that discloses all my dirty secrets. And there are plenty.

However, I recognize that not everyone feels the way I do. Especially Mitt Romney, who refuses to release past income tax returns or disclose anything about specific plans he has to change government if elected. Actually, the former Massachusetts Governor is a victim of a dread disease and needs protection. During the Republican Primary he was exposed to a foot-in-mouth virus—a malady I didn’t know existed or could be spread by GOP presidential candidates. Romney’s exposure to the epidemic became apparent after he cinched the nomination and helped make fact-checking a cottage industry.

But whether infected by foot-in-mouth or not, no candidate can escape the scrutiny of hidden cameras in the digital age. Everybody has phone cameras and like me peeking from the back of a “spy van” in the 1970’s to catch racketeers doing something sinister, thousands of folks are aiming cameras at candidates to catch them saying stupid things. In Romney’s case, the amateur spies are quite successful.

Unfortunately, the pleasure I feel from his stumbles makes me feel guilty.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me is available at amazon.com, soft-cover or Kindle and at independent bookstores like the Cottonwood in Baton Rouge. It offers $19.99 worth of laughs and much more. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) investigative reporting career.

But give the man a break. As Dana Milbank states in the Washington Post, the “lamestream” media can ill afford to lose Romney as a whipping boy. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-media-should-go-easy-on-mitt-romney–for-their-own-sake/2012/09/18/a274f24c-01c9-11e2-b257-e1c2b3548a4a_story.html?hpid=z2

A quickie (blog post you dirty old men) before I head to Florida to inspect the damage inflicted on the Republican Party by old white dudes attending the GOP convention in Tampa. At least Clint Eastwood wasn’t carrying a drool cup. Like many other folks—including a lot of non-partisan opinionators—I found his performance beyond weird.

Having reported on two national political conventions—the 1968 Democrats in Chicago and the 1972 Republicans in Miami Beach—I echo the comments of most witnesses to Dirty Harry’s strange meanderings. “What the hell was that about.” Maybe he really believed President Obama was sitting in the empty chair on the platform.

 But all sorts of odd behavior is occuring in this campaign like Democratic Senator Harry Reid’s psychic declaration that Mitt Romney paid no taxes for ten years, and the barrage of mainly GOP political ads that have overwhelmed the fact-checking industry. Shades of Sarah Palin, who was last seen outside the Fox “News” studios screaming, “Let me in, let me in.”

Sadly for wits and half-wits like me, the former GOP Vice Presidential nominee and half-term Alaskan Governor has been declared irrelevant. Shunted aside, she feeds her Attention Getting Deficit by criticizing the 2012 Republican ticket.   

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/31/sarah-palin-romney-ryan-tarp_n_1845315.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

I guess a “yellow dog” liberal Democrat such as me should be celebrating the GOP’s self-destruction. But the shame of politics nowadays is there is nothing worth celebrating. The divisiveness—especially the crap spewed by Rush, Sean and their ilk—has reduced the nation’s politics to the level of some third world country.

Anyway, its time for me to take a break and await the Democratic National Convention next week. I probably should not leak information my intrepid investigative reporting has uncovered. But I have learned the name of the Democrat’s mystery speaker. It will be Peewee Herman.

Off to Florida.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me is available at amazon.com, soft-cover or Kindle and at independent bookstores like the Cottonwood in Baton Rouge. It offers $19.99 worth of laughs and much more. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) investigative reporting career.

Reader’s who have peeked at this blog in the past are aware that it will be a steaming hot day in Antarctica before a born and bred southern “yellow dog” liberal Democrat like me casts a vote for a Republican—especially Mitt Romney, the animated department store manequin and probable 2012 GOP Presidential nominee. But in fairness, I will say in Romney’s is getting a raw deal from a lot of reporters, albeit a dilemma of his own making.

Because Romney has been less than forthcoming in providing documentation relating to some aspects of his reign as CEO of Bain Capital,   certain segments of the news media have become an echo chamber in raising suspicions. “What is he hiding?” The question is being repeated over and over again by reporters, left-leaning pundits and representatives of President Obama’s re-election team. Romney’s wife, Ann, jumped to his defense today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/ann-romney_n_1685735.html 

There may be perfectly good reasons why Romney refuses to release income tax returns and/or minutes of Bain Board of Directors meetings, though I can’t think of any offhand that would excuse a man who wants to be leader of the free world from making full disclosure.  Recent history has proven that lack of transparency has been the basis of bogus scandals.

Why did President Obama wait so long to make public his long form birth certificate, which proved to all but nut-cases like billionaire Donald Trump and Arizona tough-guy Sheriff Joe Arpaio that he was born in Hawaii instead of being delivered by an African witch doctor in a Kenyan jungle.

Why did Bill and Hillary Clinton delay delivering documents that would have ended the so-called Whitewater scandal before it gained steam—a $70-million taxpayer-supported charade that ultimately degenerated in to an impeachment that focused to large extent on the knee calluses of White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Since the 1970’s Watergate scandal, journalists have been doing cheap imitations of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters credited with giving momentum to an investigation that brought down a President. Admittedly, I had such thoughts when CNN dispatched me to Little Rock in the early stages of Whitewater. 

But there was no scandal to be found as was shown seven years later in the final report of the findings of three Independent Counsels, who combined to waste the aforementioned 70-million bucks. Leaving Bill and Monica’s amorous adventures aside, of course. All I got for beating the final report by seven years and $69.99-million was a reputation of being a Clinton apologist. Truth in reporting my Emmy-nominated story didn’t matter.

Anyway, I’m puzzled by Mitt Romney’s secretiveness. Maybe he doesn’t really want to be President. Surely, he knows concealment of information only breeds suspicions. And in the absence of a “smoking gun,” that is all that is needed to create a full-scale scandal—at least in the minds of contemporary journalists. Actually, I wouldn’t be shocked if he threw the election.

Romney only had to take a side glance at the GOP candidates standing beside him during the primary debates to understand the gene pool of his opponents. Think about it. Gaffe-prone Texas Governor Rick Perry? Mentally deranged Congresswoman Michele Bachmann? Serial adulterer Newt Gingrich? Weird Rick Santorum? Crazy Uncle Ron Paul? Pizza king Herman Cain? I can’t imagine that Romney wanted to be viewed as a member of the strange cartel.

Indeed, Former Utah Governor and fellow Mormon Jon Huntsman was the only candidate on stage besides Romney who seemed to have a grasp of reality. And Mitt’s reality changes  from day to day.

His most recent incarnation is being a whiner. “Poor me, the President is saying bad things about my business background.” Boo hoo. Romney must have forgotten his own barrage of attacks on Obama. Or the Golden Rule. Turnabout is fair play, meaning there is no place in politics for sissies.

Romney’s whining does provide a light touch in an endless campaign that sometimes seems like its been going on for a years, rather than months. But his hypocrisy is nothing compared to that of Fox “News,” aka the Republican Propaganda Network. A Fox executive says he is upset because the President has made good-humored, smart-ass remarks about Fox—the “fair and balanced” network specializing in manufacturing bogus scandals to discredit the Obama Administration.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/fox-news-obama-lowers-office_n_1685723.html?utm_hp_ref=media

Ironically, the so-called mainstream media is on the brink of sinking to the level of Fox “News” by creating a scandal involving Romney’s previous business dealings and failure to release income tax returns—a scandal that is solely based on Romney’s lack of transparency. Fortunately for the candidate, he can stop all the speculation by simply changing his mind and releasing information.

As we all know, changing his mind is Romney’s special talent.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me is available at amazon.com, soft-cover or Kindle and at independent bookstores like the Cottonwood in Baton Rouge. It offers $19.99 worth of laughs and much more. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) investigative reporting career. 

It’s hard to even guess what GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is thinking in allowing Louisiana Governor and frequent flyer addict Bobby Jindal to stalk  television cameras as a surrogate campaign spokesman. But whatever Romney is thinking is subject to change if the wind direction changes. So why ponder the puzzle.

Although Romney’s political judgment is sometimes impossible to fathom—dissing Affordable Health Care at the NAACP convention is a good example—surely the retired department store mannequin is not so out-of-touch that he would select Jindal as a running mate. Or for the matter, offer any kind of responsible Cabinet position to Governor Smarty Pants. Apparently, Jindal is a man unaware his shortcomings. He has been conducting an unrelenting campaign to leave Louisiana and the mess he created. Or maybe he is just being duped.

Reminds me of covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago when Louisiana’s then Governor, John McKeithen, was decieved into believing he would be Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s running mate—a scheme that was devised to keep Louisiana’s delegation in line during platform debates over civil rights. Unlike Jindal, McKeithen was a pretty progressive Governor. However, he was handicapped by an array of problems in our fair state—labor racketeering, alleged mafia influence on government and racial strife so serious McKeithen bought national television time to assure the nation that Louisianans loved their black brethren. They just didn’t feel comfortable sharing classrooms, swimming pools and other public facilities with “Negroes,” a word the Governor sometimes had trouble pronouncing properly.

Bobby Jindal’s policies are the polar opposite of John McKeithen and most other Louisiana Governors in the last half-century. He is one of the most regressive Chief Executives in the state’s colorful history. And the totality of damage he has inflicted on the state can only be calculated in years to come.

As a boy growing up in Alabama housing projects and in other parts of the deep South, I often heard the expression, “He’s got book learning, but he ain’t got an ounce of common sense”—an envious put-down we poor dummies directed at folks smarter and more upscale than we were. At least in someways. I must be envious of our smarty-pants Governor. 

And speaking of envy, it appears that Jindal is jealous of Texas Governor Rick Perry, the man he threw his support behind during the GOP presidential primary. Jindal’e jealousy stems from the fact that Texas now holds the number one spot in the nation for uninsured poor. And by damn, Louisana is going to battle its neighboring state for first place by rejecting expanded Medicaid funds to cover a half million poor people in our state.

http://theadvocate.com/home/3307312-125/jindal-move-causes-stir

Jindal’s decision is a matter of principle rather than logic and/or interest in the welfare of Louisiana citizens on the lower end of the economic strata. Unfortunately, his “principle” places an added burdens on an already stressed health delivery system. But what can be expected of a Governor who unsuccessfully attempted to block the renewal of a minor state tax on tobacco—a deadly drug that regulary supplies patients for the state’s overburdened health care programs.

Bobby Jindal’s so-called “conservative principles” are apparently the same as those embraced by Republican U.S. House of Reprentatives members who voted for the 33rd time this week to overturn the Affordable Health Care Act, knowing full well that the measure would be rejected by the Senate. An over-used cliche describes insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Under that definition, the House is controlled by crazy people.

And crazy is a good word to describe the notion that Governor Smarty-Pants is in the running as Mitt Romney’s running mate—a myth perpertrated and perpetuated by pill-head Rush Limbaugh, ex-disc jockey Glenn Beck, virgin Sean Hannity and a group of right-wingers who are living examples that the nation’s mental health policies of deinstitutionalization are a failure.

There are other factors that disqualify Jindal as a viable running mate. Sad to say in this day and age, Romney’s Mormon religion is an obstacle to his election among many fundamentalist Christians—a large number of whom belong to the “birther” movement and are convinced President Obama is a Muslim, socialist, Marxist and practitioner of voodoo and other occult forms of mysticism, not to mention that he also happens to a man of color.

In 2008, Obama overcame the nuts and sent them whining to Fox “News.” And aided and abetted by the Republican Propaganda Network, they formed the Tea Party, a movement of malcontents and know-nothings now faced with the prospect supporting a presidential candidate whose only appeal to them is he is not Obama—Romney’s trump card perhaps.

But he faces a a long road, given his lukewarm support by conservatives, and it seems highly unlikely that the former Massachusetts Governor will consider as a running mate who challenges evolution, believes Noah lived to be 600 years old, and as a college student once engaged in an exorcism to rid a young woman of her impurities.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-womack/bobby-jindal-exorcistscie_b_1526263.html

The futility of Governor Jindal pathetic effort to leave Louisiana for Washington is actually bad news for the state. The sooner he goes, the quicker an effort can be made to repair the damage he has done to Louisiana’s health and education systems, the state’s ethics code and quality of life programs that are now on life-support. In the absence of Jindal, Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne would be a pretty capable guy. At least better than what we have now.

Before that happens, though, Romney must get elected. And if that occurs, having a President devoid of any firm principles he stands for might be a worse disaster for the country than Louisiana is facing under the leadership of an hallucinating Governor. 

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger: A Saga of Exposing TV Preachers, Corrupt Politicians, Right-Wing Lunatics…and Me is available at amazon.com, soft-cover or Kindle and at independent bookstores like the Cottonwood in Baton Rouge. It offers $19.99 worth of laughs and much more. The book is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) investigative reporting career.

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