Redstate

Posted at 12:56pm on Jun. 30, 2008 BREAKING: Bobby Jindal vetoes pay raise.

By Erick

From a gubernatorial press release:

“I have opposed this pay raise at every turn and from the very beginning. A doubling of legislative pay is clearly excessive and it takes effect prior to the next election, which I believe is bad policy,” Governor Jindal said. “This bill would also have set up a system to give legislators automatic pay raises in the future without additional legislative votes - which is a lack of accountability that we cannot accept.”

The Governor had previously said he would not veto the pay raise to allow the legislature to conduct its own internal affairs. “I clearly made a mistake by telling the legislature that I would allow them to handle their own affairs,” Jindal said. “As with all mistakes, you can either correct them or compound them - I am choosing to correct my mistake now.

“I have said that I was not going to stop legislators from more than doubling their own pay by vetoing this because I did not want to give them any excuse to slow down the momentum of our reform movement here in Louisiana. It turns out this is an unsustainable position. I have come to realize that the reforms I have been fighting for are simply incompatible with this legislative pay raise.

“I was trying to preserve our reform agenda and our momentum by tolerating this legislative pay raise that I knew was completely excessive. But the two cannot coexist.

“The bottom line is that allowing this excessive legislative pay raise to become law would so significantly undercut our reform agenda, and so significantly diminish the people’s confidence in their own government, that I cannot let it become law. So, I have vetoed the bill.”

The Governor continued to say that, “The sideshow over massive legislative pay raises has already taken up far too much time. It’s time to get back to doing the people’s business. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done in our state…there are roads to build, jobs to create, business to open, and kids to educate.”

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (29)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:53pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Jindal Vetoes Pay Raise

By Neil Stevens

Governor Jindal has vetoed the legislative pay raise sparking so much controversy around him.

I'll say this for him: when he changes positions, he's listening to the right people and going the right way. Since I've been watching him I've been aware of three significant shifts: He went from a Yes to NV on the SCHIP veto override in the House, he came around on a personal tax cut in Louisiana, and now this.

Posted at 10:23pm on Jun. 29, 2008 Jindal's Legislative Director Resigns

By Vladimir

...and don't let the door hit you in the backside on the way out.

Jindal's legislative director resigns

Gov. Bobby Jindal's legislative director has resigned after serving fewer than six months with the new administration, which is embroiled in a controversy over the Legislature's large pay raise.

Tommy Williams, 65, said Sunday the decision to leave was his and that he left on good terms. He did not offer reasons for his departure, but said he plans to return to his career as a professional lobbyist.

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:02pm on Jun. 29, 2008 Club for Growth is not gunning for Governor Jindal

By Neil Stevens

Whilst the leftosphere borders on Civil War over the failure of Democratic leaders, Senator Obama included, to defeat the President's wishes on FISA and war funding, we on the right have had our own debate over our own rising star's first real conflict.

Yes, of course, I mean Governor Jindal and the legislative pay hike. Some on the right are up in arms, angry that given the opportunity to draw the line, gather the people behind him, and face down the intransigent legislators, he's turned it down, deciding it wasn't the fight to take.

Personally it doesn't bother me but then again, I'm not all that opposed to professional legislators, being an opponent of term limits as well. If all that Jindal had to trade off to get sweeping ethical reform in Louisiana, was a clean pay raise for the lowest paid legislators in the country, then I thought that was reasonable. So I was shocked to hear that there's actually a recall effort starting against the Governor.

Club for Growth was less shocked, though, and therein lay a controversy here at Red State.

Read on...

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Club for Growth | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (70)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:43pm on Jun. 27, 2008 BREAKING: Recall Petition Filed Against Bobby Jindal

By Vladimir

Recall petition filed against Jindal

What a joke. What a sad, pitiful joke.

Some in th elocal media have been stoking this fire for a week and a half.

Two Jefferson Parish residents have filed a recall petition against Gov. Bobby Jindal.
...

The two would have to collect and then have verified signatures from at least one-third of the registered voters in the state.

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:44pm on Jun. 25, 2008 Gov. Bobby Jindal Signs Bill to Chemically Castrate Sex Offenders

Not Even Slightly Veiled Translation: Hey SCOTUS, Suck It

By Ben Domenech

On the heels of today's SCOTUS decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana barring the death penalty for sex offenders, Gov. Bobby Jindal released a statement calling the ruling an "affront to the people of Louisiana" - and what's more, vowing to do whatever possible to amend the state’s laws in order to maintain the death penalty for child rape.

But that's not all he did.

Today, Gov. Jindal signed the "Sex Offender Chemical Castration Bill," authorizing the castration of convicted sex offenders. They get a choice: physical or chemical. Oh, and they don't just get castrated and leave - they still have to serve out their sentence.

More below the fold:

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Breaking News | Crime | Death Penalty | Louisiana | scotus — Comments (51)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:50pm on Jun. 24, 2008 Jindal: "I've Learned My Lesson"

By Vladimir

WBRZ's video coverage (Baton Rouge ABC affiliate):
Jindal speaks about legislative session

The Times-Picayune's coverage:
Jindal admits mistake in not stopping pay raise for lawmakers

In a press conference today, Gov. Bobby Jindal said he "learned his lesson" about dealing with the legislature, meaning he gave them too much leeway. Look for a more activist Gov. Jindal in the future.

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Louisiana | State Politics — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:59pm on Jun. 24, 2008 My Response to CfG's Response to My Response to Jeff Crouere's Piece

By Leon H Wolf

First, let me thank Nachama Soloveichik for penning a thoughtful response to my piece about Bobby Jindal from earlier today. I appreciate the work CfG does promoting and donating to conservative candidates and their contribution to conservative discussion in general is valuable.

My disagreements with Ms. Soloveichik are mainly quibbles, and may be disposed of with relative ease. First, my post was clearly directed to Jeff Crouere's Human Events piece, which I found to be clearly and absurdly over the top. I did reference and link to another post on The Next Right that was critical of CfG's coverage of the Veepstakes, but that was certainly not the point of my post. Insofar as I mentioned the CfG at all, it was to disapprove of this post from Andrew Roth (another guy I'm a fan of) that I found to be particularly ridiculous. So much so that I expect that Mr. Roth penned it at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek (although you never know, the internet is a poor communications medium in many respects). But it all goes to my larger point that we ought to show a little more perspective when dealing with possible national stars. Executives especially have a more difficult time maintaining ideological purity, and my sense is that Jindal and Palin are two of the better ones we have (although time will ultimately tell).

Read more...

Posted at 11:47am on Jun. 24, 2008 Burn the Witch

We can totally afford this kind of behavior right now.

By Leon H Wolf

Reasonable minds may disagree about the propriety of the pay raise that the Louisiana Legislature has decided that it needs. To my mind, $16K is a remarkably low salary for even part-time duties of that nature. By way of perspective, I used to live in a very small town in Alaska, and our city council members were paid $12,000 a year. This was 19 years ago. I understand that some people don't like the idea that Jindal appears to be giving a quid pro quo here - the raises for his ethics reforms - but it's hard for me to get very exercised about what the legislature is getting in return. It's especially small potatoes considering the need for serious ethics reform in Lousiana.

However, some conservative commentators, presumably fans of other Vice Presidential candidates have decided to flat-out beclown themselves over this issue. Apparently, Jindal's acquiescence in the legislative pay raises establish conclusively that he is a witch, and therefore must be burned.

More below...

Posted in Bobby Jindal | Club for Growth | Republicans | Spending — Comments (18)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:52pm on Jun. 16, 2008 LA Senate Passes Hot Potato to Gov. Jindal

By Vladimir

The Louisiana State Senate, by a vote of 20-18, approved the House pay raise plan as amended last Friday.

Posted at 2:55pm on Jun. 13, 2008 BREAKING: LA House Postpones Vote, Brokered Deal Rumored

By Vladimir

Link to the Times-Picayune Live Blog

The leadership was reportedly meeting with Gov. Bobby Jindal during an extended lunch break.

"1:43 p.m. [CST] - There is a distinct theme in comments from lawmakers since the lunch break: the proposed pay raise appears to have [been] too much too fast."

Posted in Bobby Jindal | LA | State Politics — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:33am on Jun. 13, 2008 Shame on the Louisiana Legislature

By Erick

The Louisiana Legislature has held Governor Jindal's reformist agenda hostage.

The legislators, who are only part time legislators, want pay increases from $16,800.00 a year to $50,790.00 and they want an annual increase in their salaries after that -- for their part time job.

Sadly, the legislators have been fairly united. More than two-thirds in each house have told Governor Jindal that they will kill every one of his legislative proposals unless he goes along with this salary increase.

He has no choice but to agree to the ransom.

On the bright side, this is probably a response to Governor Jindal's ethics reforms. Now that the legislators cannot take bribes as easily, they need the extra income.

Nonetheless, it is shameful.

Speaker Jim Tucker's phone number is 225-342-7263. The vote will happen today.

Whether you live in Louisiana or not, you should call the Speaker and tell him how very shameful the legislature's conduct is.

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Posted at 1:45am on Jun. 13, 2008 The School Choice Revolution In Louisiana

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Here's a good account of what is going on in the Bayou State. It is most heartening; while there remains a lot that needs to be accomplished, Governor Jindal and his allies in the Louisiana State Legislature are light years ahead of many of their contemporaries in working to bring genuine school choice to their constituents. They should be applauded for that and we should look forward to the day when such accomplishments are no longer considered as unbelievably extraordinary as they are these days.

Posted at 6:08pm on Jun. 12, 2008 Jindal v. Legislature on Massive Lawmaker Pay Raise

By Vladimir

Promoted by Erick. This is terrible news from Louisiana.

Jindal won’t stop raise

There will be no showdown in Baton Rouge over the legislature's vote to increase legislative compensation from $16,800 to $50,790, and to index state lawmakers' wages to that bastion of legislative and fiscal restraint, the U.S. Congress.

Gov. Bobby Jindal said Wednesday he would let a bill that would triple legislators’ pay become law rather than use his veto pen.

...

“I don’t want to give anybody any excuse for slowing down any of the important reform going through the legislature (that are) important to the people of Louisiana,” Jindal said. [more...]

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