Jindal is Bad

Monday edition. This is a big quote but it's still just a tease. There is much more there.

In many ways, Mr. Jindal’s sudden ascendance into political prominence is partly because of his conversion to Catholicism. This is not to insult Mr. Jindal, but it is merely to suggest that due to his numerous published essays and articles on his own conversion and his work on religious conversion as a Rhodes Scholar, Mr. Jindal made a name for himself at a young age.

Consider, if you will, the political climate of the early 1990s, the time in which Mr. Jindal wrote about his conversion. In 1994, Newt Gingrich and the GOP ushered in what they called “The Republican Revolution,” and the Republicans became in control of the House for the first time in nearly forty years. Meanwhile, Bobby Jindal, after finishing Oxford, was working for McKinsey and Company, a multi-billion dollar “management consulting firm.”

In 1996, here in Louisiana, Mike Foster, a Republican, was elected governor. For some odd reason, Governor Foster appointed a young and inexperienced kid from a management consulting firm as Secretary of Louisiana’s Health and Hospitals. At 24 years old, Bobby Jindal became Secretary Jindal. Only six years before, Mr. Jindal was a Hindu teenager living with his parents in Baton Rouge.

Mr. Jindal’s early and sudden rise into political prominence has raised many eyebrows. His ambition is unquestionable, but the ways in which he has gained prominence are worthy of attention and suspicion. Despite the fact that Louisiana’s national healthcare ranking dropped into last place during his tenure, Secretary Jindal, at the age of 27, became President Jindal after he was appointed President of the University of Louisiana system. Two years later, he found a better gig with the Bush Administration. He became Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services. Then he ran for Governor. Then he ran for Congress. Now he is running for Governor again.

Bobby Jindal has spent practically all of his professional life in politics, and his political career primarily consists of appointments. He was appointed, appointed again, appointed again, appointed again, and then appointed again. No, I am not counting his years in Congress as an “appointment,” though Jindal, who had to move into the district to qualify, was essentially coroneted by David Vitter and the Republican Party.
If you are looking for Bobby Jindal before politics, the only thing you will find is a series of essays he wrote about converting from Hinduism to Catholicism. But don’t worry. The essays are actually fascinating and revealing, which is probably why Mr. Jindal does not want you to read at least one of them.