Eye on the ball

For the record, I don't care for Derrick Shepherd because he is a conservative panderer and useless legislator with an unseemly obsession over baggy pants. The fact that he is also a criminal, while not particularly surprising, is really beside the point.

But removing Shepherd from office via federal investigation rather than electoral action will not result in more progressive representation for that district. This is the folly of focusing on "corruption" instead of issues in politics. Politics is about advancing one or another policy agenda through the authority of an electoral mandate. It's kind of the point of democratic government. So while it's nice to know that a criminal could be brought to justice, it's still an external issue to actual governance.

Time and again, self-styled "reformers" conflate removing corruption with political action. Removing corruption is laudable but if it is the sole basis of a candidate's platform, it tends to serve as a distraction from the interests such a candidate might actually represent once he/she takes power.

For example, newly knighted Dragon Slayer Bobby Jindal ran a campaign based on the premise that Louisiana's main obstacle is not health care, not flood protection, not jobs, but "corruption." In his acceptance speech, Jindal promised his first act as Governor will be to convene a special legislative session in order to pass a nebulous "ethics reform package" whatever that could mean.

Meanwhile, Jindal named some of the wonderful people who will join him at the Round Table at the dawn of the new age. Here are some of your new administrators:

• Chief of Staff: Home schooling product, Christian weirdo, and "respecter of the authority structure" Timmy Teepell.



• Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy: Big Oil lobbyist Stephen Waguespack.



• Transition Chairman: Conservative Baton Rouge Business Report publisher and Buddy Roemer co-flake from way back, Rolfe Mc Collister Jr.

Wow what an awesome team of "reformers"! But as long as these guys keep the dragons away, everything will be smooth as... peanut butter, right?

Update: Today's T-P cartoon (not yet online)at least demonstrates that paper's ownership of their own party line fantasy.

Upperdate: Cartoon is online now and it is, yup, Jindal "Slaying the Dragon"



If anyone has access to T-P archives from 1987 I'm dying to know if a similarly themed cartoon ran after Roemer's election. I'd be willing to lay money on it.