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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Dragons impervious to licorice

Clancy! Whoops... sorry.. Gambit! (It's so hard to tell which hat Clancy's hiding under sometimes... especially when he's trying not to openly admit a mistake)

An Affirmative Duty
The big cats are grinning. If you think of Louisiana politics as a large-animal circus act, with the state ethics board as the lion tamer, then the tamer now holds a whip made of licorice. When lawmakers passed a set of new ethics laws in February, they also raised significantly the standard of evidence needed to rule against elected officials accused of ethics or campaign finance violations. Instead of cracking down on violators and cleaning up Louisiana's image, the higher burden of proof makes it more difficult to punish unethical politicians — and easier for them to flout the law. This must change. Lawmakers and Gov. Bobby Jindal recently basked in the spotlight of Louisiana's new ethics laws. Indeed, some of the new laws approach the so-called "gold standard" of ethics reform, such as full financial disclosure and bans on state contracts. But, even as the public cheered, the proverbial claws were out, gutting enforcement of those new laws by requiring a higher burden of proof.


I think the real lesson here is never hire a Dragonslayer to do a Lion Tamer's job.... or something like that anyway. Hey did anyone see Leno last night?

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