How Dragonslayers are like shooting stars

They tend to flame out quickly when they slay the wrong Dragons. Jindal's "income disclosure" law is already slaying the wrong Dragons.... or at least the sort who didn't expect the sword would be pointed at them.

BATON ROUGE -- With appointed members of a number of state boards and commissions threatening to resign en masse, lawmakers are taking another look at a new ethics law that requires panel volunteers and their spouses to disclose specific personal financial information.

The commission that runs New Orleans City Park is in danger of losing at least 22 of its 33 sitting members because of the new law, according to the group's president. A recent appointee to a museum board has already resigned to avoid financial disclosure. And members of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System board say they are troubled by it, while carefully monitoring current legislation.

"There is widespread concern about the impact of the current law," said Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner.

Typically, the kind of people who sit on boards such as the New Orleans City Park Improvement Association are fine with demagoguing "good government" during a political campaign. But it's another thing altogether once that demagoguery, when applied literally, really ends up inconveniencing their tea parties more than putting any Jeffersons in jail. And let's face it. From the point of view of the City Park Improvement crowd, Dragonslaying really is more about keeping the "right" sort of people in the socially prestigious positions than it is about installing any rational system of governmental ethics anyway. Nothing new there. Certain gullible editors of certain "alternative" weeklies seem to have trouble with this idea but that's really nothing new either.

Also not new but perpetually interesting is the way in which the implementation of Dragonslaying measures tends to separate the Dragonslayer from his political constituency over time.

Rosemary Ewing, the wife of former state Senate president and gubernatorial candidate Randy Ewing, was recently appointed by Jindal to the State Museum Board but resigned because of the new disclosure requirements.

Brett Mellington, chairman of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, said the new law is "onerous" and would affect some business people on the board who for competitive reasons would not want to disclose certain information about their income.

"It leaves a bad taste in my mouth," Mellington said.

This is precisely why the Longs warned us that when Louisianians actually got "good government" they wouldn't like it. It's also why "good government" Dragonslayers don't last long in office... or leave much of a useful legacy in their wake. If things stay true to form, Governor PBJ may find himself in political quicksand similar to that which once sunk his current personal promoter Buddy Roemer. Of course the ever-resourceful PBJ is working on a contingency plan. How that pans out is anybody's guess.