Democrat mudslinging at Jindal shows who they are

That didn’t take long: just three days after U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal formally announced his pursuit of the Louisiana governor’s office later this year, the utterly predictable Democrat mudslinging against him commenced. Expect much more of it, and that it will be as groundless, baseless, and useless as this initial sally.

State Democrat Chairman Chris Whittington said Jindal was using the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina for political gain. It follows the common liberal Democrat strategy: they know they are out of step with the public so to hide that they accuse their opponents of doing exactly what they have done and are doing.

As soon as the hurricane danger was over, Jindal distinguished himself perhaps more than any other Louisiana politician in addressing the policy consequences of the calamity by supporting reasoned responses that were convincing rather than shrill, and balanced the needs of those victimized by the storm and its aftermath with the ability and willingness of the nation to provide for them. As a continuing effort to mitigate a potential long-standing problem, Jindal also was the most important U.S. House member behind the effort to win Louisiana a greater share of offshore energy production royalties, once the state had submitted to dedicating those additional funds.


His main Democrat opponent Gov. Kathleen Blanco ran around making wild accusations to cover up her own inadequacy in response, petulantly demanding the moon from the American taxpayer with little in the way of oversight. Later, she latched onto the exaggerated notion that coastal degradation was to blame for the destruction and initiated contentious, costly proceedings that would provide the state no means to repair the coast. Even now, Blanco rants about how a conscious decision was made to shortchange the state in recovery resources because she and her party controlled matters, a claim with no credible substantiation and universally derided by all but her political allies.

These opposite reactions illustrate the political philosophies and approaches that separate a liberal Democrat like Blanco and a conservative Republican like Jindal. Blanco and her crew are more interested in playing politics in order to get electoral support because they know they cannot win on the issues. Jindal knows his views are preferred by Louisiana’s majority and so it is merely a matter of cutting through the noise spewed by the Democrats to get it out and to win the election. Thus, Democrats accuse Jindal precisely of what Blanco has done.

The Louisiana voting public generally in the past has not been good at discriminating between fact and fraud as witness of many past and current state elected officials demonstrates. However, Jindal seems well prepared to assist it in this task, as evidenced by the response of his campaign: “The people of Louisiana are tired of the mudslinging and finger-pointing. The governor needs to tell her political operatives to stop making excuses and instead work with members of both parties to help our families and communities rebuild.” If he can stay in this mode, a Democrat has no chance to beat him.