As Edwards' power ebbs, his sniveling increases

Let’s just say Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards isn’t taking very well his precipitous and still increasing loss of power well before the end of his term next year.

Signs began last year that a Republican-led Legislature would defy Edwards’ leftist elite cultural views as well as attenuating his agenda to grow government. It sent several bills to his desk, most prominently one that would require that biological females only compete in scholastic and college athletic events restricted to females, that curtailed leftist cultural inroads, as well as held back some debt-fueled federal dollars rained on the state by Democrat-led Washington.

Edwards accepted the slimmer budget but vetoed several measures. However, Republicans triggered the first veto session in state history and nearly overturned the veto of the fairness bill. Then they took the next step earlier this year when they forced reapportionment packages onto Edwards, who felt he had enough power only to veto that for Congress because it included just one majority-minority district instead of two, only to have another veto session called where legislators overrode this, the first such success ever.

Fairness bill shows whether LA politics changed

It’s not often that we have a shot at a natural experiment in the study of politics, but Louisiana will cue up one with a replay of a bill to protect fairness in women’s sports.

SB 44, essentially word for word the same as last year’s SB 156, passed the Senate this week, sending it to the House of Representatives. Both offered by Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell, SB 44 would mandate that biological males at the scholastic or collegiate level couldn’t compete in sporting events designated for biological females. In other words, unless a male had completed the entire process to change physically his sex into female, that person couldn’t compete in sports where only females were allowed.

Last year, SB 156 passed both chambers with a smattering of non-Republican support only to suffer a veto at the hands of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards. Then at a historic first-ever veto session, in the House enough Democrats and non-party members defected from their previous vote to sustain the veto.

Unsustainable pay hikes foolish, hypocritical

If you’re going to spend money you won’t have, at least don’t be a hypocrite about it.

The entire membership of the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee, mainly comprised of Republicans who should know better, voted Monday to advance HB 1. The entire chamber later this week will take up the bill that will fund most of the state’s operating expenses.

Like most states, Louisiana is flush with borrowed money sent from Washington courtesy of Democrats who just make a majority in Congress that has helped trigger the country’s worst price inflation since Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards started courting wife Donna in high school. Significant other tabs await payment, although the bill appears to take care of big-ticket items such as another installment on flood protection and replenishing its unemployment trust fund that would secure lower levels of payments to employers (although three other bills poised to move through the legislative process would raise permanently payment levels to the unemployed, wiping out part of this rescue).

Little room for LA schools to encourage religion

There’s not much Ouachita Parish school officials can do to counter charges of unconstitutional school-led prayer at West Monroe’s Riverbend Elementary, except to make the ground as fertile as possible for students to engage in prayer on their own.

Last week, news reports surfaced that the school had allowed at commencement of the school day student-led prayer through its intercom system in conjunction with recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, with officials overseeing a system where a student volunteer would recite it. A complaint worked its way to a special interest group that notified the school that it saw this as an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion, and so the practice has been discontinued.

Unfortunately, there exists a decades-long string of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that backs the group’s opinion. If a government entity facilitates with any of its own resources any activity that would appear to grant religious exercise preference, the Court has ruled this to be an unconstitutional state endorsement of religion.

Easter Sunday, 2022

This column publishes five days weekly after noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Sunday, Apr. 17 being Easter, I invite you to explore this link.