GOP LA House governance takes step backwards

Just when you think Louisiana’s legislative Republicans, led in this instance by GOP House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, have gotten the hang of ruling as a majority party, then they show they don’t.

This week, the Legislature wrapped up its regular session with the GOP leadership having outmaneuvered Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards on a variety of fronts. It lined up votes and legislation in ways that neutered his line-item veto power, forced him to swallow his pride and ideology to accept one high-profile bill he opposed, and dared him to veto others that look likely if he did most, if not all of them, would be undone in a veto session.

At the same time, a rogue activist judge, in a ruling running very much against the run of judicial play almost certain to be stayed quickly, declared that the state would have to redraw its congressional boundaries because the proportion of those that are majority-minority would have to match the proportion of black residents in the state, no matter how many traditional reapportionment standards would have to be ditched to do so. Handed the ball, Edwards ran with it by summoning a special session Jun. 15-20, with the judicial deadline set for Jun. 22.

Useless Edwards gesture to cost LA taxpayers

The Louisiana Legislature should refuse to waste more taxpayer dollars triggered by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ attempt to put lipstick on a pig of a court decision.

Earlier this week, Louisiana Middle District Judge Shelly Dick unilaterally tossed out Act 5 of the 2022 First Extraordinary Session, declaring by fiat the congressional districts drawn in it violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and demanding as a remedy redrawing of these by Jun. 20. She used a novel interpretation to justify this, heretofore only seen in a similar case alleging that a state, in that instance Alabama, could have drawn an additional majority-minority district without using race as the dominant criterion.

Wherein lies the problem, because in that other case the U.S. Supreme Court slammed the brakes on that proposed solution, putting that on hold until after 2022 elections when it likely will decide on just how much prominence race should have in drawing such maps. The doctrine it used maintains that changes in electoral boundaries too close to elections degrade elections by sowing voter confusion and imposing significant administrative burdens.

Whiny Edwards won't condemn mean-spirited Biden

If you can’t win, at least go out a sore loser. Better, spitefully do so to the detriment of poor families, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards demonstrated at the close of the 2022 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature.

Edwards was peeved that the Republican leadership of the chambers outmaneuvered him in sending through SB 44 by GOP state Sen. Beth Mizell. Almost identical to a measure he vetoed last year, this would prohibit biological males at the scholastic and collegiate level from competing in sports designed for females only. Speaking to the media at the session’s conclusion, he said he would do nothing with it so it would become law, after previously having tried to save face by hinting removing an almost-meaningless application to intramural sports made all the difference in the world in him not casting a veto.

Make no mistake, he didn’t try because he knew he would lose. The damage to the psyches and earnings potential of females became only more apparent over the past year by not having such a protection in law, and the decision by the chambers’ leadership to take his line-item veto power off the table put him in a position where any veto he cast would have been overridden.

GOP strategy neutering Edwards' veto influence

What a difference a little gumption makes, which already has paid off for the Louisiana Legislature this year and may magnify considerably over the next couple of months to the state’s advantage.

Almost unnoticed last week, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards signed off on HB 1, the operating budget, and HB 2, the capital outlay budget, for next fiscal year. He cast for HB 1 five line-item vetoes that made essentially cosmetic changes, and remarkably no vetoes at all for HB 2.

This stands in great contrast with recent years during his two terms, although more so with capital outlay. The five is not that unusual of a number, as the average is only about four and in both 2016 and 2019 (right after and before and election) there weren’t any. The five from the 2022 session essentially removed a duplicative capital outlay request and took money from the Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism to give to the three university systems with senior institutions to full fund pay raises without their having to dip into their own resources.

Coming eclipse lost on white LA populist left

There’s a certain irony attached to Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ testifying in front of a special legislative panel investigating the death of black motorist Ronald Greene then rushing to New Orleans to host a fundraising event for white long shot Senate candidate Democrat Luke Mixon, whom he just endorsed.

Mixon, of course, has no chance to defeat Republican incumbent Sen. John Kennedy, who in this cycle has raised $16 million, spent nearly half, and had almost $14 million in the campaign kitty as of the end of the first quarter. By contrast, Mixon gathered less than a half million dollars, spent half of it and sits on the other half.

Whether Mixon can win isn’t the central question posed by this election. Rather, it’s whether it will mark the passage of a century-long era in Louisiana politics where white populist elites controlled the fortunes of state Democrats, as formidable black Democrat candidate Gary Chambers, unconnected to the clique now fronted by Edwards, is in the race and by all indications will overwhelm Mixon.

Legislature must thwart recalcitrant local govts

Perhaps it’s because the eventuality actually hasn’t manifested, but when it likely does Louisiana in the near future then must act to put into place laws to prevent local government defiance of its prohibitions against abortion except when the mother’s life is endangered.

With the state poised to join others in making this its law if, as expected, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that regulation of the practice properly belongs in the hands of the states, dissident local governments in those states have begun to plot strategies to circumvent that and encourage abortion wherever possible, even if illegal. For example, a small Philadelphia suburb voted to prevent its police force from arresting anyone breaking a law against performing an abortion, if the state were to have one; it doesn’t, like Louisiana, have any law set to come into force doing this. In a related fashion and in a state with such laws already on the books, Austin would force police to put investigation of a suspected abortion last in priority and prevent the city funds from use to investigate, catalog, or report suspected abortions.

Having a relatively large Catholic population, Louisiana is perhaps the most pro-life state in the country. Still, conceivably some large cities with leftists in the control of the mechanisms of government could try to defy state laws on the matter preparing to come into force, so state policy must cut this off. After all, evil doesn’t stop being evil merely because it occurs in a different physical location.

Panel must fish or cut bait on Edwards' role

Does the “request” by the special Louisiana House of Representatives Committee to have Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards appear to testify about his actions relating to the aftermath of the May, 2019 death of black motorist Ronald Greene signal real business or face-saving?

Wednesday, Republican Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee, the chairman of the Special Committee to Inquire Into the Circumstances and Investigation of the Death of Ronald Greene, announced that the panel would hear from Edwards on Jun. 16. Ostensibly, the reason given was to probe more into when Edwards viewed Louisiana State Police body camera recordings that showed the complete incident and what he did with that information; Greene died subsequent to forceful mistreatment by troopers after a high-speed chase followed by a low-speed crash.

The Associated Press reported that Edwards viewed the most complete recording, which included Greene’s expiry in Oct., 2020 after audio leaks of the incident to the media. However, he and his staff didn’t immediately forward that information to federal prosecutors who had taken over the investigation a year earlier, who didn’t find out about this information until months later. The LSP apparently released this kind of evidence in bits and pieces as a struggle internal to the agency occurred with some elements attempting to suppress knowledge of damaging evidence. Edwards never intervened to assure a comprehensive internal investigation and, despite close staff monitoring of the federal government investigation, seemed to make no effort to ensure as evidence was uncovered that it would come into the hands of the federal reviewers.

Predictable Richmond exit prompts second-guesses

Maybe Cedric Richmond is having second thoughts about giving up his safe Congressional seat and potentially becoming some years down the road as powerful as his ally Democrat Rep. James Clyburn.

A year-and-a-half ago, fresh off of reelection Richmond foreswore his Louisiana Second Congressional District post in favor of heading up the Office of Public Engagement for the incoming Democrat Pres. Joe Biden Administration. That new gig made him one of the highest-ranking black officials in the White House, a reward for his efforts to elect Biden not just in the general election where he served as a campaign chairman but also in Biden’s triumphing over more than a dozen other competitors for the party’s nomination, including other non-white candidates and those favored by many other black democrats in Congress.

Yet as of the end of May, Richmond had left the building into a nebulous role with the Democratic National Committee aiding party candidates. When his departure was announced last month, all involved went to some lengths to describe the parting as unprovoked and a promotion.

Memorial Day, 2022

This column publishes every Sunday through Thursday around 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 Monday, May 30 being Memorial Day, I invite you to explore this link.

Noose tightens around Edwards over Greene death

The noose continues to tighten around Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards’ governorship, over his conduct concerning the death of black motorist Ronald Greene.

Greene died in the early morning hours of May 10, 2019, after a low-speed crash following a high-speed chase by the Louisiana State Police. After several minutes of brutalized treatment at the hands of a few LSP troopers, Greene, who didn’t resist, died on the way to medical treatment.

Only that a motorist died in custody was communicated to Edwards just hours later, although hours after that LSP released a now-deleted statement naming Greene and a vague description of the incident, as reported by Monroe media. That media days later also began reporting on earwitness statements that contradicted that Greene died in the crash and indicated he begged for his life during his beating.