Yesterday,
I compared the governing of Democrats former Pres. Barack
Obama and current Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Today, I get to compare the styles of Edwards and Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry to amplify a point
further.
In the pages of The Advocate, I noted two similarities between Edwards and Obama:
they both subscribed to an imperialistic view of a chief executive’s powers and
they both used their offices to campaign permanently and constantly. For the
latter, I gave a couple of examples where Edwards delivered criticism about a
potential opponent, Landry, over issues that had nothing to do with the
governor’s office: whether the state’s attorney general could initiate an
investigation of potential crimes despite constitutional prohibitions on that
and Landry’s joining the state with others to a dispute over the
constitutionality of the (misnamed) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Yet others I know saw irony over using incidents
with Landry as an example of Edwards’ permanent campaign, because they believed
Landry displayed the same penchant. No doubt Landry does publicize activities
of his office as these relate to political issues of the day. For example, when
last week he issued
an opinion on Edwards’ powers as these relate to appointing a member of the
Red River Waterway Commission, which declared a recent Edwards appointment open
to legal challenge, unlike most he made a news
release for it. He also held a news conference over it and reiterated its
contents in a social
media post today.
