I tread very, very carefully here, because, as I have shown
again
and again, I
have been a Bobby Jindal fan since late 1991, before he was even
finished his studies. I remain a huge fan. I think he is the best
thing to happen to my beloved Louisiana in decades. But I must
issue a warning, one which may be important for certain national
candidates to take into account. I have lots of sources in
Louisiana, of course, and from a wide variety of unrelated sources,
I am hearing the same thing: Bobby Jindal so far is what MORE than
one source, completely independent of each other, described in
identical words: "the most isolated governor I have ever seen." The
word is that his bright young staffers are also his arrogant young
staffers. They are so sure of themselves that they aggregate power
to themselves by acting as if their gatekeeper role is not just to
keep too many people at once from going through the gate to see the
Guv, but to keep the gate almost entirely shut. Even the friendly
media is complaining -- and most LA media right now wants to be
friendly, because their desperate desire for reform overcomes any
ideological predispositions to the left right now; I have had quite
liberal media folks down there tell me how excited they were that
Bobby won the election. But now reporters feel shunned -- and the
LSU student press has been terribly ill treated, which is really
dumb by the Jindal team because the student press could easily be
inspired by Jindal's reformist nature.
Outside of the media, a few minor but embarrassing missteps have
occurred; a few things have fallen through the cracks that
shouldn't have; and more than a few good people, reformers,
longtime supporters, say they can't get their phone calls
returned.
Again, right now these problems are correctable. Nobody other
than a few gadflies thinks Bobby's reformist instincts or his
conservative convictions are any less real than we have always
thought they are. But it gets to the heart of things: Louisiana
politics is notoriously convoluted. It's a tough place to master.
And it's particularly tough to stay on top of one's game while
still being a legitimate reformer, much less a legitimate
conservative reformer. A lot of bad old guys are setting snares for
Jindal as we speak, trying to bloody him up, trying to block his
initiatives, trying to cut his knees out from under him. Jindal's
ability to handle all of this for not just four months but four
years, is still to be shown. If he can run this gantlet for four
years, he should be the national conservative star in 2012. I'll
even volunteer to lead his parade blowing a trumpet. But he still
needs to get there. It's called seasoning. And he won't get it if
he turns off his own allies.
Former Gov. Dave Treen, another reformer (but a much less able
politician) made the same mistake of letting himself be isolated.
Granted, it was a worse mistake for him to make than for Jindal
because master politician Edwin Edwards, at the height of his
popularity, was waiting just offstage to return to the Governor's
mansion that he gave up in the first place only because the state
Constitution limited him to two consecutive terms (but allowed
re-election once he sat out one term). Nobody of that stature
threatens Jindal. But he needs to accept this and other reports as
VERY friendly shots across his bow telling him that people who
should be thrilled with him are getting upset -- NOT because they
are on ego trips and want access to the governor for personal
interest, but because they see him making mistakes that could hurt
him down the line.
topics:
Constitution
