JOHN MAGINNIS DRINKS THE KOOL AID

I've always respected John Maginnis and used to consider him the dean of Louisiana political pundits. His books on the 1983 and 1991 Gubernatorial campaigns are classics and they were fairly balanced in tone and coverage. Maginnis was hard on everyone from Edwards to Treen to Roemer to Duke. But he seems to be so enthralled by Bobby Jindal and the possibility of "reform" that he's lost his mojo. He's sounding more like a publicist for Jindalizing the state than an analyst. It's a pity: he used to be one of the best.

Maginnis' column today was an "analysis" of some of the recent campaign ads on teevee. It's hard to argue his point that the anti-Jindal ads aimed at North Louisiana Protestants have backfired. They clearly have: those folks know for sure that Jindal has converted from Hinduism to right-wing Catholicism. But in the rest of the piece Maginnis becomes Bobby's poodle: arf, sniff, lick. I was particularly irked by this passage: "Voters were last shaking their heads over the ad in which Sen. Walter Boasso, D-Arabi, plays off against the cardboard figures of Jindal and President Bush and calls for withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

The common reaction was to ask what Boasso's venture into foreign policy has to do with governing Louisiana. Although polling showed that many Democrats and independents are unhappy with and tired of Bush, many still respect him, or at least the presidency, and don't care to see either mocked by a candidate for governor."

Unhappy? Tired? Bush is as unpopular here in the gret stet as he is in the rest of the country; especially among Democrats and Independents. I also know more than a few registered Republicans in NOLA who would love to give W either a piece of their mind or a swift kick in the ass. I thought Boasso's ad was an attempt to convince anti-Bush voters that his party switch was more than just an act of opportunism. The jury's out on whether it worked but criticizing Bush in August of 2007 does not qualify as an act of political recklessness or courage; everybody's doing it, doing it, doing it. It's more popular than the Hokey Pokey in the 1920's.

I must admit to grinding my teeth when Maginnis implied that criticizing a President is inappropriate for a candidate for governor. I wasn't aware that Mr. Boasso surrendered his free speech rights as a citizen by running for office. I hope that Jindal plans to limit his comments on national affairs too; as if he could ever STFU. He's already called for Senator Footsie to resign. Why not Vitty Cent?

I wonder what flavor of Kool Aid, Maginnis drank? Lime? Orange? Goofy grape? My money is on the following mantra: R is for Reform, Republican and Raspberry. And the raspberry is exactly what I give Maginnis' latest column. It makes me *almost* want Jindal to win and the Republicans to take control of the ledge. Hell, I think it's likely to happen anyway but I'd love to see how disappointed all the goo-goo reformer types will be once the the so-called reform Republicans actually take power. It will be 1994 all over again, y'all. I seem to recall that the Gingrichites campaigned in favor of radical reforms, term limits and promised to limit pork barrel spending. The exact opposite happened. They drank the Kool Aid of power and found the pork flavor to be most invigorating. The more things change, the more they remain the same.  

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