Jindal nixes pay raise
Leaders exert their influence beforehand. Leaders do not need others to tell them to do the right thing, they just do it. That is the moral of this story… Bobby Jindal is not a leader. Bobby Jindal is a politician, someone who makes backroom deals to get certain legislation passed (even though such deals violate promises to voters).
Now Jindal will have to deal with an angry legislature that he has now lied to. Had Jindal been ready for prime time, he would have used his approval rating to get whatever legislation he wanted passed and would have never promised the legislature a pay raise that he objected to. An effective leader would have promised the legislature something that he supported already and made them think that it was their idea in the first place.
And Jindal also has to deal with the fact that he succumbed to public pressure and did not do the right thing because he felt it was the right thing to do. Not that he actually felt that he would be recalled (the chance of them averaging over 5200 signatures a day was slim to none). He just couldn’t have a recall attempt hanging over his head while trying to be the keynote speaker at the Republican Convention (or while trying to be McCain’s VEEP candidate).
Update: This Jindal apologistseems to think that Jindal showed all sorts of leadership. It is worth the read for a good laugh.
Update 2: In a recent SMOR poll, over 50% of the voters would have a worse opinion of Jindal had he not vetoed the bill. The poll was released June 30th (the same day Jindal vetoed the bill). Coincidence?
June 30th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Daniel, you are absolutely right about handling the legislature. He is afraid to give credit to anyone else - if he thinks that it is good, then he did it. Example: The Stelly rollback, which he fought tooth and nail until he saw it was hopeless. Now he goes on national TV and says “I gave the people a tax reduction”.
He didn’t veto the damned thing, the people did. Wonder how long before he’s on the national news explaining that he’s the new dragon-slayer?
June 30th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
What is interesting is Tucker’s comment in the article.
Unprecedented reforms? Like making it harder to convict people of ethics violations? If we are getting more of that I say no thank you.
But it sounds like Tucker got smacked around on this one. Perhaps he has some fear that his recall effort might actually work.