See how Mary Landrieu feels about spending your money.  All of this coming from the same Senator who sold her vote on Health Care for $300 million.

Read more – Earmark Disclosures.

Jindal’s activity in hitting the campaign trail for Republican candidates outside Louisiana coupled with his current book tour have generated a narrative among many in the state’s chattering classes that he’s too busy burnishing national credentials to care about the state. Fair or not, that narrative is beginning to take its toll.

Pinsonat’s numbers indicate a significant drop in Jindal’s support, as his approval rating has plummeted from 68 percent in April 2009 to 55 percent at present. His negatives have risen from 30 percent to 43 percent in that time frame.

Worse, Jindal has experienced a six-point drop – from 61-37 in April of this year to 55-43 at present – in the last six months. That indicates slippage of the sort which could well make the governor ripe for a major Democrat challege if it isn’t addressed.
 
Jindal, in fact, has now fallen to fourth place among Louisiana’s statewide officials in approval. Treasurer John Kennedy, who has been touring the state touting a plan to cut $1.6 billion from Louisiana’s budget while Jindal has been promoting his book, is now viewed favorably by 61 percent of the public. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, a Democrat, sits at 60 percent – indicating that if you can stay completely out of the headlines people will consider that a sign of competence. And recently re-elected Sen. David Vitter is now at 56 percent approval – which would indicate that it may have been a mistake for Jindal to have neglected to endorse Vitter’s re-election.

Jindal remains more popular than Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu (54 percent) and new Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne (51 percent), but only slightly. In comparison to Landrieu, SMOR finds the Governor’s election prospects are quite similar:

When respondents were asked if they would vote for Landrieu:
·     36 percent said they would definitely vote to re-elect her.
·     22 percent said they would consider someone else.
·     40 percent said they would definitely vote for someone else
·     2 percent said they didn’t know or would or wouldn’t respond
 
When asked if they would vote for Jindal:
·     39 percent said they would definitely vote to re-elect him.
·     23 percent said they would consider someone else.
·     35 percent said they would definitely vote for someone else
·     3 percent said they didn’t know or would or wouldn’t respond

It’s widely thought that Landrieu is extremely vulnerable to a Republican challenge when her term expires in 2014. There is speculation, in fact, that Jindal might be the challenger. Pinsonat’s numbers indicate he has quite a bit of work to do before mounting a campaign to dislodge another statewide incumbent.

More items from SMOR’s release indicate that Jindal might be able to turn his slide around by taking a harder line on government spending – and making a major show of it in the process as Kennedy has done…

Almost half – 46 percent – of all respondents disapproved of Jindal’s travel to other states. Among Republicans, 28 percent disapproved of the travel while 28 percent also said they would consider voting for someone other than Jindal.
 
As the governor touts his accomplishments on a national stage, survey results indicate many Louisiana residents are unhappy with the conditions of roads, elementary and secondary education, higher education, management of state government, lack of job opportunities and public health care.
 
A significant number of respondents – 39 percent – said conditions in Louisiana were getting worse, while 19 percent said conditions were getting better. Jindal’s out-of-state traveling is affecting his popularity back home, especially when so many respondents have a negative outlook toward the most vital functions of state government.
 
State Treasurer Kennedy has a solid job performance rating of 61 percent and a relatively low negative rating at 19 percent. His advocacy for reducing the number of state employees was popular among respondents. Nineteen percent of respondents said they didn’t know enough about him to rate his job performance.
 
Meanwhile, a mere 8 percent of respondents said they believe an unclassified political appointee or state executive making more than $175,000 per year is justified. Twenty-four percent said such compensation is unjustified, while 64 percent said a salary of more than $175,000 for such employees was outrageous. The results portend what could be a contentious issue in the 2011 legislative session.
 
Seventy-two percent of respondents said they did not believe their tax dollars are being spent wisely. This indicates difficulty for advocates of higher taxes to avoid deep cuts to programs. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they think the state’s financial crisis is caused by too much spending, while 32 percent said they believe the state does not have enough revenue.
 
Respondents also do not favor balancing the state budget by raising income or sales taxes, or by increasing taxes on businesses. About two thirds said they favor raising taxes on cigarettes.
 
Sixty percent of respondents, particularly Republicans, opposed raising gasoline taxes to fund new highway construction. According to the results, many believe Louisiana highways are bad and that the state is wasting the taxes they already pay. Also, 68 percent consider suspending tax exemptions a tax increase.
 
A state senator’s recent proposal to offset higher-education budget deficits by raising state income taxes for middle- and upper- income households was unpopular with respondents with 64 percent opposed.
 
When asked which sector – health care or higher education – respondents preferred to protect from budget cuts, 55 percent favored protecting health care while 28 percent favored higher education.
 
Democrats want health care protected more than higher education three to one, and Republicans are evenly split.
 
Fifty-eight percent of respondents agreed with Treasurer Kennedy that Louisiana has too many state employees.
 
Sixty percent of respondents favor keeping the so-called Bush tax cuts in place, while 31 percent want those cuts to expire for people making more than $250,000 per year. This is not surprising in light of how 60 percent of all respondents want the state budget cut without raising taxes.

SCALISE: “We’re tired of Secretary Salazar and Director Bromwich coming down to Louisiana and paying lip service to our local workers and industry leaders while playing shell games with the permitting process. All we are seeing on the ground is an ever-changing rulemaking process that undermines safety while maintaining a ‘permitorium’ in the Gulf. While the Administration continues to play shell games with the offshore permitting process, their tactic of ‘rules-du-jour’ continues to prolong the uncertainty that threatens thousands of jobs for Louisiana families and jeopardizes America’s energy security.

“Secretary Salazar must stop paying lip service about lifting the drilling moratorium and start taking real action to address the ongoing delays and uncertainty caused by his department. I will continue pushing the administration to establish clear guidelines for swift approval of drilling permits before these delays cost thousands more Louisiana workers their jobs.”

VITTER: “All of us from Louisiana hoped to hear some new policy, some permitting breakthrough, maybe a handful of new permits approved.  But we heard none of that – absolutely nothing.

“I told the secretary that this permit logjam had to change – this vital industry is virtually shut down.  And I highlighted, along with industry representatives, the key issues that the Obama administration has to address to put people back to work.”

ORIGINAL: A release by the Department of Interior today on the subject of offshore drilling permits offers rather less evidence of a speedy return to health for the oil and gas industry than we were promised when Sen. Mary Landrieu lifted her hold on the nomination of Jake Lew for OMB director…

Salazar, Bromwich Encouraged by Progress of Operators to Comply with Higher Offshore Oil and Gas Standards

Houma, LA — At a meeting today with representatives of the oil and gas industry, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Assistant Secretary Tom Strickland, and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) Director Michael R. Bromwich discussed the implementation of reforms that are raising the bar for safety and environmental protection in oil and gas operations on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

“Oil and gas resources from the Gulf of Mexico are – and will remain – important components of our nation’s energy portfolio, but we must ensure that they are being developed safely and responsibly,” said Secretary Salazar. “I am encouraged that operators are moving quickly to comply with the higher standards for safety and environmental protection that we have set. We will continue to work with the industry and stakeholders to provide certainty and ensure that everyone understands the rules of the road.”

“Since June, BOEMRE has been in frequent communication with representatives from the oil and gas industry and the shallow water drilling coalition regarding shallow water drilling permits,” said Director Browmich. “Our ongoing discussions underline our commitment to working with industry to clarify any confusion in the federal regulations. BOEMRE is working as expeditiously as is safely possible on processing shallow and deep water permits.”

Salazar, Strickland, and Bromwich told oil and gas industry representatives that BOEMRE will continue to work as expeditiously as is safely possible to review drilling permits under new and existing rules and regulations.

As of today, BOEMRE has approved 16 new shallow water applications for permits to drill (APDs) and 48 revised applications for permits for existing wells submitted since June 8. The revised applications BOEMRE has approved included compliance information related to the drilling safety NTL. There currently are four pending applications for APDs for new wells and zero pending for revised permits for existing wells.

BOEMRE has reallocated approximately 20 personnel internally and across the Bureau’s regions to assist with the review and processing of permits in the Gulf of Mexico on an interim basis. BOEMRE is awaiting congressional action on the President’s FY 2011 budget amendment, which includes funding for the hiring of 24 full time employees – including engineers, geologists, and other professionals – who would be devoted to permitting, as well as training and information technology improvements to enhance the efficiency of the permitting process.

Following Director Bromwich’s recent five-campus recruitment tour of engineering programs in Louisiana and Texas, BOEMRE received 555 applications for approximately 30 petroleum engineering positions, 30 inspector positions, and 20 summer internships.

“People are responding to our call to public service. They understand the importance of our mission and want to be part of it — but we need to have sufficient resources to continue building our workforce. That will benefit both the public and the oil and gas operators who want their permit applications to be processed as quickly as possible,” said Director Bromwich.

In other words, only two permits have been issued for shallow-water drilling in the past two weeks and if any have been issued for deepwater drilling since the first one went out last week Interior isn’t bragging about it.

This doesn’t particularly suggest the kind of rapid progress Landrieu advertised was coming when she announced last week she was lifting her hold on Lew’s nomination.

Mary didn’t get rolled by the White House, did she? We sure hope not.

Louisiana’s other Senator, Republican David Vitter, is less convinced.

Vitter sent a letter Sunday to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar declaring that the drilling permit logjam continues. Vitter said he doesn’t expect an end to the “Permitorium” when the Obama Administration gets its act together on several “big-picture issues.”

The letter followed a Saturday phone conversation between Vitter and Salazar in which the unresolved regulatory issues were front and center as topics of conversation. “I look forward to meeting with the secretary today to focus again on these issues. We don’t need vague happy talk; we need concrete answers,” Vitter said.

“The secretary’s positive comments and the handful of new shallow water permits are nice. But they don’t solve the problem; they don’t break the logjam,” Vitter said. “The Obama Administration needs to resolve at least five big picture issues to put people back to work in a major way.”

Vitter’s letter to Salazar reads as follows:

November 21, 2010

The Honorable Ken Salazar
Secretary of the Interior
1849 C St., NW
Washington, DC 20240

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL AND FACSIMILE
IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUESTED

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Thank you for our telephone conversation yesterday about permitting new oil and gas drilling. I welcome your recent positive comments, the handful of new shallow water permits being issued, and your trip to Louisiana Monday. But I don’t think any of this will end the drilling permit logjam.

To end the logjam, the Administration must address, directly and concretely, the big picture issues which have created mass uncertainty and slowed the process to a virtual standstill.

With that in mind, I would ask that you address the following issues directly and concretely during your visit Monday:

1. ADEQUATE BOEMRE STAFFING. Both you and Director Bromwich have recently stated that BOEMRE does not have adequate staff to ramp up permitting. What are you doing immediately to change this? And what additional budget authority are you requesting to expand on and make permanent those changes?

2. NEPA CATEGORICAL EXCLUSIONS. What is the exact status of your review of the use of NEPA Categorical Exclusions? If use of Categorical Exclusions is cut back, how will you avoid major delays in permitting? And if Interior uses Environmental Assessments (EAs) for exploration plans, how will Interior justify a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) conclusion?

3. NTL-06. It is clear that the current version of NTL-06 is unworkable and is frustrating the permitting process. How and when will this change?

4. REGULATORY CERTAINTY. When will the entire universe of new rules, notices, etc. be defined? Director Bromwich has indicated that there is no end in sight in this regard, which defeats any hope of regulatory certainty.

5. DEEPWATER. Any hint of recent progress seems to be focused on shallow water. When will we see a significant number of new permits issued for deepwater exploration and drilling?

I look forward to your direct and concrete responses to these issues on Monday.

Sincerely,

David Vitter
United States Senator

Landrieu’s release of her hold on Jacob Lew’s nomination, which she had placed as a protest of the Obama administration’s offshore drilling ban, allowed Lew to fly through to confirmation on a Senate voice vote.

First, Sen. David Vitter is now touting a raft of endorsements from Democrat politicians across the state. A campaign release today includes a statement from more than 30 Democrat officeholders in support of the Republican incumbent…

“As Louisiana Democrats, we strongly endorse David Vitter for reelection to the U.S. Senate for two reasons.  First, David represents our mainstream Louisiana views on such critical issues as jobs and the federal debt.  Second, David is a very effective partner working with us to meet key Louisiana needs including law enforcement, highways, and hurricane and flood protection.  Please join us in voting for David Vitter on November 2nd.”

The officials who signed the statement:

Parish Presidents

Parish President Riley “Pee-Wee” Berthelot (D), Parish President of West Baton Rouge Parish
Parish President Gordon Burgess (D), Parish President of Tangipahoa Parish
Parish President Don Menard (D), Parish President of St. Landry Parish
Parish President Richard Thomas (D), Parish President of Washington Parish

Sheriffs

Sheriff Larry Cox (D), Sheriff of Madison Parish
Sheriff Willie Graves (D), Sheriff of Livingston Parish
Sheriff Steve May (D), Sheriff of Caldwell Parish
Sheriff Charles McDonald (D), Sheriff of Richland Parish
Sheriff Wayne Melancon (D), Sheriff of Acadia Parish
Sheriff Mike Tubbs (D), Sheriff of Morehouse Parish
Sheriff Jeffrey Wiley (D), Sheriff of Ascension Parish

State Senators

State Senator Elbert Guillory (D), State Senator for District 24

Mayors

Mayor Dale Barnett (D), Mayor of Plain Dealing
Mayor Stein Baughman (D), Mayor of Farmerville
Mayor Carroll Breaux (D), Mayor of Springhill
Mayor Danny Cupit (D), Mayor of Westlake
Mayor Terry Duhon (D), Mayor of Jennings
Mayor Dan Hollingsworth (D), Mayor of Ruston
Mayor Estes LeDoux (D), Mayor of Kinder
Mayor Thomas Nelson (D), Mayor of St. Martinsville
Mayor Jimbo Petitjean (D), Mayor of Acadia
Mayor Reggie Skains (D), Mayor of Downsville
Mayor Kenny Stinson (D), Mayor of Vinton

District Attorneys

District Attorney Leon Cannizarro, Jr. (D), District Attorney for Orleans Parish
District Attorney Paul Connick, Jr. (D), District Attorney for Jefferson Parish

Councilmen and Councilwomen, Police Jurors

Councilwoman Raylyn Beevers (D), Councilwoman for City of Gretna
Councilman Joey Cehan (D), Councilman for Terrebonne Parish
Councilman Larry Cochran (D), Councilman for St. Charles Parish
Councilwoman Marla Cooper (D), Councilwoman for Plaquemines Parish
Councilman Shelly Tastet (D), Councilman for St. Charles Parish
Councilman Trae Welch (D), Councilman for East Baton Rouge Parish

Not to be completely outdone, Vitter’s opponent in the upcoming election Charlie Melancon, who it appears no longer has the funds to run TV ads, picked up an endorsement from a more prominent Democrat official – New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu. Landrieu’s endorsement statement is somewhat peculiar…

“It’s always about putting Louisiana first,” Mayor Landrieu said. “It’s not about political party. … The people of New Orleans will be better if we have Charlie Melancon as our second United States senator.”

Perhaps Landrieu meant to say “better off,” but the statement as quoted by the New Orleans Times-Picayune might be interpreted as a prediction about the manners and comportment of the Big Easy’s denizens. His sister, Sen. Mary Landrieu, also endorsed Melancon in terms which make it sound like she’s either a lot more partisan than Mitch is or makes endorsements out of personal pique…

“Sen. Vitter is the kind of senator who fights for headlines,” Sen. Landrieu said. “I need a partner who fights for Louisiana every day.”

The Lieutenant Governor’s race also saw some endorsements of interest. Republican Jay Dardenne, the current Secretary of State, picked up endorsements from a pair of media entities – the Baton Rouge Business Report and the Monroe News-Star.

The Business Report’s publisher Rolfe McCollister said in his statement endorsing Dardenne that Democrat Caroline Fayard is unconvincing when she says partisan politics aren’t important to her candidacy.

In the event something should ever happen to the governor, the lieutenant governor must step in. And it is clear that Dardenne, a Republican, has the experience and conservative credentials that Louisiana needs. He will also do a good job in running the office of the lieutenant governor and promoting tourism.

Caroline Fayard has an impressive résumé and made a strong showing for someone in her first race by making the runoff. But while she seems to want to keep people from learning she’s a Democrat and says “parties or labels” don’t matter, her record of support for one party—Democratic—is also pretty impressive. Fayard worked for Hillary Clinton in President Bill Clinton’s White House. Photos of Fayard with President Clinton and President Barack Obama are featured on her website. So, when I read on her website that she wants to “attack wasteful spending” and “will advocate for better government—not more government,” I have to say it rings a bit hollow. Sounds like something a political consultant wrote to fool conservatives and Republicans. I have rarely met a Democrat who doesn’t think more government or more spending will somehow solve our problems. And that is certainly true of Clinton and Obama. Seems like Fayard has a lot of respect for the kind of “career politicians” she criticizes.

The News-Star, meanwhile, touted Dardenne’s record of competence in his current job and credited his vision for promoting the state’s tourism industry.

Jay Dardenne,  currently the Louisiana secretary  of state, has served the state with integrity and a public spirit that  warrants his election as lieutenant governor.

Dardenne, a  Republican, bears sufficient character and stature to lead the state should  the governor not finish his term. He also has the savvy and marketing skills  to sell the state’s myriad tourism features.

As secretary of state,  Dardenne has overseen the growth and development of numerous state museums  under his office’s direction, including several in northeastern  Louisiana. He has  worked hard to foster expansion of facilities at the Chennault Aviation and  Military  Museum in  Monroe and the  State  Cotton  Museum in  Lake  Providence, and  worked hard to help effect creation of the Eddie  G.  Robinson  Museum in  Grambling. His initiatives with the Heroes and Heritage Trails have created  new excitement about the 16 museums under Dardenne’s  direction.

His efforts concerning  the museums show Dardenne has the stuff to be the state’s chief tourism  official. As lieutenant governor, Dardenne’s primary duties would focus on  promoting culture, recreation and tourism in the state. Few public leaders  have schooled themselves as well as Dardenne about the state’s cultural  treasures, a fascinating public speaker and effective salesman for what is  great about Louisiana — all of it, including the northeastern  corner.

Dardenne has earned  the chance to step up to new opportunities.

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Yay.

This is the same Interior Department which lifted a moratorium on shallow-water drilling in May. Since then, it has issued all of seven drilling permits for shallow-water operators in the Gulf. Some one-third of the shallow-water drilling fleet sits idle in port now, with another 30 percent scheduled to join them within the next six weeks unless permitting speeds up.

Even Salazar admitted the lifting of the moratorium is a tepid endorsement of drilling at best.

“The policy position that we are articulating today is that we are open for business,” Salazar told a news conference. The action comes as a federal judge weighed a drilling company’s bid to overturn the moratorium.

It also comes less than a month before midterm elections in which Democrats face widespread criticism for overextending government actions on the economy, including the health care overhaul, the economic stimulus plan and the drilling moratorium.

A federal report said the moratorium likely caused a temporary loss of 8,000 to 12,000 jobs in the Gulf region. While the temporary ban on exploratory oil and gas drilling is lifted immediately, drilling is unlikely to resume for at least a few weeks.

Drilling companies must meet a host of new safety regulations before they can resume operations — including a requirement that the CEO of the company responsible for the well certifies it has complied with all regulations. That could make the person at the top of the company liable for any future accidents.

“Operators who play by the rules and clear the higher bar can be allowed to resume,” Salazar said.

The secretary said he knows that some people in the oil industry and along the Gulf Coast will say the new rules are too onerous.

“Others will say that we are lifting the deep water drilling suspension too soon. They will say there are still risks involved with deep water drilling,” he said.

The truth is, there will always be such risks, Salazar said.

“As we transition to a clean energy economy,” he added, “we will still need oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico to power our homes, our cars, our industry.”

The new rules imposed by the administration will make oil and gas drilling in the Gulf “safer than it has ever been,” Salazar said.

Making a CEO personally responsible for spills is perhaps the most ridiculous idea Salazar could offer. The CEO’s of major producers like Shell, BP or Exxon own only a small part of their companies’ stocks; personal liability for spills would needlessly induce those CEO’s to opt to drill elsewhere and cost American jobs.

Naturally, the Louisiana congressman whose district is most negatively impacted by Obama’s offshore exploration policies thinks it’s just swell that the moratorium has been “lifted,” calling it great news for the oil industry and its workers. Sen. Mary Landrieu was less moronic in her reaction…

Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, has blocked a Senate vote to confirm President Barack Obama’s choice of Jacob Lew to head the Office of Management and Budget to protest the moratorium.

She applauded the decision to lift the ban but said she would not release her hold on Lew.

“Today’s decision is a good start, but it must be accompanied by an action plan to get the entire industry in the Gulf of Mexico back to work,” Landrieu said, calling on the administration to accelerate permit approvals for drilling in shallow and deep water and provide greater certainty about regulations industry must meet.

On the other side of the aisle, the vitriol was a lot more pronounced. Todd Hornbeck, CEO of Covington-based Hornbeck Offshore, the plaintiff in the lawsuit which judicially voided the moratorium twice, said “We’re still in the dark” until the government starts issuing actual drilling permits based on understandable rules.

“The devil is in the details, as they say, and the industry hasn’t seen the final requirements for what we would have to do to be able to actually get a permit issued,” he added. “Until that is done, lifting the moratorium may be just a moot or perfunctory act. … Right now, I’m skeptical that it will be anytime soon that permits will be issued even if the moratorium is lifted.”

Sen. David Vitter blasted the administration as well.

“I guess this is movement in the right direction, but it’s painfully slow.  It’s clear that President Obama is going to preside over a continuing de facto moratorium for months or years, with new drilling held back to a fraction of previous levels.  I’ll keep fighting until real drilling happens and jobs are actually created,”

And Steve Scalise, who represents Louisiana’s 1st District in Congress, hit today’s announcement hard.

“Today’s announcement does nothing to address the uncertainty that has caused thousands of people to lose their jobs in the energy industry,” Scalise said.  “Until they lay out a clear path toward the issuing of new drilling permits, the Obama administration continues to send the message that they’ve established a ‘permitorium’ that denies people the ability to go back to work even if they’re complying with increased safety standards.

“The administration needs to stop playing games with the people who work in America’s energy industry, and finally lay out a clear path that allows permits to be issued using safer standards that quickly get people back to work. One of the biggest factors leading to job losses in the energy industry is the uncertainty that exists in the permitting process, and today’s announcement does nothing to address those concerns.”

In sum, deepwater exploration is now in the same sorry state shallow-water exploration is. The Obama administration, with today’s announcement, gets to claim credit for stopping his moratorium and heading off another judicial disaster. But the actual effect is a de-facto ban on drilling; incomprehensible drilling rules, slow-motion permitting and thousands of jobs lost overseas.

Today, Southern Methodist University released a study claiming 40,000 jobs are at risk from the slow permitting in shallow water alone…

“[T]he Interior Department’s drastic slowdown in approving permits for shallow-water drilling operations has very serious economic implications for the region that rival, or exceed, those of the spill and moratorium. Thus far, this impact has attracted little attention from Congress, the media, or third-party analysts despite the fact that the nearly 40,000 jobs related to the Gulf of Mexico’s shallow-water drilling industry have been placed in jeopardy by the Department of the Interior’s apparent decision to slow-walk the shallow-water permit approval process,” the report states.

Those horrendous effects, applied to deepwater exploration, could do the same damage without the accompanying political fallout to the Obama administration. A rule of thumb is that each working deepwater exploration rig directly or indirectly contributes to 1,500 jobs. If one-third of the 30 remaining Gulf deepwater rigs are idled five months from now as a result of the slow permitting in deepwater (which is analogous to what has happened in shallow water), that’s 15,000 jobs at risk. If another third of those rigs are idled six months from now, it’s another 15,000. And deepwater rigs are much less likely to sit idle based on their cost, mobility and demand.

This is a disaster. It’s also a fraud. Obama’s moratorium hasn’t gone away; the administration has just found a friendlier way to say no. But the economy of Louisiana will suffer just as acutely now as yesterday, and the damage to thousands of households and businesses will continue.

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“Under no circumstances will I vote for Jay Dardenne for Lt. Governor,” Griffon, as quoted by the Dead Pelican, said. “I can’t look in the mirror if I vote for Jay Dardenne… We’ve got to get rid of the RINO’s in the Republican party!”

Griffon is perfectly welcome to stay home on Nov. 2, then.

Because while it’s a perfectly satisfactory sentiment for conservatives to seek to purify the Republican Party, if you haven’t accomplished that by the time the general election rolls around it’s too late.

Conservatives, if in fact Dardenne wasn’t an acceptable standard-bearer, should have galvanized around another candidate. There were options; Sammy Kershaw cast himself in a conservative light but for a few ideas he offered which sounded like public projects, Roger Villere ran a campaign based almost solely on the concept that he was a conservative alternative to Dardenne, Kevin Davis called himself a conservative though few believed him outside of St. Tammany and Jefferson Parishes and even Melanie McKnight sounded conservative notes. Combined, their vote was larger than Dardenne’s.

Let’s not forget that Dardenne garnered a lot of conservative vote as well, because while his record in the state legislature might have been mixed from an ideological standpoint Dardenne has contributed to the movement in other ways. John Robert Butler’s piece last week about his work to purge the voter rolls after Katrina, for example, is a must read – Dardenne helped to restore the integrity of the electorate and changed Louisiana politics in unmistakable ways, and he did it in a professional way without causing the kind of hue and cry one would expect from the Professional Left. It’s the kind of thing a competent, non-corrupt public official can accomplish, and that should have value to conservatives in and of itself.

But more than that, while a “RINO moderate” may be a maddening politician to have to support, the fact that he’s moderate means he can be influenced. The attitude that purging the party of moderates is a smart thing to do is misguided; the aim of such a sentiment is more properly described as insisting upon a set of principles to guide the actions of those the Republican Party elects. And such guidance doesn’t come just on Election Day, as Griffon seems to forget. If he wants conservative governance – and it’s unclear exactly how that would manifest itself out of the Lieutenant Governor, anyway – then he needs to stay in constant contact with those who need pressuring to provide it. Pulling a lever every four years is hardly sufficient to preserve the quality of our government.

The choice for Lieutenant Governor is quite clear. Whatever Dardenne’s ideological failings, he’s still a right-of-center or, at worst, a centrist candidate. And he’s in a runoff with the farthest-left candidate to have entered the race in Caroline Fayard.

Fayard is now running around with the line that she’s a John Breaux centrist or a Blue Dog Democrat, and maybe she is. Charlie Melancon calls himself that, and he votes with Nancy Pelosi 84 percent of the time.

So, who does a Blue Dog Democrat associate herself with? Well, one way to gauge that is to research candidates said Blue Dog donates money to. And in Fayard’s case, we don’t see a lot of centrism. From OpenSecrets.org:

Fayard also donated $1,500 to GOP congressman Richard Baker in 1993, when she was 15 years old. She was 16 when she threw $1,000 at Cleo Field’s 1994 congressional campaign. Amazing political involvement for a high school kid; you wouldn’t think that money actually came from her trial-lawyer father Calvin Fayard, would you?

But wait. There are a bunch of donations from a “Cathryn Fayard” which appear to be the same person…

There are a few GOP donations in there, but centrists generally don’t give money to Dollar Bill Jefferson and John Kerry.

The Fayard family’s political donations are worth a post all to themselves. Caroline’s trial-lawyer father Calvin’s donations to Harry Reid in the current cycle, for example, would call into question the “centrism” of their political leanings; the outlays are reminiscent of the New Orleans fundraiser for Reid Mary Landrieu had planned in December – just after the infamous Louisiana Purchase on Obamacare - before public outcry forced its cancellation.

The point is that Fayard ought to represent the absolute worst candidate for conservatives to see on the ballot – she’s a trial lawyer, spawned by trial lawyers, who has been throwing money at lefty politicians practically since before she could drive. She’s also a former Clinton intern – and made enough of an impression that the former president came down to do a fundraiser for her this year, a Goldman Sachs apparatchik and a clerk for Federal Judge Stan Duval, who is perhaps best known for his injunction stopping Louisiana from issuing “Choose Life” license plates in 2000 (before Fayard clerked for him) and in so doing throwing the issuance of all personalized plates involving sports teams and schools, etc., in the bargain. That idiotic decision was overturned by the Fifth Circuit.

Regardless of what you might think of Dardenne, if you’re a conservative Fayard ought to give you the creeps. That’s a political career which needs to be strangled in its well-appointed crib before it results in terrible effects for the state; we can’t afford another Mary Landrieu or Kathleen Blanco in the Lieutenant Governor’s office.

And statements like the one Griffon made this morning make it clear that personal pique with Dardenne’s “unreliable” voting record is more important to him than the strategic failure turning the No. 2 office in state government over to a left-wing Democrat would be. This kind of idiocy shouldn’t go unchallenged.

“Under no circumstances will I vote for Jay Dardenne for Lt. Governor,” Griffon, as quoted by the Dead Pelican, said. “I can’t look in the mirror if I vote for Jay Dardenne… We’ve got to get rid of the RINO’s in the Republican party!”

Griffon is perfectly welcome to stay home on Nov. 2, then.

Because while it’s a perfectly satisfactory sentiment for conservatives to seek to purify the Republican Party, if you haven’t accomplished that by the time the general election rolls around it’s too late.

Conservatives, if in fact Dardenne wasn’t an acceptable standard-bearer, should have galvanized around another candidate. There were options; Sammy Kershaw cast himself in a conservative light but for a few ideas he offered which sounded like public projects, Roger Villere ran a campaign based almost solely on the concept that he was a conservative alternative to Dardenne, Kevin Davis called himself a conservative though few believed him outside of St. Tammany and Jefferson Parishes and even Melanie McKnight sounded conservative notes. Combined, their vote was larger than Dardenne’s.

Let’s not forget that Dardenne garnered a lot of conservative vote as well, because while his record in the state legislature might have been mixed from an ideological standpoint Dardenne has contributed to the movement in other ways. John Robert Butler’s piece last week about his work to purge the voter rolls after Katrina, for example, is a must read – Dardenne helped to restore the integrity of the electorate and changed Louisiana politics in unmistakable ways, and he did it in a professional way without causing the kind of hue and cry one would expect from the Professional Left. It’s the kind of thing a competent, non-corrupt public official can accomplish, and that should have value to conservatives in and of itself.

But more than that, while a “RINO moderate” may be a maddening politician to have to support, the fact that he’s moderate means he can be influenced. The attitude that purging the party of moderates is a smart thing to do is misguided; the aim of such a sentiment is more properly described as insisting upon a set of principles to guide the actions of those the Republican Party elects. And such guidance doesn’t come just on Election Day, as Griffon seems to forget. If he wants conservative governance – and it’s unclear exactly how that would manifest itself out of the Lieutenant Governor, anyway – then he needs to stay in constant contact with those who need pressuring to provide it. Pulling a lever every four years is hardly sufficient to preserve the quality of our government.

The choice for Lieutenant Governor is quite clear. Whatever Dardenne’s ideological failings, he’s still a right-of-center or, at worst, a centrist candidate. And he’s in a runoff with the farthest-left candidate to have entered the race in Caroline Fayard.

Fayard is now running around with the line that she’s a John Breaux centrist or a Blue Dog Democrat, and maybe she is. Charlie Melancon calls himself that, and he votes with Nancy Pelosi 84 percent of the time.

So, who does a Blue Dog Democrat associate herself with? Well, one way to gauge that is to research candidates said Blue Dog donates money to. And in Fayard’s case, we don’t see a lot of centrism. From OpenSecrets.org:

Fayard also donated $1,500 to GOP congressman Richard Baker in 1993, when she was 15 years old. She was 16 when she threw $1,000 at Cleo Field’s 1994 congressional campaign. Amazing political involvement for a high school kid; you wouldn’t think that money actually came from her trial-lawyer father Calvin Fayard, would you?

But wait. There are a bunch of donations from a “Cathryn Fayard” which appear to be the same person…

There are a few GOP donations in there, but centrists generally don’t give money to Dollar Bill Jefferson and John Kerry.

The Fayard family’s political donations are worth a post all to themselves. Caroline’s trial-lawyer father Calvin’s donations to Harry Reid in the current cycle, for example, would call into question the “centrism” of their political leanings; the outlays are reminiscent of the New Orleans fundraiser for Reid Mary Landrieu had planned in December – just after the infamous Louisiana Purchase on Obamacare - before public outcry forced its cancellation.

The point is that Fayard ought to represent the absolute worst candidate for conservatives to see on the ballot – she’s a trial lawyer, spawned by trial lawyers, who has been throwing money at lefty politicians practically since before she could drive. She’s also a former Clinton intern – and made enough of an impression that the former president came down to do a fundraiser for her this year, a Goldman Sachs apparatchik and a clerk for Federal Judge Stan Duval, who is perhaps best known for his injunction stopping Louisiana from issuing “Choose Life” license plates in 2000 (before Fayard clerked for him) and in so doing throwing the issuance of all personalized plates involving sports teams and schools, etc., in the bargain. That idiotic decision was overturned by the Fifth Circuit.

Regardless of what you might think of Dardenne, if you’re a conservative Fayard ought to give you the creeps. That’s a political career which needs to be strangled in its well-appointed crib before it results in terrible effects for the state; we can’t afford another Mary Landrieu or Kathleen Blanco in the Lieutenant Governor’s office.

And statements like the one Griffon made this morning make it clear that personal pique with Dardenne’s “unreliable” voting record is more important to him than the strategic failure turning the No. 2 office in state government over to a left-wing Democrat would be. This kind of idiocy shouldn’t go unchallenged.

Gibbs wasn’t sparing in his criticism of Landrieu’s hold, which she put in place as a protest of the administration’s continuing decision to impose an offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. That decision has cost, by the administration’s estimates, between 8,000 and 12,000 jobs to date, mostly in Louisiana, with the real numbers probably far larger – as in at least 19,000 jobs – according to a study by LSU economist Joe Mason.

In a letter to Senate majority leader Harry Reid last week, Landrieu explained her hold. 

“Although Mr. Lew clearly possesses the expertise necessary to serve as one of the President’s most important economic advisors, I found that he lacked sufficient concern for the host of economic challenges confronting the Gulf Coast.”

“The fact that the most acute of these economic challenges, the moratorium, results from a direct (and reversible) federal action only serves to harden my stance on Mr. Lew’s nomination,” the letter continued. “I cannot support further action on Mr. Lew’s nomination to be a key economic advisor to the President until I am convinced that the President and his Administration understand the detrimental impacts that the actual and de facto moratoria continue to have on the Gulf Coast.”

According to Gibbs, it’s a ”sad day” when someone is held up when they have received bipartisan support in both the Senate Budget and Homeland Security panels. 

He added, “I think it is sad, and I think it’s outrageous” that Landrieu is holding up Jacob Lew’s nomination to be head of the White House Office of Management and Budget “for something that is completely unrelated to him.”

Landrieu doesn’t think it’s unrelated. Through a spokesman, she said she ”absolutely believes that the moratorium and nomination of a key economic adviser are related.”

She even quoted the book of Exodus earlier this week in discussing the moratorium. “Let my people go. Let them go. Let them get back to work and hopefully it’s helping,” she said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, continued predictions of the moratorium being lifted float across the transom, though Interior Secretary Ken Salazar – who reportedly has been rebuffed twice in suggestions that the moratorium by lifted by White House climate/energy tsarina Carol Browner – came out with a rather officious and obnoxious-sounding statement yesterday that “We will lift the moratorium when I, as secretary of Interior, am comfortable that we have significantly reduced those risks.”

Salazar promulgated new offshore drilling rules yesterday without announcing either a lifting of the moratorium or a new timetable as to when it will be lifted, prompting local business leaders to predict the deepwater moratorium is likely to go the way of shallow-water drilling – namely, the administration denying there is a moratorium in place but demanding nearly-impossible-to-fulfill conditions in order to approve a drilling permit. Only four shallow-water permits have been approved by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in late April.

Meanwhile, five deepwater rigs have left the Gulf of Mexico for foreign waters. Eight more are currently negotiating contracts to drill elsewhere and could leave at any time. It’s been estimated that each offshore rig accounts directly for as many as 1,500 jobs, not counting ancillary economic effects.

One wonders, in light of those deleterious economic effects to Landrieu’s state based on administration decisions short on legality and economic basis, why the response to her attempts to get their attention would be insults. It’s yet one more example of the juvenile and unqualified nature of the Obama administration. The nation will have a chance to express its opinion Nov. 2.