Bobby Jindal, Conservative Fail

by Michael Jones · 2009-09-04 19:18:00 UTC
Topics:

Bobby Jindal

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal certainly likes to pretend that he's an economic conservative.  Earlier this year, Gov. Jindal gave the official response from the GOP to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, and criticized wasteful government spending.  Huh...for someone who criticizes wasting taxpayer money, why has he spent upwards of $45,000 in taxpayer money for helicopter rides to attend various churches in Louisiana?

That's a story that the Advocate paper in Louisiana broke this week.  According to the paper, "In May, June and July, there was rarely a Sunday when the governor didn’t board a taxpayer-funded helicopter to attend church services in far-flung parts of the state."  Going back the last five months, Jindal has taken roughly 36 helicopter rides at the expense of taxpayers.  Fourteen of these trips were to visit conservative religious churches. Should the state of Louisiana be in the business of providing helicopter rides for their governor, so that he can attend Church?

A progressive religious organization known as the Interfaith Alliance called Gov. Jindal out on his massive hypocrisy.  The Interfaith Alliance's Preisdent. Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, said that Gov. Jindal ought to pay the state of Louisiana back the $45,000 in taxpayer funds that these helicpoter rides have rung up for Louisiana voters.  Bobby Jindal's response to the Interfaith Alliance?  "Don't listen to them!  They're a bunch of gay-friendly heathens!" Well, not quite.  But pretty damn close.  Here's the official response from Gov. Jindal:

This political group opposes putting crosses up in honor of fallen policemen, has attacked the National Day of Prayer and advocates for same-sex marriage, so it's not surprising that they are attacking the governor for accepting invitations to speak at Louisiana churches.

The fact that the Interfaith Alliance advocates for same-sex marriage has nothing to do with why the organization called Gov. Jindal out on his evil spending ways.  The reason Gov. Jindal got called out is because (1) he's a big huge hypocrit who rails on liberal Democrats for wasting taxpayer money, only to throw more than $45,000 down the drain traveling to church, and (2) because voters shouldn't be funding their political leaders' rides to Mass every Sunday.

Looks like there might be another Gov. Mark Sanford on our hands.  Although instead of it being a conservative who blabs on and on about family values while cheating on his wife, it's a conservative who blabs on and on about wasteful spending, only to go and waste tens of thousands of dollars.  That's a fail, Gov. Bobby Jindal, and you deserve to be called out on it.

(Photo courtesy of dsb nola's photostream on Flickr.)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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