Endorsements and party loyalty

If endorsements do not mean anything, then politicians need to stop making them. For example, the Republican (he "changed" to the Democratic Party two days before his first election, and has governed totally as a Republican--he is a fake if ever there was one) mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, endorsed Bobby Jindal for governor of Louisiana. Jindal is a slick, fast-talking former Bush administration bureaucrat who also happens to be an extreme right-wing nutcase.

During the gubernatorial election, Jindal made it clear that he wanted prayer of every fashion in schools and he wanted the Ten Commandments stuck everywhere imaginable, including, probably, my front yard. He is "pro-family," and also campaigned as being against abortion in all circumstances, including rape, incest, and to save the health or life of the mother.

So Nagin endorsed him. And I'm sure he endorsed him because of his bureaucratic skills, but that does not erase the fact that Jindal promotes an extreme right-wing agenda. The very good mayor of the town on whose outskirts I live endorsed Jindal, and our very effective parish president endorsed him, too. I appreciate the good work that both of these local Republican leaders have done, especially post-Katrina, but it does not remove the moral stain they now carry for endorsing someone who would rather see a woman die than permit any abortions to take place, and who seeks to destroy the U.S. Constitution.

As for Jindal--during the campaign, he talked about how happy he was that Baton Rouge was his home and how settled he was there with his pro-family family. When he lost the election, he promptly moved to a New Orleans suburb and was elected to Congress.