To get what I want later I will let you line your pockets.

[Rex_Goodheart]

That's precisely equivalent to what Louisiana's Republican Governor Bobby Jindal has told the State Legislature, and the citizenry here is furious.

Earlier this week, the State Senate voted to raise Legislators' pay from $16,000 to $50,000 per year. On top of that they also get $143 per diem. Louisiana's pay for state legislators is currently the 9th lowest, but ahead of most of its Southern neighbors. The pay raise would move Louisiana to the 9th highest in the country, i.e. ahead of many states with better student achievement, literacy, per capita income, etc. Also, the bill would automatically raise Legislature pay whenever the US Congress gets a raise.

The bill has to pass in a House vote tomorrow, after which Jindal can veto it, sign it, or let it sit without a signature for 30 days then it automatically becomes law.

A few months ago Bobby Jindal won office on an anti-corruption platform, and almost immediately he passed some pretty significant ethics reforms through the Legislature. Now he is saying he is "strongly opposed" to the pay raise but will not veto it, because he doesn't wish to let the issue to stand in the way of any reforms he would like to have passed in the future. What kind of slimy philosophy is THAT, except the type I spelled out in the title of this post? I'll tell you what kind: the kind that has ruled Louisiana politics for many moons, and the kind that people here have gotten quite sick of.

Also, when we're out begging money from the rest of the country for Katrina/Rita recovery and to save our precious coast our politicians are going to give themselves raises? Mind you, more Democrats than Republicans voted for this crap.

Louisianians deserve better than our current crop of Legislators, both Dems and Republicans. I'm PISSED.