The Hypocritical Jindal

Last night my friend in New Orleans called me up saying that Bobby Jindal was on the local television station, WDSU, discussing the indicted William Jefferson and apparently being two-faced as usual (more here). Jindal stated that he voted for the investigations and would vote to remove Jefferson if the Ethics committee made that recommendation. That’s fine, I have no problem with that. I want the corrupt congressmen out of there as much as the next guy. The problem I have with this statement is that Jindal is a hypocrite who wants relaxed ethical standards for his own party.

When Jindal was elected into Congress, one of his first votes was to relax and weaken the House ethics standard. Why did he do this? The leader of his party, the crooked Tom Delay, was under investigation and Delay fell so far short of the ethical standard that it was laughable. You may remember that Delay was charged with criminally conspiring with two political associates to inject illegal corporate contributions into 2002 state elections, in order to gerrymander the state and give himself more power in Congress. So when Tom Delay asks Jindal to weaken ethics standards, Jindal said yes. This is exactly the wrong kind of man we need in the governor’s office.

If Jindal intends to improve ethics in Baton Rouge when he’s governor, he needs to hold everyone to a higher standard, including himself and people like Tom Delay, and not just the Democrats. Improving ethics begins at home, Mr. Jindal, and you need to hold yourself and your party to the same standard as you do Democrats.