Our Views: The endless campaign
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Only the good Lord knows what the motivations of worshippers really are.
But when Gov. Bobby Jindal saddles up the state helicopter for church services across the state, it looks like politicking at taxpayers’ expense.
In May, June and July, there was rarely a Sunday when Jindal didn’t board a taxpayer-funded helicopter to attend church services in far-flung parts of the state. He traveled by helicopter to churches less frequently in March and April, according to State Police records and the Governor’s Office.
He worshipped in Hornbeck, Many, Logansport, Angie, Elizabeth, Harrisonburg, Columbia, Winnsboro, Coushatta, Robeline and Anacoco.
The political overtones of these destinations — and others — cannot be denied by Jindal or his admirers. The governor lost these areas in his unsuccessful bid in 2003. In 2007, he won them — after a whirlwind courtship heavy on church visits and evangelical speeches in Protestant churches.
The governor, the Catholic son of Indian immigrants, reached out to voters who had been uncomfortable with his ethnicity and conservative pedigree in his first bid for statewide office.
Smart politics. But it’s not governance. And as governor, the permanent campaigning in this fashion hasn’t stopped.
Sure, there might be add-ons to these trips. Local officials are always glad to see the governor, or show him their proposed drainage project in hopes that some money from Baton Rouge might come, like manna, someday.
But the governor cannot deny the fundamentally political nature of these visits. He can go to church a lot closer to home; his own diocese’s cathedral is within walking distance from the Governor’s Mansion.
Ostentatious political piety is as old as the Republic. Jindal is not the first offender, nor will he be the last.
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