We ain't stupid

Everyone in administrative positions in Louisiana state government has a boss.   It is hard for me to conceptualize that since 2008 when Mike Edmonson was appointed head of the Louisiana State Police, by Governor Bobby Jindal, no one ever heard any rumors or complaints about Edmonson’s questionable, unethical behavior.   The powers to be want us to believe that they were so well hidden that even John Bel Edwards had no knowledge of them when he chose to let Edmonson continue his reign.  How dumb does the Baton Rouge crew think we are?

 

This entire new fiasco smacks of the same type of behavior that was permitted to occur with our former head of the Angola Prison System, Mr. Burl Cain.  Again, hard to believe that Cain’s boss, James Leblanc,  head of the Louisiana Department  of Public Safety and Corrections, had no knowledge of his questionable abuse of taxpayers’ resources.   LeBlanc still remains in his job thanks again to our present governor.

The reality for the existence of these poor excuses for public servants is that they were just part of the ‘good ole boys’ culture, an informal system of friendships and connections through which men use their positions of influence by providing favors and information to help other men.  This is simply the way it is in our state government.

It is apparent that both these public servants were “nice guys” who would do a favor for you if you asked and expected only that you reward them by staying out of the day-to-day operation of their departments.   In other words, don’t hold them accountable for the way they did things as long as they fulfilled the tangible goals expected of them.

I suspect that after all the investigations are completed, Edmonson, like Cain will be permitted to quietly draw his lucrative state sponsored pension for the remainder of his life and all this mess will just fade away.  Isn’t that how it always works in Louisiana?  After all we don’t have the national reputation as being one of the most corrupt states for nothing.  Huey Long would be proud of our Baton Rouge crew.

In a just world, both these individuals should receive a court date along with the termination of their bosses, who either knew about the improprieties and ignored them, or didn’t have a clue and should have.