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Katrina's Last Victim?

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, announced this week she will sign a ban on abortion as soon as it reaches her desk. The law makes no exception for rape or incest, which Ms. Blanco had previously said was a requirement for her support.

Planned Parenthood responded with a pro-forma denunciation but don't expect much more from abortion rights activists. The ban --- which has already passed the state legislature -- is designed kick in only if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Even with John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Court, conservatives are at least one vote shy of overturning Roe and nobody expects such a ruling anytime soon. Meanwhile, Ms. Blanco finds herself in the political fight of her life and needs all the help she can get to win re-election next year.

Three years ago she won a hard-fought election against Bobby Jindal, a youngish Indian-American from the conservative wing of the GOP, by arguing pointedly that she had the "experience" necessary to run a state government. After Hurricane Katrina, the competence argument is backfiring on her. She failed to respond quickly to the flood waters in New Orleans, wasn't effective in stemming the looting that followed, and hasn't been forceful enough to keep recovery aid from becoming bogged down for months in fights with other elected officials. Her response has been especially hobbled by her decision to push federal aid through the state legislature. Now the state is sitting on a pot of some $6 billion even while citizens hit hard by the storm need the money. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, avoided that problem by bypassing his legislature and steering relief directly into the hands of those struggling to rebuild from the hurricane.

Last month New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a Democrat, managed to win re-election despite his dubious performance during the disaster and despite tens of thousands of his voters scattered in other states. But Ms. Blanco must now face a stark reality: She might not be as fortunate as Mr. Nagin. Her poll numbers are dismally low, there's wide speculation in the media that she won't even seek re-election, and recent estimates calculate that the state may have lost as many as 400,000 residents thanks to Katrina and the slow pace of rebuilding. All this puts Mr. Jindal -- who was elected to Congress in 2004 and has been a leader on rebuilding issues -- in a prime position to win the governor's office if he chooses to run again next year. And it doesn't hurt that his own home was badly damaged in the Katrina floodwaters too.

-- Brendan Miniter

Another unprincipled politician who thinks the abortion issue is the key to electoral success.

Ralph wrote:Another unprincipled politician who thinks the abortion issue is the key to electoral success.

Just following the numbers: something like 80% approve of some limits on abotion, but it's a dumb move because only about 20-30% approve this kind of ban.

She is sooooooooooooo going to lose to Bobby Jindal and I can't wait. A little known secret: Ray Nagin and Bobby Jindal are close political allies. Some speculated after Katrina that the reason why Blanco was so slow to respond to Nagin's obviously collateral incompetence was because he endorsed Jindal in the governor's race.

Bobby Jindal is from "the conservative wing of the Republican Party," eh?
What do they call the other wing? The Vlad the Impaler Wing?

RebLem wrote:Bobby Jindal is from "the conservative wing of the Republican Party," eh?
What do they call the other wing? The Vlad the Impaler Wing?

The Low Tax "Leave Us Alone" Coalition. That's the wing I'm in.

George H.W. Bush was what used to be called a liberal Republican (like Lowell Weicker, the senator from Connecticut) before Ronald Wilson (ugh) Reagan became the touchstone for the impossibility of such. He at one time advocated abortion rights. At some point along the line, he decided that he would rather be President than be right. Or to paraphrase a famous French king, Paris vaut bien le valeur des femmes.

jbuck919 wrote: At some point along the line, he decided that he would rather be President than be right.

He never put any political captial on it, just like he was quite happy to have gays on his payroll. Reagan cared about 3 things: small government (which precluded serious attempts to use the federal government for the culture wars that some supporters were fighting), low taxes, and crushing the Soviet Union without using nuclear weapons to do it. He remained true to those goals and wasn't distracted by fights on the margins.