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Luckiest governor alive
 Bobby Jindal is a lucky man.
He's got no competition to speak of with qualifying for this fall's elections just a few weeks away, and his gubernatorial re-election campaign is flush with cash – more than $9 million on hand. That's sufficient funding in Louisiana to drop kick any candidate's hind side on any given day.
Meanwhile, word is out that the noted polling firm of Anzalone-Liszt has been gauging Jindal's vulnerability in a match-up with Sen. Rob Marionneaux, an ethically challenged Democrat from Maringouin who cannot seek re-election because of term limits.
You may remember Anzalone-Liszt. That's the same polling firm that told us just weeks before election day last fall that then-Congressman Charlie Melancon was within striking distance of unseating Sen. David Vitter. Vitter, an ultra-conservative Republican, was re-elected with 56 percent of the vote while Melancon, a so-called moderate Democrat, pulled a measly 37 percent. It was a butt whipping of the finest order.
Anzalone-Liszt makes its living polling for Democrats. The firm also could be accused of "cooking" polling results from time to time in an effort to give a Democrat client a leg up in raising money to mount a campaign. After all, it's far easier for a candidate to raise money if he or she is in possession of a poll that shows a race is winnable.
That said, it shouldn't come as a surprise if the state Democrat Party or Marionneaux or someone else trots out a poll saying Jindal could be beaten under a certain set of circumstances. Bear in mind that any elected official can be beaten if the stars align just right.
While we eagerly await for Anzalone-Liszt or someone else to release the findings of its latest sampling of the mood of the electorate in Louisiana, Jindal should consider adding the American Civil Liberties Union to his Christmas card mailing list. While he's at it, he should add the NAACP and the U.S. Justice Department to the list, too.
Why?
Because the ACLU, in its infinite wisdom, filed a lawsuit against the state this week over a new law that prohibits convicted sex offenders from perusing social networking Web sites. The ACLU says the law infringes upon a sex offender's First Amendment rights.
I don't know of anyone who cares for his or her civil liberties to be infringed upon, but I suspect the average man or woman on the street supports any law that thwarts a predator from going online to hunt for his or her next victim.
The ACLU probably doesn't realize it, but it handed Jindal a red-hot issue to discuss on the campaign trail that's certain to strike a nerve among the fairly conservative people of Louisiana. Think about it. How many people do we know are in favor of turning a convicted sex offender loose online to interact with our young people? If we do know someone who sides with the ACLU on the sex offender issue, chances are that individual wasn't a Jindal supporter in the first place.
And earlier this month, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state over its efforts to register minority and low-income people to vote. Justice and the NAACP say state employees with the Department of Health and Hospitals and the Department of Social Services violated federal law because state employees, for the lack of a better description, didn't go the extra mile to register minorities and poor people to vote when they visited with DHH and DSS employees. In other words, when minorities and poor people sought government assistance for one reason or another, state employees should have twisted their arms and forced them to register.
Be that as it may, do you think Jindal will get any mileage out of talking about the NAACP's and the Obama Justice Department's latest maneuver to register as many minorities and poor people as possible in the run up to the 2012 presidential race? Think about that one, too.
And now you know why Jindal is one of the luckiest governors to ever run for re-election in Louisiana.
He may be the luckiest governor alive in America today.
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