The dirty secret of Katrina — not really a secret, but mostly ignored by the anti-Bush media — is one of corrupt/incompetent government, both state and city. 

Last fall, Louisiana voters had enough and elected Republican Bobby Jindal governor.

The contrast between Barack Obama and Bobby Jindal could not be more stark. On the campaign trail this year, Obama serves up messages of hope and change. Last year, running for Governor of Louisiana, Jindal did the same. But Obama’s hope and change consists of platitudes. Jindal’s hope and change was premised on detailed plans and policy roadmaps to move people forward, get Louisiana on the road to recovery, and end the boom-bust economic cycles. Entering his fourth month in office, Jindal’s change has already proved to be change we can believe in.

Governor Jindal is a master of new media. To demonstrate the point, I was among a number of bloggers invited to dinner at the Governor’s Mansion last week for a mostly off the record chat. As we sat around the table, Jindal shared some of his ideas and his vision for Louisiana. To hear Jindal talk, you appreciate how rare a breed of politician he is – a policy wonk who can relate the policies to people’s pocketbooks.

“We did a survey of business leaders before entering office and found that the top three issues for them were ethics, taxes, and workforce. That helped us build our agenda,” the Governor said. Almost immediately after his swearing in, Jindal called a special session of the Louisiana Legislature to push through an ethics reform package. Getting almost everything he wanted from the session, Louisiana went from being one of the bottom 5 states in the nation on government ethics to the top state in the nation, according to several public interest watch dog groups. (As amazing as it sounds, before this year there was no prohibition in Louisiana against state legislators doing business with the state, nor were there significant disclosure requirements for elected officials and lobbyists.)

Jindal related the story of a plant manager from north Louisiana who approached him on the campaign trail with a list of taxes his business paid in Louisiana that were paid no where else. The man reminded the governor that his plant, the largest employer in his parish, is in annual danger of closure. “He looked at me,” Governor Jindal said, “and he says, ‘Governor, because Louisiana taxes new equipment purchases, the newest equipment in my plant is older than the oldest equipment in any of my company’s other plants.’” As soon as the legislature concluded its special session on ethics reforms, Jindal called them right back into session to deal with this issue.