The Times Picayune of 2/26 carried an article concerning Normand's speech before the Metropolitan Crime Commission's reward luncheon on Tuesday. Normand in his speech was not kind to himself for endorsing and supporting the former governor and said, " I'm a republican but I'm not a hypocrite. We did this to ourselves, myself included, because I endorsed that idiot. We drank the elixir for eight years, went to the edge of the cliff and we jumped off and he watched us."
The sheriff also accused Jindal of trying to rewrite history since leaving office and had some unkind words for Grover Norquist and his anti-tax policies and said to hell with him. Normand admonished the republican leadership in the state for trying to blame governor John Bel Edwards as absolutely incredulous to me.
Normand who is an elected official is very familiar with politics. As sheriff he is the official tax collector in Jefferson Parish so he knows a little bit about money. His courage to stand up and be counted is rare for public officials and deserves credit. But it begs to ask how the state's budget problem and the way it was handled for 8 years took so long for Normand to come to the conclusion he expressed in the article.
Hopefully, other republicans in the state will take a cue from sheriff Normand and express to the republicans in the legislature to work with governor Edwards to over come this fiscal problem and put Louisiana's budget back on track that reflects reality and a long term solution. The state and its people deserve nothing less.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
