Kathleen Blanco or do we get what we deserve?

The Louisiana Governor is back in the news.

Some members of the governor's staff will return from the three-day holiday on Tuesday to newly renovated offices at the State Capitol.

Shortly after the two hurricanes, Gov. Kathleen Blanco decided to renovate some of her staff's offices. At the time of her decision, Blanco also was hinting at deep budget cuts to state programs and the possibility of laying off 20 percent of the state workforce.

The project cost $564,838.

The newly refurbished office space on the sixth floor of the State Capitol includes hookups and mounts for two flat screen televisions, Swedish granite countertops, walnut paneling and frosted laminated glass. The floor, which will not be accessible to the public, was redesigned to add three new offices, a conference room and file storage areas.

About 20 members of the governor's staff – who focus on constituent services, children's issues, women's policies and other functions – will work on the newly restored floor.

Concerned about the perception of fixing up their office space while slashing others' spending, Jimmy Clarke, Blanco's chief of staff, said Friday the governor's top aides considered not fixing the 6th floor.

But the sixth floor project was bid six days before Hurricane Katrina came ashore near Buras on Aug. 29. Clarke said he became concerned that the state could be sued successfully if the restoration project were shut down.

"We certainly would not have initiated this work post-Katrina and Rita," Clarke said. "Given all that the state faces at this time, these renovations would be a very low priority."

The floor had not been improved since the early 1980s and the space needed to be upgraded to meet safety codes, Clarke said.

Restoration work began on the sixth floor Oct. 10, two weeks after Hurricane Rita struck Cameron on Sept. 24.

The week before work began, Blanco ordered a spending and hiring freeze to rein in state government expenses.

Three days after crews started tearing out the old offices, the administration announced that the state's budget would be about $1 billion short because of damages caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That day, Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc told a legislative finance committee that the budgets supplying money for public health care and education would need cuts of 20 percent or more and that more than 18,000 state employees would have to be laid off.

Blanco is corrupt, hypocritical and a Knucklehead.(I was planning to give her the award today, but a worse group of knuckleheads came along) No question about it. Among those blogging about the latest stupidity coming out of Baton Rogue are Michelle Malkin, A Blog for All and Don Singleton.

You know something? There are more governors like this around the country. In the last year I've given Knucklehead awards to the Governors of Florida, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Kentucky and New Mexico.

Jeb Bush is apathetic
Ernie Fletcher is corrupt
Bill Richardson is a basket case
Bob Riley has no sense of priorities
Ed Rendell doesn't have a spine.

Plus there is Blanco. Corzine in New Jersey started breaking campaign promises before getting in office, Lingle in Hawaii supports legislation that could lead to the state's sucession and Taft in Ohio pled no contest to charges filed against him.

That's at least nine governors who are disgraces to the people they represent. That's five Republicans and four Democrats. So its both parties. We the voters put these people in office. We keep re-electing these fools.

So who are the Knuckleheads? The governors or the voting public?

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