Let’s give our new governor a chance

Gov. Bobby Jindal has taken it upon himself to address the issue of ethics first and try to make Louisiana a state in which government does what it is supposed to do and the people who work in it do not take advantage of their positions to the detriment of the public.

He is determined to do it before he proceeds with the rest of his program.

We applaud him for this. It is very much needed. But there are some who have tried to detract from his efforts by pointing out instances in which some members of his administration, and even himself, have not followed good ethical practices.

We certainly do not exempt the governor from criticism of anything he may do wrong. But we are enthused with his efforts so far and want him to continue in his work to improve the ethics of our state government.

We urge the legislature to ignore any sidebars that may detract them from adopting meaningful ethics reform laws. We need it.

After they do their job, the forces that be will have plenty of time to determine if there have been any violation of ethics laws. And it will not impede ethics reform.