Maginnis: Cabinet position no place for Jindal

Unless Mitt Romney taps him as his running mate and wins, Gov. Bobby Jindal will still have the job he says he wants. The oft-touted alternative, that Jindal would accept a Cabinet post under a President Romney, doesn't fit his career trajectory. His having tasted supreme power probably spoils Jindal for working for someone else again. Also, doing so would divert him from seeking the job he really wants, eventually. Given the governor's background, the federal department he would seem fit to run is Health and Human Services, which has "dead-end" written all over it. Even with a GOP-controlled Senate, the messy ordeal of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act with something that works better, if at all, would be fraught with controversy and pitfalls that would cry out for a fall guy: namely, the secretary. Besides, as powerful and high-profile as a Cabinet position may be, what is the future in it? Who was the last Cabinet secretary to be elected president? Answer: Herbert Hoover—hardly the historical precedent Republicans would want for their next candidate. So if the Jindal family is not moving into the vice president's residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory early next year, the governor will be back at his current job, which will be messy enough. Read the full column here.

(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)

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