Quick Note: Bobby Jindal, Champion of Free Speech--Unless You Disagree With Him

Remember last December when Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) defended Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson and his bigoted GQ tirade?  When A&E temporarily suspended Mr. Robertson, Mr. Jindal jumped to his defense calling the network's actions a violation of the First Amendment.  "The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with.  This is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views."

Now skip forward to the current month.  MoveOn, a liberal political advocacy organization, has recently put up billboards in Louisiana that mimic that state's "Pick your passion" tourism slogan.  A billboard in Baton Rouge reads "Louisiana!  Pick your passion!  But hope your don't love your health.  Gov. Jindal is denying Medicaid to 242,000 people."

Mr. Jindal, who has, in fact, refused to expand Medicaid to the poor in his state, (and who do, also in fact, total approximately 242,000), is fighting to have those billboards taken down. 

As one pundit put it, "As the Jindal administration sees it, when a television network suspends an employee, it's an outrageous First Amendment violation, but when the government tries to restrict political speech on a billboard, that's fine."

 "This is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views" must mean something different in Louisiana.