Unsung hero in LA

Bobby Jindal gets inaugurated as governor of Louisiana today. If you don't know who he is, don't worry; neither does anyone outside Louisiana.
"The Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants, Jindal leaves a U.S. House seat to become governor. He won the gubernatorial post outright in the October primary, getting 54 percent of the vote in a field of a dozen candidates."
According to the Daily Advertiser of Lafayette: "Jindal has proved himself in the arena of government service. We first took notice of him in 1996, when he was appointed secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. That put him in charge of 12,000 employees and a $4 billion budget - in his first government job. He inherited a $400 million budget deficit and, in a relatively short period of time, turned it into a $220 million budget surplus. In 1998, he was appointed executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the future of Medicare. He returned to state government in 1999, accepting the post of president of the University of Louisiana system. In 2001, he was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That made him the top policy adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. His experience has undoubtedly prepared him to deal with Louisiana’s many health-care problems. Serving as president of the University of Louisiana system prepared him to deal with education issues."

Rico says good luck to Mr. Jindal. Given the aftermath of Katrina, he'll need it...