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Heated seats. That’s certainly not a waste of taxpayers’ money; this is Louisiana, after all. It can sometimes get down to forty degrees in this state. Brrr! At least if Wooley becomes the latest Louisiana Insurance Commissioner to do time, his cellmate will appreciate him taking such good care of his ass.

Jim Brown, Sherman Bernard, Doug Green. The 3 previous insurance commissioners. All jailed.

Actually, they (heated seats) aren't as much of a frivolous item as you might think, even in Louisiana. On cold days, even if only the 40s, the truck heater can take a while to come up to temperature, particularly with a big diesel. If you spend a lot of time in the saddle, running the heater can make the cab really stuffy. Turning down the heater, and just using the heated seats, can make a long trip much more tolerable. Is the truck a bit excessive? Maybe, but no more than the limos that other high officials use. I don't know what the Insurance Commissioner's duties are, but I'd rather see him drop $40k on a truck, than $40k on a Lincoln (besides, with the condition Ford is in right now, he probably got a pretty screamin' deal on that truck). Also, if I had a Ford Exploder, I'd dump it too, even if it was an Eddie Bauer edition.

This issue is way overblown, and is just political and media cheap-shot garbage. The vehicle is part of his compensation package, part of his salary. If this were a CEO of a large corporation with a $28M budget, no one would bat an eyelash.

Wooley is at least trying to turn the Louisiana Insurance Department around and get it headed in a positive direction. He travels all over the country practically begging insurance companies to come here and do business. Right now, its almost impossible to get decent homeowners insurance at any kind of affordable premium if you live south of I-10, and we have entire sections of the state where they will not cover you at all.

After the three former Insurance Commissioners went to jail, nobody wanted that job -- nobody. I'm sorry, but Louisiana needs to get some decent, intelligent people in positions of authority in government, unlike the usual good ol' boys that have been screwing us for years. If part of the incentive to get people like that into office is that we have to throw a $40K truck in with their salary, I am fine with that.

Louisiana needs to worry more about the state senators caught on FBI tape taking paper bags full of cash from scumbags to get inside deals. We need to worry about the millions of dollars we are pissing down the drain on the New Orleans Saints for no discernible reason. We need to worry about the district attorneys who come into office and fire everyone who is not the same color as they are and then replace them with people of their own color.