We had a lot of fun last month beating on state representative Cedric Glover, the Shreveport Democrat, for an uncommonly stupid bill he brought seeking to bar Louisiana public universities like LSU and UL-Lafayette from licensing beer brands in partnership with local breweries…

We want LSU, ULL and the other public universities in the state to find more ways of earning revenue that don’t involve the general fund, and licensing brands of beer which would probably exist regardless of their partnerships with the brewer – Tin Roof Brewery would likely be brewing that lager whether LSU was involved or not; they might just call it something else – is a smart way to do that. Cedric Glover, who never graduated from college – his bio says he had “brief” stays at Grambling and at LSU – and has meager experience in business at best but lots of experience as a politician, wouldn’t know a damn thing about marshaling resources to earn business revenue. And what he knows about health, as morbidly obese as he is, would easily fit in a beer bottle. We’d all be better off if he’d just shut his mouth on this and lots of other subjects and not attempt to govern the daily lives of LSU, ULL or the state’s beer drinkers.

And we weren’t alone, as U.S. Sen. John Kennedy also had his way with Glover in a statement after the bill entered the public eye…

“I am disappointed by state Rep. Cedric Glover’s efforts to end licensing agreements that LSU and ULL have made in order to mitigate years of state budget cuts. Our universities are doing everything they can to survive while the state diverts more and more money each year to fund the Medicaid program and to pay for consultants. Not only is Rep. Glover trying to stifle marketing strategies that are turning a profit, he’s begging for the NCAA to slap sanctions against us by suggesting that college athletes should receive financial compensation that clearly violates the rules. It’s clear to me that Rep. Glover needs to channel his energy toward funding our colleges and fully funding TOPS. In short, he needs to help the state stop spending more than it takes in instead of trying to financially cripple our great higher education institutions even more than they already have been. I support the efforts by President Alexander and President Savoie to use scarce taxpayer resources as efficiently as possible and bring in extra money for our kids.”

If you take from the above that Glover was facing some rather angry headwinds on his bill, today your suspicions have proven valid. Cedric Glover isn’t trying to ban beer branding in the state of Louisiana anymore; not after the House Education Committee chewed him up awhile…

Recognizing that he faced overwhelming opposition for his bill to ban universities from branding beer, Rep. Cedric Glover withdrew the measure before the Louisiana House Education committee could vote Thursday. Glover surrounded himself with signs displaying possible products, such as “Big Mike’s Purple & Wild Cigars,” to underscore his point that public universities don’t have any restrictions on how they contract their reputation for money. House Bill 610 would ban public universities from licensing “official” alcoholic beverages. His House Bill 610 also would forbid LSU and UL-Lafayette from renewing the contracts with local brewers when they expire. … Committee members applauded in appreciation of his presentation when he withdrew HB610 from consideration.

When they cheer you for surrendering, you probably shouldn’t have brought the fight.

The one thing which is good about a fiscal session like the one Louisiana’s legislature is in the middle of is that legislators are limited to five non-fiscal bills they can bring in that session. That limit has marvelous properties in holding to a minimum stupid bills like the one Glover withdrew today.

We wish there was a similar limit in every session so as to reduce the chances of passing dopey legislation like this. One idea we like is to require every single law on the books to have a 7-10 year sunset, if not shorter, so the legislators have to spend so much time reviewing stuff already on the books to evaluate whether to renew it that there’s no time left to add frivolous new items.