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Memo to Bobby Jindal: Dump Rush
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Ambitious young Gov. Jindal tried to stick it to Obama on TV tonight. But Paul Begala says to really make it in politics, he has to break with the kook right.
It wasn’t a fair fight. Watching Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s painful, sing-song response to President Barack Obama’s powerful and plain-spoken speech felt like watching an over-eager child trying to box Muhammad Ali. The kid was flailing wildly, while Ali just held the kid’s head at arm’s length, all the while smiling benignly. The kid’s arms whirled like windmills, but he never got close to connecting with the champ.
President Obama was confident and compelling; Gov. Jindal had all the saccharine sincerity of a Disney tour guide. Jindal reached his reductio ad absurdum when he suggested progressive and proactive Obama-led government could not be trusted to fix our economic problems because corrupt and incompetent Bush-led government had screwed up Katrina.
But if it is Pres. Bush who haunts Gov. Jindal’s past, it is Rush Limbaugh who haunts his future. One of the lesser-known laws of politics is that you can survive your enemies; it’s your friends who do you in.
So it is with Bobby Jindal. The governor of Louisiana has come a long way in a little time. A formidable politician, he wrested the governor’s mansion away from Bayou State Democrats. But can he survive the love of the right-wing Republicans—especially their leader, Rush Limbaugh?
If he wants to truly lead the GOP, he needs to take on and tame Rush Limbaugh. Bill Clinton publicly criticized his friend, Jesse Jackson, for giving a platform to Sister Souljah. Barack Obama denounced the bitter rant of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
As he eyes 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Rhodes Scholar has embraced the rockheads—pushing “intelligent design.”
Will Bobby Jindal have the cojones to take on Rush? Don’t bet on it.
Limbaugh extols Jindal the way a dog trainer praises a prized puppy, telling his Dittoheads this week, “When I interviewed Bobby Jindal for the Limbaugh Letter a year and a half ago or so I immediately thought I was talking to the elected version of the next Ronald Reagan, the closest thing we've got to an elected version of the next Ronald Reagan in the United States today.”
Rush is in love. Watch out, Bobby.
One sure sign Gov. Jindal is hungry for higher office is his willingness to sup at the table of the kook right. As a congressman, before he started taking marching orders from Rush Limbaugh, Jindal cosponsored a bill to extend unemployment compensation for Louisianans who’d lost their jobs after Hurricane Katrina; now as a governor and presidential wannabe, he opposes extending unemployment benefits for his citizens.
As a Catholic, Jindal is a member of a church that is comfortable with evolution. As the holder of an Ivy League degree in biology, Jindal must know that "intelligent design" is a religious tenet of creationists, not a valid scientific theory. (Indeed, a federal court has so ruled.) And yet as he eyes 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Rhodes Scholar has embraced the rockheads—signing legislation that paves the way for Louisiana school boards to teach “intelligent design.”
If Bobby Jindal wants to be seen as a serious person, it will not be enough for him to break with Barack Obama. He needs to break with Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the Flat Earth Society. Until he does, spare me the fawning.
Related: Bobby Jindal's Secret Past (By Max Blumenthal)
Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House.
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roger37
I disagree, Paul. "Bobby" Jindal will not stop at dumping Rush Limbaugh if it means he can get ahead. Down here in The Banana Republic, we have been listening to his motormouthed delivery of political opportunism for a couple of years, now.
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DonKrieger
Raise your voice during Governor Jindal's speech:
We have created a "live" poll on which you can register your moment by moment opinions as Governor Jindal speaks. There is a graphical display which is similar to that used by CNN in their focus group polling during the Presidential debates. The display is automatically updated every 10 seconds, so you get rapid feedback from everyone who is participating.
You can watch the speech on TV or online. And use the poll to register your opinions:
http://wethepeople.evendon.com/GovJindal_9pm.html
The poll will go "live" at 9:30 EST. Just let it run and "vote" on one or more of the questions whenever you wish. We hope everyone will use the poll and post to us with your feedback too:
akadonnew AT verizon DOT net
There is also a special poll which will be running for President Obama's speech It will go "live" at 8:50 PM. Here is the URL: http://wethepeople.evendon.com/PresObama_9pm.html
Don
http://wethepeople.evendon.com
Pittsburgh, PA
sophia5
If Rush Limbaugh is part of the "kook right"
what does that make Paul Begala?
The kook left?
Barbara416
Jindal and Steele--the lefts' "made in japan" version of the president. Look American, we can too! Pitiful. Jindal hasn't got an original thought and Steel is too cool for school. Oy vey. The right isn't fooling anyone.
smdunne
Jindal can't break with Rush Limbaugh or the Flat Earth Society until he has built a national following. Tonight's speech gives him an opportunity to start building that and it's a shrewd move by the Republicans. With the election of Michael Steele as the GOP Chair, the party is retooling it's national image surprisingly quickly. Dems should pay close attention.
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Liberty4all
Begala makes no relevant point here... sounds like a KOOKEY leftist taking jabs at equally ignorant rightys
boatscain2003
Very well put, Paul. I have trouble believing that anyone listens to Rush Limbaugh in the first place but someone with the wit that Gov. Jindal has should have nothing to do with a numbskull like Limbaugh. I also think he shouldn't refuse the stimulus package that will be offered to the state of Louisiana. Goodness knows that one of our nation's poorest states that also happens to be a hurricane magnet could use some relief and work on their infrastructure. But then again if he did that, Rush Limbaugh would turn on him and we're stuck with more Sarah Palin. Not a bad thing for us Democrats.
Ritarita
Bobby Jindal dosen't have to break with the kook right, he out-kooks them.
He is going to have a hard time living down the many exorcisms he performed in his college years. He is famously an extreme right-wing Catholic Conservative, and not above casting out a devil or two. Personally, I want more mental stablility in a candidate running for ANY public office.
Wallysmom
Barbara416 was dead-on. The attempt of the Republicans to "reinvent" themselves reminds me of an 89 year old aunt wearing spandex and carrying around, saying "f-shizzle" all the time and listening to Barry Manilow on an iPod. Somehow I suspect that Jindal, with all his bluster and bravado, tonight will come off as the skinny kid on the blacktop who tries to act tough while he's getting a wedgie and wet-willie from the class bully.
boatscain2003
I agree with Mr. Begala here. I think all Republicans with presidential aspirations should distance themselves from Limbaugh. Let's think about this seriously for a moment. If the next Republican candidate doesn't separate from the kook right then the kook right will have their candidate which will effectively be a Limbaugh puppet because the candidate will use his or her own popularity with (gasp) Limbaugh listeners. Personally I wouldn't want the endorsement from a guy that's made a career saying the word femmanazi.
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Bulldoglover100
LOL The Right Wing Nut Jobs who put politics over the best interest of the people and you want us, we Republicans who voted for Obama, to think for one minute that this poor excuse of a politican is going to out do Obama? In speech or merit? Not on his best day but hey go ahead and push him. Perhaps he can hold another seance to break out the devil from his soul and be a new man? Seriously. This man holds seances and he wants to be our President! LOL
Bobby Jindal will never excite people, will never hold a candle to Barack Obama.
I would LOVE to come home to my party but as I and millions of other Republicans said during the 2008 election. Give us a good candidate. The GOP gave us McCain and Sarah "The Stupid" Palin...and the GOP lost big time. Try giving us this poor excuse for a man? and the GOP will lose again.
ella04
Bulldoglover: Right Wing Nut Jobs? Sarah "The Stupid" Palin? A poor excuse for a man? My, aren't you a kind-hearted individual. Such arrogance and contempt towards anyone who disagrees with you certainly does nothing for your liberal, "open-minded" platform. If I were Obama, I'd be hoping that obnoxious supporters like you would keep their mouths shut.
I'm surprised by the hostility on here. Apparently diversity is only a positive thing to pursue if you're a democrat, but if the republicans appoint a non-white male to a high profile task, they're up to something sinister. You are all such hypocrites.
And on the note of his religion - specifically evolution. As far as I'm concerned, saying that Jindal's belief in creationism somehow makes him an illegitimate candidate is absurd - just as absurd as the claims that Obama being a Muslim (and I'm not saying that he is, so don't put words in my mouth) was an actual reason to vote against him. It wasn't then, and it shouldn't be now.
Jindal is an appealing and successful public figure with an impressive resume - especially for someone his age. And while I might not necessarily vote for him if he ran for president (it is a little too soon to be talking about that...let's give Obama a chance first), I think that we should give him a chance and see what kind of a leader he can actually be instead of writing him off for his political affiliation or religious beliefs. All that to say, I do agree that he could benefit from distancing himself from Rush Limbaugh.
Thank you.
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