Free Republic

(Reuters) - Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, one of the nation's most prominent Republicans and a possible 2016 presidential candidate, has fallen out of favor with local voters, and his bold plan to scrap the state income tax is running into trouble. Jindal was re-elected to a second term with two-thirds of the vote in 2011. But his Louisiana approval rating was down to 38 percent in a recent poll, worse than Democratic President Barack Obama in one of the most conservative states. The poll suggested voters think he is spending more time traveling outside the state and burnishing his credentials...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is at the center of the latest "birther" conspiracy. But he's not the first to face this line of questioning. A handful of politicians have been targeted in the last few years with the same accusation -- that they are not fit for the Presidency because they do not meet the constitutionally-mandated eligibility requirement of being a "natural-born" U.S. citizen. Confusion around who qualifies as a "natural born" citizen has contributed to the debate, as the Constitution does not explicitly define the phrase. Some incorrectly presume it only includes people born within the boundaries of the...

During this year’s March Madness across state legislatures, governors are competing for bold new ways to grow their job base. This week, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal detailed a jobs strategy that could take the Pelican State into the Final Four of tax competition. Jindal’s tax bracketology is simple and clear to all businesses — a flat, fair, and simpler tax code is the better choice for moving Louisiana forward in economic growth. Jindal’s plan is far-reaching and intrepid — no state income tax, no corporate income tax, and no corporate franchise tax. Zero. Zilch. Nada. In exchange, the state that...

Time to address conservatives from across the country at CPAC is a prime commodity, especially for politicians eyeing a 2016 run — and it’s not being distributed equally. According to an internal draft of the minute-by-minute schedule at CPAC, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, and Scott Walker are each slated to give 13-minute remarks on the main stage. Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, however, get eleven minutes to deliver their comments. Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum is scheduled for a mere seven minutes. The biggest winners in the time lottery are Sarah Palin (16 minutes) and Donald Trump (14...

Ed Henry @edhenryTV oh my -- Jindal said he doesn't think VP Biden recognized him: "He asked me to get him a slurpee" 1:45 AM - 10 Mar 13 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal famously advised the GOP in January to “stop being the stupid party,” but tonight at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington, D.C., it was Jindal’s job to deliver the laughs on behalf of the Republicans. How’d he do? Ed Henry @edhenryTV Jindal killing it at #Gridiron -- says he's talking to Sen Elizabeth Warren "as one Indian politician to another" 1:44 AM - 10 Mar 13

Barack Obama apparently hoped that a private meeting with GOP governors would help push House Republicans to compromise on the sequester. The meeting backfired in that regard, at least partially. The private meeting so incensed Nikki Haley that she could barely contain herself afterward at the US Chamber of Commerce afterward, and while she expressed frustration with both sides, she delivered a withering shot at Obama for refusing to make even slight cuts in federal spending: “I could not be more frustrated than I am right now,” Haley told reporters after the meeting. She said that when she asked Obama...

Ever since Mitt Romney lost the presidential election, there's been a lot of talk about how the Republican Party needs to "rebrand" itself. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal wants, among other things, for the GOP to stop being "the stupid party." Rep. Paul Ryan has concluded that the watchword for the Republican Party needs to be "prudence." Sen. Marco Rubio is the front man for the most tangible aspect of the rebranding effort: getting on the right side of the immigration issue. In the process, he's become something of the de facto point person for the party. The latest entrant into...

<p>The actual title is "Are Republicans the 'Stupid Party'?" but was too inflammatory to leave it without the clarification.</p> <p>Bobby Jindal is warning that the Republicans must stop being the "stupid party".</p> <p>The Louisiana governor, a likely contender for his party's presidential nomination in 2016, said a number of Republicans had "damaged the brand" by making "offensive and bizarre" comments.</p>

I'm sure by now that most everyone has heard about Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and his remarks at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before I get to the bulk of my post, let me preface it by saying I am not endorsing or disregarding Governor Jindal's remarks. I do, however, believe they merit a discussion. To do anything less is to be naive about the condition of the Republican Party. Changes, you say? Yes, I said the changes the Republican Party needs to make. If we do not, we may as well resign our party...

Bobby Jindal, the conservative Catholic governor of Louisiana, attracted some attention last week for a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he advocated making oral contraceptives available over the counter without a prescription. And for his pains, he received a slap on the wrist from his local archdiocese.Jindal made his case on libertarian and partisan grounds: People should have a right to buy products free from government restrictions, and letting them do so in this case (as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommends) will take contraception out of the political arena (where the Democrats are using...

<p>New Jersey liberal Ronnie McMillian threatened Rep. Michele Bachmann and Governor Bobby Jindal.</p> <p>A New Jersey man who made threatening phone calls to public officials including Louisiana’s governor and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was arrested today. Authorities charged 27-year-old Ronnie McMillian of Hawthorne, N.J., with two counts of transmitting threats to injure another through interstate commerce.</p>

Bobby Jindal wants you to be able to get your contraceptives over the counter, and that’s just the first step. “Democrats have wrongly accused Republicans of being against birth control and against allowing people to use it,” the Louisiana governor writes in the Wall Street Journal today. “That’s hogwash.”

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) called for the over-the-counter sale of birth control pills in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday, saying that the federal government had no business restricting access to the medication. “Democrats have wrongly accused Republicans of being against birth control and against allowing people to use it. That's hogwash. But Republicans do want to protect those who have religious beliefs that are opposed to contraception,” Jindal wrote. …

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced its support last month for selling oral contraceptives over the counter without a prescription in the United States. I agree with this opinion, which if embraced by the federal government would take contraception out of the political arena. As a conservative Republican, I believe that we have been stupid to let the Democrats demagogue the contraceptives issue and pretend, during debates about health-care insurance, that Republicans are somehow against birth control. It's a disingenuous political argument they make. As an unapologetic pro-life Republican, I also believe that every adult (18 years old...

Congressional Republicans are in a pretty rough position right now, to put it lightly; at every turn, the Democrats and the media are painting the GOP as the party merely trying to preserve tax loopholes for their billionaire buddies (nevermind that every dollar spent by the government is a dollar not spend much more effectively in the private sector, coming at the opportunity cost of economic growth) and callously cut off benefits for seniors and the poor, all on the backs of the middle class (forget that the Republicans’ real goal is to engender a free, robust economy in which...

This self-promoting, narcissistic presidential aspirant did not even let the dust settle from the 2012 presidential campaign before he was hurling insults at Governor Romney. In the immediate aftermath of the election, Jindal made headlines for referring to the Romney campaign as “stupid.” He made a very public point of saying that he rejected Romney’s analysis of the election that Obama won by giving large “gifts” to certain minority groups. He called the remarks “insulting” and said that the Republican Party cannot win by demonizing people.

Charlotte: Unimpressed by US President Barack Obama's fiery speech seeking re-election, the two Indian-American Governors, Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal, today said that Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, is the best person to lead the country. Both Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, and Haley, the Governor of South Carolina, are rising stars of the Republican party and were quick to issue statements after Obama concluded his Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech. "The last time Barack Obama spoke before the Democratic National Convention, he told us of hope and change that we could believe in. What a difference four years...

<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The Louisiana Supreme Court has refused to stop the launch of Gov. Bobby Jindal's statewide voucher program, which began this month.</p> <p>The high court denied an injunction request by teacher unions and school boards to stall the voucher program as they challenge whether it is constitutional. A hearing in the court case is set for October.</p>

Reporters have been scrambling to track Wikipedia article edits and other “behind the scenes” clues for any possible advanced word about Mitt Romney’s upcoming vice presidential selection for weeks, and a website registration change Thursday built on that trend, steering attention to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s prospects for the job. Publicly available information for BobbyJindal.com showed a change in the site’s registration information occurring today, prompting speculation that communications teams affiliated with Romney’s campaign or the Governor himself could be in the preliminary stages of unveiling a new web presence for the Governor should he be chosen as the Republican...

Will the upcoming national conventions be snoozers, or will they actually offer some degree of excitement? Over the last half century, these events have come to lack the suspense that accompanied them back in the days before state primaries wrested the power to choose party nominees from convention delegates and party officials. Now, national conventions are largely an excuse for companies and party leaders to throw parties for delegates to attend, to network and have a good time. Beyond that, these quadrennial rituals are little more than pulpits from which each side takes shots at the other; and a forum...