Free Republic

<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Gov. Bobby Jindal is getting fundraising help from former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is expected to be a leading GOP presidential contender again in 2012.</p> <p>Jindal plans to hold a campaign event on April 16 in Boston sponsored by Romney.</p>

(CNN) — In a budget proposal released Friday afternoon, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal indicated he is only rejecting $98 million of the federal stimulus funds due his state. That figure is far less than the $700 million South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has indicated he may reject if the federal government does not allow Sanford to use that money to pay down his state's debt. Jindal, an early GOP critic of the stimulus bill, is specifically rejecting funds aimed at expanding unemployment benefits on the belief his state would have to pick up the tab on the provision in two...

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom confirms that the former Massachusetts governor is helping put together a Boston fundraiser for the Louisiana governor and a possible rival in 2012. --snip- Jindal is up for reelection in Louisiana in 2011, a race that, if — as he's indicated — he enters it, could well rule out a presidential bid.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal proposed a $26.7 billion state budget for next year, seeking to close a $1.3 billion drop in state general fund income through hefty cuts to health care services, public colleges and education programs and the elimination of state jobs and offices. The 2009-10 proposal unveiled Friday would be nearly 10 percent less than the state's current budget, even with nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus dollars plugged in to fill gaps. The new budget year begins July 1. "We must, we must implement these reforms in order to downsize state government so...

Only Louisiana's jobless rate decreased. It fell to 5.1%, 0.4 percentage point lower than the previous month.

This is apparently what passes for political analysis and debate on the left. Forget that Bobby Jindal is a Rhodes Scholoar who was assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services at 29, in the House of Representatives at 33 and elected governor at 36. The most important thing about Jindal is that some liberals have decided that he acts like Kenneth from “30 Rock.” So, you know, ha ha. Let’s not care about what he could do for our country. Let’s mock him because he looks and/or sounds funny. And did you know that “Bobby” isn’t really his first name?...

BATON ROUGE -- Chickens have feelings, too. And unappreciated brains. That's the message delivered Wednesday to Gov. Bobby Jindal by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as the group suggested that Louisiana use state funds to turn a closing Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plant in Farmerville into a "Chicken Empathy Museum." "The museum could feature exhibits such as video footage from research . . . showing how smart chickens are," the group wrote in a letter to Jindal. "The Chicken Empathy Museum will have educational displays that highlight interesting facts about chickens, including that chickens are intelligent animals...

One day after delivering the official Republican response to President Obama’s address to Congress, Gov. Bobby Jindal received high marks for cheering up a recession-weary nation that has not had a good laugh in months. Across the country, Americans of all walks of life gave thanks to Gov. Jindal for giving them the most precious gift of all — the gift of laughter. I have a few questions after listening to the Republican response. Can conservatives please explain why the name Piyush Jindal appears on Gov. Jindal’s birth certificate? Was Gov. Jindal born and raised a Hindu? Were his parents...

Gov. Bobby Jindal says he disagrees with President Obama on stem cell research. The president Monday cleared the way for increases in federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, arguing in the interests of scientific and medical advances. Obama lifted funding restrictions on the research imposed by former President George W. Bush. Jindal told reporters he saw it as an issue akin to abortion. He said he supported the Bush administration's restrictions, which blocked some funding because embryos are destroyed to create the cell lines.

At CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, which is being held in D.C. this week, former Rep. Tom Tancredo joined the fireworks brigade by brushing off party leader Rush Limbaugh and blasting GOP leading light Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Later, at a meeting of the Young Americans for Western Civilization, Tancredo told The Washington Independent’s David Weigel that “Gang of Five” neocon and anti-tax champion Grover Norquist should be jailed for advancing the cause of Muslim terrorism at the highest levels of U.S. government. Think Progress has the super close-up video of firebrand Tancredo on Jindal:

Meghan McCain, the daughter of former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, was on CBS’ The Early Show this morning, where she talked about her distaste for controversial right-wing pundit Ann Coulter. McCain has called Coulter “offensive, radical, insulting and confusing all at the same time,” adding, “if figureheads like Ann Coulter are turning me off, then they are definitely turning off other members of my generation as well.” “I love the Republican Party, I spent two years campaigning with my father and I completely fell in love with the Republican Party, and I think it’s hard for me to explain...

What is it with Conservatives and Republicans that we are so ready to throw our own overboard at the first sign of a misstep, mistake, controversial statement, or slightest deviation from Conservative Orthodoxy? I’m not talking here about our reasonable disgust with the Lincoln Chafees and Arlen Specters of the world, or even our disdain for the David Brooks, Peggy Noonans, and David Frums of the world. Yet it seems to me that Conservatives are very quick to attack their own, as in the recent cases of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele, and Bobby Jindal. By focusing so much time and...

A Louisiana Tea Party is in the works. Taxpayers will meet to express their displeasure with massive government expansion on Tax Day, April 15th, 2009 at the state capitol in Baton Rouge. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53367974905

Bobby Jindal has a wunderkind resume: a Rhodes Scholar appointed assistant secretary of Health and Human Services at age 29, elected to the U.S. House at 33 and governor of Louisiana at 36. Increasingly, though, he’s being likened to Kenneth, the dweeby page on “30 Rock.” The politically devastating comparisons started popping right up after Jindal delivered the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s address a joint session of Congress. And they’ve spread like wildfire on the Internet. “Close your eyes and think of Kenneth from ‘30 Rock.’ I can barely count the number of e-mails making that observation,” Andrew...

Time offered its "Ten Questions" interview to Gov. Bobby Jindal, but the questions it selected from readers were mostly negative, underlining how unpopular the GOP is. One even insulted his personal appearance, with the increasingly common liberal mockery that he resembles the nerdy Kenneth the Page character on NBC’s 30 Rock. Here’s a sample: What is your reaction to the negative reviews of your response to President Obama's address to Congress? -- Tanya Gupta, Washington I live in a volatile seismic area and was troubled by your comment that funding volcano-monitoring is "wasteful." What makes some spending superfluous? –...

Talking with Sean Hannity.

NEW ORLEANS — Two members of President Barack Obama's cabinet said Thursday they are disturbed by the extent of damage that remains 3 1/2 years after Hurricane Katrina and pledged to speed the pace of rebuilding across the Gulf Coast. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced creation of new federal-state review teams to resolve funding disputes and a five-year, $50 million housing program. "What we have seen today makes us disturbed, angry even, to see some of the families living the way that they have," Donovan said from a 9th Ward housing...

They say talk is cheap. But in fact it can be devastatingly expensive. Among the generation of Germans who were enthralled by Hitler's eloquence, millions paid with their lives and their children's lives for empowering this demagogue to lead them to ruin and infamy. Germany before Hitler was one of the more tolerant nations in Europe. That was what attracted so many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe-- tragically, to their doom. German immigrants who settled around the world have been among the more tolerant peoples-- not angels, a standard that only intellectuals could use, but comparing favorably with most others....

The Guru, The Rush, The Sarahcuda and The TeamanTogether they are the Conservative Four... fighting against the evil Doctor Doombama.Mwraaah! I'll raise your taxes!

CNN's Larry King talked with Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal in a prime-time exclusive interview Monday night. Jindal gave the Republican response after President Obama's address to Congress last week. Jindal received negative reviews after the speech, and Larry asked him how he felt about that. They also talked about the war of words in the Republican Party centered around Rush Limbaugh. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: Larry King: Governor, you took a lot of flak for that speech. Were you surprised that you did? Gov. Bobby Jindal: Let's be clear, the president is a great...

Here is video of Gov. Bobby Jindal appearing last night on CNN's Larry King Live. King talked with Jindal about Obama's plans for the economy and the criticism Jindal has received for his GOP Response Speech last week. Jindal did a great job facing up to the criticism, admitting he is not as good a speaker as Obama, but his ideals and principles are right. Jindal was predictably asked if he agreed with Rush Limbaugh about wanting President Obama to "fail," and he answered it perfectly! He affirmed Rush as a "great leader of conservatives," and said Rush is saying...

Ann Coulter has always been a valiant fighter in the intellectual battle for conservatism. I even have a couple of her books, but she has gone too far this time. She's irritated me for a while now (didn't buy the last 2 books) and it has finally reached a tipping point: 1. It is one thing to criticize the partisanship and naive policy positions of the Jersey Girls, but it is another thing to start saying disparaging things about their husbands possibly leaving those "harpies". 2. It is one thing to criticize John Edwards for hypocrisy and being an intellectual...

After watching President Obama’s address to the joint session of Congress and Governor Bobby Jindal’s Republican reply, it’s clear that Americans have two very different definitions of what it means to be “responsible.” President Obama and his Democratic friends are spending like they’re playing with Monopoly money. His lofty rhetoric and reassuring phrases have no resemblance to the reality he’s creating. He challenges Americans to “take responsibility for our future once more….our job is to govern with a sense of responsibility…there’s no bailout for dishonest lenders who acted irresponsibly or for folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning...

A spokeswoman for Bobby Jindal says the Louisiana governor didn't imply that an anecdote about battling bureaucrats during Katrina directly involved the governor or took place during the heat of a fight to release rescue boats. The spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, said the story Jindal told in his response to Obama actually took place some days later in Lee's office -- though still in Katrina's chaotic aftermath -- as Lee was "recounting" his frustrations with the bureaucracy to someone else on the telephone. Liberal critics have raised questions about the story, which Jindal told this way: During Katrina, I visited Sheriff...

Obama is already showing mental and emotional fatigue - won't last another term with this weak display of performance. There is no doubt he wouldn't last another term of the presidential spotlight. The democrats will have pay a high price for his lack of 'savvy skills' thus the demise of the party.

I have a question for you. What happens when you decide to run with a story cooked up by DailyKos bloggers and then don't do any original reporting or, you know, fact-checking? I'll tell you who could answer it for you: Keith Olbermann. And by answer it, I mean totally not answer it since, when you call, they pretend nobody is around and dodge your questions. "Oh, Producer X isn't here after all, my bad. I must have been seeing a mirage earlier when I said he had stepped away from his desk."

If the Republican Party’s conservative wing had the power to choose presidential nominees, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would be the hands-down choice. For the third straight year, activists attending the Conservative Political Action Conference chose Romney, a candidate in the 2008 primaries, as their future presidential favorite in a straw poll. He won 20 percent of the straw poll vote. A relative newcomer who has been much in the news came in second: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was favored by 14 percent of the conservatives at the annual Washington gathering. Third place was a tie between Alaska Gov. Sarah...

Rush Limbaugh was 15 minutes early to the stage, but no one was complaining Saturday evening in Washington, D.C., at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Quite the contrary. On the conference's third and final day, the conservative talk radio host was the headliner, and the crowd greeted him with an immense ovation. "Ladies and gentleman, this is my first ever address to the nation," Limbaugh joked, noting that FOX News and C-SPAN were broadcasting the speech live. Limbaugh then spent his first 15 minutes giving an impassioned summary of what it means to be a conservative before turning the focus...

LIMBAUGH: [T]he people on our side are really making a mistake if they go after Bobby Jindal on the basis of style. Because if you think — people on our side I’m talking to you — those of you who think Jindal was horrible, you think — in fact, I don’t ever want to hear from you ever again.

NEW YORK – Insane. Childish. Disaster. And those were some of the kinder comments from political pundits about Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and his response to President Barack Obama's speech to Congress on Tuesday night. Jindal, 37, a Rhodes scholar and son of Indian immigrants, is considered a rising star in Republican ranks and a likely 2012 presidential candidate. GOP leaders, looking for a fresh face for the party's image, tapped Jindal earlier this month for the high-profile task of rebutting Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress. But in both style and substance, Jindal's speech has drawn...

VIDEO PROOF the Left Is Lying About Bobby Jindal During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were...

HH: I’m joined by Mark Steyn, Columnist To the World. You can read all of Mark’s work at www.steynonline.com. Today, Mark, I want to cover three speeches with you – the President’s, Bobby Jindal’s, and Sean Penn’s. Let’s start with your reaction to President Obama last night. MS: I was devastated, actually. What is horrifying to me is the way he’s become quite expert at genuflecting towards American exceptionalism, and then yoking it to his project of massive statism. In other words, nothing says the American virtues of self-reliance, entrepreneurial energy, and the can-do spirit like joining the vast army...

It is no secret that today’s mainstream media has morphed into an ideological and agenda-driven propaganda machine, complete with preconceived notions and pre-existing biases. We witnessed the repercussions of this ethical degradation first-hand in the mainstream media’s failure to critically examine the Obama presidential candidacy prior to the 2008 Presidential Election. This bastardization of the media’s informational charge can only be understood as being detrimental to the United States. Recent episodes involving Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews illustrate precisely how the mainstream media is leading the intolerance movement and why their actions serve to divide our country. Following President Obama's...

Our friends over at Radio Equalizer caught liberal radio talker Mike Malloy in a bit of hypocrisy. Malloy obviously thought his wife was a scream as she pretended to be Governor Bobby Jindal portraying him as an outsourced computer tech from India replete with cutsey faux Indian accent. Malloy's wife acted as if Jindal was the Simpson's character Apu, or something. Now, one cannot help but realize that if a conservative had indulged in such an outrageous parody of an ethnic politician, Mike Malloy would have eviscerated that action presenting it as a high crime. Yet, when he and his...

The latest CNN/Opinion Research poll on the potential 2012 GOP field bears good news for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin but the numbers aren’t impressive enough to overcome her biggest hurdle if she does run for president. First the numbers. The poll surveyed 429 Republicans on Feb. 18 and 19 and found: 29 percent would vote for Palin 26 percent would back former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee 21 percent would support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 9 percent would back Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal 10 percent would vote for someone else

<p>In the political field, any poll taken far away from Election Day is a game of name-recognition.</p> <p>And this is as close to far-away as one can get from the presidential election of 2012.</p> <p>So what do Republicans say about election?</p> <p>Palin. Huckabee. Romney.</p>

The Fix is still getting acquainted with our new arrival -- Charlie Cillizza! -- but we couldn't let a Friday pass without giving our readers a new Line Given the focus on the Conservative Political Action Committee gathering this weekend -- rightly interpreted as the first major event of the 2012 GOP nomination fight -- we thought now would be the right time to revisit our list of the 10 Republicans to watch as the party seeks to redefine itself in the wake of the disastrous elections of 2006 and 2008. This should not be taken purely as a handicapping...

It is no secret that today’s mainstream media has morphed into an ideological and agenda-driven propaganda machine, complete with preconceived notions and pre-existing biases. We witnessed the repercussions of this ethical degradation first-hand in the mainstream media’s failure to critically examine the Obama presidential candidacy prior to the 2008 Presidential Election. This bastardization of the media’s informational charge can only be understood as being detrimental to the United States. Recent episodes involving Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews illustrate precisely how the mainstream media is leading the intolerance movement and why their actions serve to divide our country.

Jindal saved the best part for the latter half of his talk. It’s as if, wandering through the mulberry bushes of his own biography, he remembered the circumstances of the party. “You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline, and personal responsibility. Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington,” Jindal said. “Republicans lost your trust — and rightly so.” Had he opened his remarks with that note, the credibility of his criticisms of the stimulus bill would have been enhanced.

Why would a sitting VP want to exaggerate how many jobs are disintegrating on his watch? Because, silly, the worse things seem now, the easier it is to credit The One later with having “created or saved” the jobs people still have. You know what the media did here, don’t you? They … messed with Joe. Click the image to watch.

In an interview with Curtis Sliwa on ABC Radio last night, the host and RNC Chairman Michael Steele jokingly linked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to the film "Slumdog Millionaire." Steele offered Jindal "slum love. Here's the transcript: SLIWA: Now, using a little bit of that street terminology, are you giving him any Slum love, Michael? STEELE: (laughter) SLIWA: Because he is — when guys look at him and young women look at him — they say oh, that's the slumdog millionaire, governor. So, give me some slum love. STEELE: I love it. (inaudible) ... some slum love out to my...

I was one of the first out of the gate to criticize Jindal's rebuttal to Obama's SOTU for being dull, uninspiring, too complaisant, and lacking gravitas. Many brickbats have been thrown at Jindal by bloggers and pundits but few actually deal with the breakdown of the rebuttal itself. So with this in mind I would like to examine the most important parts of the talk and why I think the rebuttal did not work: 1)"Today we witnessed a great moment in the history of the Republic." This introductory sentence to Jindal's rebuttal could have uttered by Harry Reid or Nancy...

"Hello, my name is Bobby. How may I give you excellent customer service today? I hear you are having problems with hard drive. I am so very sorry this is happening to you, ma'am."

[includes investigative report video from a local Shreveport, Louisiana TV station who catches his error] We’re thinking of making this a daily feature. Because Blunderin’ Joe Biden provides plenty of material. “What I don’t understand from Governor Jindal is what would he do,” Biden said on the CBS Early Show. “In Louisiana there’s 400 people a day losing their jobs. What’s he doing?” Then Joe’s fantasy ran smack dab into reality when Shreveport, Louisiana-based KSLA-TV investigated the real situation.....

The first Republican straw poll of the 2012 campaign got underway Thursday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. Before the three-day gathering of conservative activists began, the straw poll's creator, Fabrizio, McLaughlin and Associates, would not release its wording. But we've now got our hands on it. As conference attendees walk into the Omni Shoreham Hotel ballroom in Washington, DC, they are invited to fill out a questionnaire. The presidential preference question asks: "Thinking ahead to the 2012 Presidential election, who would you vote for as the next Republican nominee for President?" It then lists...

Insane. Childish. Disaster. And those were some of the kinder comments from political pundits about Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and his response to President Barack Obama’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night. Jindal, 37, a Rhodes scholar and son of Indian immigrants, is considered a rising star in Republican ranks and a likely 2012 presidential candidate. GOP leaders, looking for a fresh face for the party’s image, tapped Jindal earlier this month for the high-profile task of rebutting Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress. But in both style and substance, Jindal’s speech has drawn flak from Republicans...

Here is video of Rep. Tom Tancredo assessing the performance the other night of Gov. Bobby Jindal in giving the GOP Response to President Barack Obama's address. In short, Tancredo says Jindal's content was great but his delivery was lousy. In fact, he says it was so lousy that his performance may have "put the last nail in the coffin" on his chances of becoming President. Tancredo says Jindal is a great intellect but did not show himself to be a "leader" in his speech. Tancredo believes Gov. Mitt Romney is best positioned now to lead the GOP forward in...

Why would a sitting VP want to exaggerate how many jobs are disintegrating on his watch? Because, silly, the worse things seem now, the easier it is to credit The One later with having “created or saved” the jobs people still have.

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) ... "But what I don't understand from Governor Jindal is what would he do?," asks Joe Biden while on the Early Show. And That rhetorical question to Governor Jindal on the Early Show, was followed with this. "in Louisiana there's 400 people a day losing their jobs, what's he doing?" asks Biden. But that claim is wrong, if you look at the numbers from the Louisiana Workforce Commission. "In December, Louisiana was the only state in the nation besides the District of Columbia, according to the national press release that added employment over the month," says Patty...