Leave it to Seaver » Jindal

Oh Racism…

dcnick — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:19:44 +0000

Ben Smith writes about a radio interview with RNC Chair Michael Steele in which he laughs along with some really low brow/borderline racist humor about Gov. Jindal. Considering he’s the first African American RNC chair, you’d think he’d resist encouraging this kind of crap–especially given it’s a REPUBLICAN governor.

And oh yeah, “friggin’” is real classy. Nice.

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 buddy. Gov. Bobby Jindal is doing a friggin’ awesome job in his state. He’s really turned around on some core principles — like hey, government ought not be corrupt. The good stuff … the easy stuff.

Ben Smith has the rest of the interview and audio.

More on Jindal

dcnick — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:03:10 +0000

Two good thoughts on Jindal:

Another (very wise) Seaver raises what good fodder this will be for SNL this week.

Nate Silver (via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (February 24, 2009) – Non-SOTU Reax):

If it sounds like Jindal is targeting his speech to a room full of fourth graders, that’s because he is. They might be the next people to actually vote for Republicans again.

Candidate Jindal

dcnick — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:39:58 +0000

This is so odd. It’s oddly folksy and filled with bizarre inflections. It sounds like he’s reading a children’s book, or taping a campaign commercial for dog catcher.

“And I said, Sheriff, What’s gotcha so mad?” Gosh, gee golly.

Just bizarre.

Jindal: Extreme Ideologue or Betting on Failure?

dcnick — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:39:52 +0000

Politico is reporting that:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Friday that he will decline stimulus money specifically targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal government’s payout to states…

…“The federal money in this bill will run out in less than three years for this benefit and our businesses would then be stuck paying the bill,” Jindal said. “We must be careful and thoughtful as we examine all the strings attached to the funding in this package. We cannot grow government in an unsustainable way.”

I’m not sure what to make of this. It doesn’t seem like it has much political appeal to voters who aren’t extremely fiscally conservative. It’s one thing to say that you don’t like “government hand outs,” but entirely different to actually turn one down when you need it. I tend to look at everything Jindal does through the lens of a potential future Presidential candidate. This seems like another republican bet against the stimulus, or a move based in a deep belief in conservative philosophy that could make him wildly unpopular.

If you know more about LA politics and can offer some insights into how this will be received, please leave a comment and let me know…

As a side note, I like Schwarzeneggar’s position on the governors who might turn down stimulus funding:

“Everyone has their own way of thinking. I just hope they give me their funding.”

Update: NYT covers more reaction from Governors

Update 2: Ben Smith agrees this is indicative (in some way) of Jindal’s future plans…