Thursday, February 26, 2009

Governor Jindal, Rising G.O.P. Star, Plummets After Speech

Republicans have two ideas: anything President Obama offers is wrong, and cut taxes. It ain't flying. Here is the latest putz, er, duck, er, turkey, to fall flat.

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has been a rising star in the Republican Party, but his stock took a hit as he was roundly panned for his televised response to President Obama’s first speech to Congress on Tuesday night.

To choose, or accept, the assignment of speaking after this President is a fool's errand. Maybe the right man got it.

Conservative commentators were among the harshest critics, calling Mr. Jindal’s delivery animatronic, his prose “cheesy” and his message — that federal spending is not the answer to the nation’s economic problems — uninspired.

David Johnson, a Republican political strategist, faulted Mr. Jindal for telling a story about Harry Lee, the sheriff of Jefferson Parish during Hurricane Katrina and who has been repeatedly accused of racial profiling, and for bringing up Hurricane Katrina at all, which Mr. Jindal cited as an example of the failure of big government.

“The one thing Republicans want to forget,” Mr. Johnson said, “is Katrina.”

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