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- Short of Michael Gerson, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gincrich, I think it's safe to say that Bobby Jindal's national debut last night was viewed as an epic fail by just about everybody. Some random samples: "Obama was wrong: We haven't outlawed every form of torture." (Franklin Foer); "He was telling stories that seemed very simplistic and almost childish." (Juan Williams); "the McCain campaign continues, and Hurricane Gustav has claimed another victim." (Daniel Larison); "The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead." (Paul Krugman). I'd say my own reaction would be a synthesis of both Ezra ("Yesterday, he seemed like a different kind of Republican. Today, he doesn’t.") and David Brooks ("To come up at this moment in history with a stale 'government is theproblem,' 'we can’t trust the federal government' - it’s just adisaster for the Republican Party"). It's not that Jindal himself, while a major disappointment, will be permanently damaged by his performance. But this was supposed to be the fresh, young and new face of the GOP. It was supposed to be the new generation of conservative policy wonks. Indeed, perhaps, the next Ronald Reagan. Instead it sounded like a speech Reagan might have given...in the mid-Sixties (but delivered poorly). Needless to say, things have changed quite a bit in the intervening forty years and with each passing day that the Republican party stands athwart history yelling "stop!" they come closer to becoming history themselves.
- Of course, any discussion of Jindal is inseparable from his political ambitions and I think Ben Smith gets the very, very early 2012 tea leaves right: "Jindal's weak performance last night -- along with the fact that, as Jonathan Martin noted, it's almost very hard for him to run for reelection in 2011 while roaming Iowa -- serves, along with Palin's fading profile, a reminder that the party is unlikely to have an obviously, visibly different face to put forward in 2012." Smith concludes that this leaves Mitt Romney as the default front runner -- which makes sense if you consider the winner-by-default fashion in which John McCain won the GOP nomination last year.
- Two potentially interesting stories coming out of the sausage factory: First, Ryan Grim reports that Senate Republicans were able to wrangle a budget increase for staff members, despite losing 20 percent of the their caucus in the last election. And Marc Ambinder notes the growing discontent among House Democrats who feel the House leadership's tight control over policy is shutting them out of the the decision-making and bill-writing process.
- Patrick Leahy has announced that hearings will go forward next week on creating his "truth commission" to investigate the crimes of the Bush administration.
- President Obama will announce on Friday that the bulk of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq will be pulled out by 2010, 19 months from now, leaving a residual force of 30,000-50,000 troops.
- Dave Weigel reports that House Republicans are considering a new response to OMB Director Peter Orszag's assertion at the fiscal responsibility summit that "Health care reform is entitlement reform. The path of fiscal responsibility must run directly through health care." No, it's not a tax cut or elimination of the capital gains tax but an across the board spending freeze.
--Mori Dinauer
