Krugman Jindal Response: GOP Has Become 'The Party Of Beavis And Butthead'

The full gamut of punditry had little praise for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's rebuttal speech Tuesday night. Notably, Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, responding to the flak Jindal gave high-speed rail and volcano-monitoring, has labeled the GOP 'the party of Beavis and Butthead':

So what did Bobby Jindal choose to ridicule in this response to Obama last night? Volcano monitoring, of course.

...

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.

Sam Stein has more on the response from Democrats, Republicans and pundits, who more or less reached consensus: the speech was an awkward, embarrassing flop. From Stein:

"After watching Jindal," one Democratic strategist emailed, "I'd pay a lot of money to be back watching a Palin speech."

"Awkward with capital A," emailed another.

The punditry was equally brutal. Part of the problem was the crux of Jindal's address, which consisted almost entirely of red meat for conservatives. The Governor offered criticism for anything other than tax cuts and ridiculed government spending for items that are either widely supported -- "$8 billion for high-speed rail" -- or seemingly essential -- "$140 million for something called 'volcano monitoring'" (isn't Louisiana Exhibit A in the need for natural disaster warning?).

And as Jason Linkins notes, even the usually lackluster New York Times columnist David Brooks became somewhat animated in his reaction to the speech, describing Jindal's argument on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as "just a form of nihilism". The transcript:

LEHRER: How well did he do?

BROOKS: Not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I opposed the stimulus package - I thought it was poorly drafted - but to come up at this moment in history with a stale, "government is the problem...we can't trust the government"...it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic, now. They may not like the way the Congress passed the stimulus bill. The idea that government is going to have no role in this...in a moment where only the Federal government is big enough to do stuff...to just ignore all that and say government's the problem...corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending - it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. There's an intra-Republican debate: some people say the Republican party lost its way because it got too moderate, some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and he's making that case. I think it's insane. I think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

Comments

[anticrusader]

Do Republicans have a lower IQ than members of other parties? Don't know Jindal's IQ but he addressed the people -I assume the Republican constituency - as if there level of comprehension was ccollectively at 8th grade. And that's either condescending or sadly the level of comprehension. Probably the latter: Just look at Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin (at least she is kind of funny)

I always truely wanted to know if there's bellcurve with Republicans? Anyone knows?

[SteevK]

1) The GOP (and their tax-cut hungry media pimps) didn't start the Beavis & Butthead stuff recently. Remember them ridiculing "pregnant chads" and "dimpled chads" from 2000?

2) If not for Katrina, Jindal wouldn't be in office. As one Repub said at the time, "God just gave us LA" - by removing large numbers of some (black) element, whether dead, or relocated to deep-red areas of other states (TX, OK), where their votes won't matter.
.

[frontstreet]

Right on, Bobby. We don't want the government spending our tax dollars to help predict and plan for natural disasters. And we sure as heck don't want the government repairing our levees, bridges, tunnels, and roads. I live in the shadow of an active volcano, but I'm going to follow the GOP plan. I'll keep a pair of boots by the door so I can pull myself up by my bootstraps and run.

[LeftLeanWing]

Goobernor Jindal must not be very familiar with that Super Volcano thing thats 20 mi by 30 mi underneath Yellowstone --- it goes off every 600k to 700k years and causes mini extinctions. It hasn't erupted in 625k years,,,, and no human has ever witness one going off,

We are within it's eruption time zone..and they've been noticing a rise in the local elevation.

[mairs]

The Republicans are in a long skid on ice. There's no traction, but they keep turning right, hard right, hard right, but they're just doing 360s.

[Deborah Giddings]

The next "hope" for the RePUGS in 2012??

The GOP has lost it's way, and thank goodness that the Rush Bimbo pack of lemmings are the only "hangers-on" that appear to be left in the far out right!

I mean...,C"MON!....genitalia is all that they thought we were looking to vote for in November,and any old "Pitt bull in Lipstick" would do?

They want to block every effort made by PRESIDENT Barack Obama, and must not appear to be the same party of"Good Ole' Boys".They must look like they've moved away from their old South, Civil War ideology.
They put up a tin man,Michael Steele as the face of diversity in the Repugnican party. Along with *choke* Alan Keyes...their own personal little crazy man, to be the voice of "Black Republicans"?

Now, they throw out the puppet Jindal,whose parents came from India, a system still steeped in class wars.
Way to go Repugs! Way to prove that you've learned from your last two resounding losses.

[laurasworldnet]

The powers that be in the republican party understand full well that half of the voting population will fall at or below the mark of average IQ. It's a nice, bell-shaped curve, and it is this part of the curve they hope to appeal to with these arguments. It worked pretty well over the past eight years.

[WilliamP]

'The intellectual incoherence is stunning.'
It really is. What's even more stunning is that Jindal is a well-educated Rhodes scholar. He's the best and brightest that the GOP has to offer.

Yet, he studied Biology and wants Intelligent Design to be taught in schools, he can't offer an economic argument to support his views on government spending, and not only does he think that warning people of volcanic explosions is a waste of money, he expects the public to agree with him.

If this is the GOP's smart new star, then the party is in dire trouble.

[NCRedhead]

Rhodes Scholar...seriously? Wow...he must have missed some important classes somewhere...like Economics and Common Sense 101.

[gonbald]

stunning is that Jindal is a well-educated Rhodes scholar
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You must have misspelled that.
He's a road collar.

[BethStuart]

I agree that snickering is the right word to describe republican political response. It's not just that they think something sounds funny. It appears they don't understand what's being talked about.

[JZ735]

I think they understand full well...the disconnect between the Dems who larded the stimulus package up with more pork than Jimmy Dean ever sells seem not to even get the extent of the discontent with the stupid elements of the plan. Just what part of a railroad to nowhere between Disneyland and Vegas do some of you not get as a ridiculous boondoggle?

[GoManGo]

Still getting your information from Limbaugh, eh? There is money allocated for the exploration of implementing high speed rail in various areas around the country. What you are trying to do is repeat the same lie you've heard and fell for from right wing propogandists. There is no money allocated for "a railroad to nowhere between Disneyland and Vegas. As far as your dispersion that the bill is larded with pork than prove it. Read the bill and then let the rest of us know what you think is specifically pork, instead of repeating what you heard.

[SecretSister]

FYI-The pork in the bill was 60% Democratic and 40% Republican.

Even though the Republicans didn't vote for it in the House, they sure were happy to lard it up, too.

[kev1000]

Wait a second, let me get this straight: A high-speed railway between two distinct, large and popular vacation spots that are typically visited by millions of people (who would putter out a lot of fossil-fuel emissions when they go by car or bus) and generate gobs and gobs of income is a railway to nowhere?

[mairs]

It reminds me of Palin's snickering over fruit-fly research, when every kid in the country was taught about it in science class.

[PresWatch]

The Repugs should have had Mr. Steele give the counterpunch, maybe in hip-hop cadence. Poor Bobby. All he can hope for is that "Saturday Night Live!" will have mercy.

[TennGal]

Oh my God!! I expect SNL will have a field-day with this.

[JZ735]

Maybe they will resort to some kind of cheap racial taunt...it will be okay to direct it at Jindal, of course, as it was to resort to cheap sexism about Hillary or Sarah Palin.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

You mean THAT was really his rebuttal? I thought he was polishing his act for the Gong Show.

[JROY]

Jindal is unfit to get a job in a call centre in India. He is pathetic.

[The Ghost]

One MIGHT rightfully take offense at the implicit raycism in that comment.

[tbone99]

His face looks like it is made of rubber.Can he do contortions with anything beside policy?

[CommentSense]

Heh heh. Watching Bobby walk out into the hall to speak made me shake my head. It's like his shoe had a "flat tire."

Where does one begin with this? This goes beyond Bobby Jindal, all the way to the top of the GOP. I have to believe that someone, somewhere, there is a really wise Republican that will finally stop shouting and start listening to the sounds of the American People. This person is going to stop whining and start preaching Hope with inclusive, constructive ideas to help this country...the whole country, not just the 20% conservative base. This is the only way to save the GOP, and I do believe our two-party system can still work together to help us out of this mess.

Last night was simply a disaster for Mr. Jindal on so many levels. If he thinks of going up against Obama in debates for 2012, after all BO has been put through in the debates, and is going to experience for the next 4 years, then someone is going to cite Barack for child abuse. It's just not fair to Bobby.

[JNagarya]

No problem: Rash Limburger still backs him.

[LaFlow]

a) You said "pundit".... huh-huh, that was cooooool

And,

b) If Bobby Jindal's not a fan of volcano monitoring, why don't we stop measuring discharge in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers at the LA border and tell the good people of his state that we wouldn't want the federal government spending money "wastefully"

[LaFlow]

Ummm... sorry for the duplicate.

[JodyMcg]

Where do I get a Beavis and Butthead shirt with both of them wearing GOP Elephants? Elephants peeing even better!

[LaFlow]

a) You said "pundit".... huh-huh, that was cooooool

And,

b) If Bobby Jindal's not a fan of volcano monitoring, why don't we stop measuring discharge in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers at the LA border and tell the good people of his state that we wouldn't want the federal government spending money "wastefully"