Cannon Fodder

Oh, how I want to blog less about politics, but when the Know Nothing Party gives you so much to work with ...

The reviews for Gov. Bobby Jindal are not good, and as I wrote last night, he said some really stupid stuff.

Here is Matthew Yglesias:

What’s with the attack on “something called ‘volcano monitoring’”? Volcano monitoring is where they monitor volcanos. So as to better understand, better predict, and better prepare for natural disasters. Is that so complicated? Are only hurricanes worth responding to?

And Atrios:

Volcanoes Are Kinda Scary
What struck me about Jindal's complaint about spending money monitoring volcanoes was that it was really the best they can come up with. As he was.

And John Cole at BalloonJuice:

"I’m not sure what is selling lower this morning- Citibank or Jindal 2012 stock, but it really is hard to state accurately just how bad it was...

However, there was something just especially awful this year, and already the comparison to Kenneth from 30 Rock is sweeping across the intertubes...

And speaking of volcanoes, Jindal’s response was just nonsense on wheels...

And for the life of me, I have no idea why Republicans hate replacing the federal fleet of cars with fuel-efficient vehicles or monitoring volcanoes to avoid disasters. It seems to me that the latter, making sure volcanoes do not blow up on your citizenry, would be something that even Ron Paul would think is a government job.

These guys have nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, they do have Fred Hiatt’s editorial page, where Michael Gerson does the deed this morning, but other than that, the Republican party is just a pathetic joke."

And here is the real meat of the matter from David Brooks:

LEHRER: Now that, of course, was Gov. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, making the Republican response. David, how well do you think he did?

DAVID BROOKS: Uh, not so well... I oppose the stimulus package because 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 federal government,' it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill. But the idea that we're just going to... That government will have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that in a moment when only the federal government is big enough to actually do stuff- to just ignore all that and just say 'government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending,' it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where country is it's not where the future of the country is. ... I think it's insane. I just think it's a disaster for the [Republican] Party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

As you can imagine, if you saw and heard the speech, the reviews for President Obama are much, much kinder.
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