The New Face of the Republican Party?

Those of you who subscribe to the Limbaugh Letter are in for a real treat this month. In it, Rush publishes a very in-depth interview with Bobby Jindal, the Governor elect of Lousiana. Those of us who don't get it, well....it's either a good opportunity to subscribe or make friends with someone who gets it because you have to read this interview. It is a lesson in principles first Conservatism that needs to be passed on far and wide. Thankfully, I have a friend who sent me a copy of it that I can exerpt here for you today.

RUSH:...First I want to congratulate you. I want to put your victory in perspective here. You won against 11 opponents. You won 60 out of 64 Louisana parishes. You won in the primary which has not happened before in Louisiana's history of open-primary elections. You got 54 percent of the vote; your nearest competitor got only 17 percent. And you ran as an unapologetic pro-life conservative. This isn't supposed to happen, according to the inside -the-Beltway conventional wisdom. Tell us why you think it happened and whether or not you think it is a bellweather.

I should add (before we get to the answer) that Mr. Jindal was the ONLY Republican/Conservative on the ticket. All of the other candidates were Democrats and 3rd party candidates.

JINDAL: Thank you Rush, for those nice comments. Two things. One, I think the people of Louisiana were saying strongly that they wanted change...Louisiana has a history of boom-and-bust cycles. We have oil booms. We're in the middle of another boom cycle, and I think the people are saying, "We don't want the politicians putting this money in their pocket. We don't want them just growing governemt. We don't want instant gratification. We want to see money put into roads. We want to see taxes cut. We want to see new jobs for our people." The Louisiana state budget went from $16 to $32 billion in six years. This last year alone, they added over 1,250 new state employees. There's a billion dollars of recurring spending funded with one-time money...You're exactly right - we were very clear where we stood on the issues...and that's the second message of this election. The reason Republicans did poorly in 2006 is not because the country became less conservative. The Republican candidates and Party became less conservative. You can't win an election by being a weaker version of your're opponent. You can't try to have power just for the sake of holding on to power. The Republican Party can't be in the business of defending corrupt elected officials, can't be in the business of defending wasteful earmark spending...The voters are tired of poll-tested messages. They want authenticity. When the Republican Party get's back to its conservative roots, we'll do well with the
voters.

The emphasis is mine. The points that Governor-elect Jindal made above (and continue to make throughout the interview) are points that many principles first Republicans have been making for the last two election cycles. We want our candidates to be authentic - true to the beliefs and principles of the Party. We are tired of the inside-the-Beltway way of thinking that seems to infect politics down to the local level. We want people who will be true to their principles.

Another comment that the Governor-elect made that is very refreshing indeed was this.

...Politics is a funny business. When you win, everybody's your friend. When you lose, people don't know you anymore. I thin it's so important for anyone considering getting into the political arena to think about what's important. What principles are you unwilling to violate? What transcends popularity polls? I'm a competitive person. I want to win. I know I can't make change unless I win. But there
are certain things you just don't do even for the sake of winning an
election or being successful from a worldly perspective...

Emphasis again mine. There ARE certain things that you don't do even to get elected. That is a lesson that many in DC and in St. Paul seem to have forgotten.