WASHINGTON -- In his first major public appearance since his widely-panned nationally televised response to Pres. Obama's address to Congress, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told attendees at an annual GOP dinner that the party is beginning to find its way and its voice.
"It is time to declare our time of introspection and navel-gazing officially over," Jindal said at the National Republican Congressional Committee fete at the National Building Museum. "... Let it be resolved from now going forward, we are going to be focused on America's future, on standing up for fiscal sanity before it is too late."
Considered a rising Republican star, Jindal's stock plummeted after his February television appearance. His sing-songy delivery, undeniably boyish looks and the focus on his personal biography, not the grave problems facing the nation, left many, even in his own party, wondering if he was seasoned enough to take the national stage.
As the Republicans work to finding their footing, Jindal tonight looked to find his way and his voice. He took a step toward rekindling his colleagues' faith in him -- though his early efforts at self-deprecation fell flat.
"Many of you asked that I reprise my State of the Union response speech," he said, prompting silence in the cavernous room. "That was a joke. You're allowed to laugh at it."
A swing and a miss. So he tried again, broadly citing the Obama adminstration's policy on prisoner torture.
"They're not allowed to show my speech to the folks at Gitmo, they've banned that," he said.
A third shot at humor involving a joke about Detroit Lions players looking for AIG-sized bonuses also met a cool response. "Ok, that's enough," Jindal said, before launching into a broader pitch for how the party should recast its image, values and goals.
Jindal, 37, said it's "wrong to suggest the new administration has anything other than good intentions," but he noted that there are fundamental differences between the parties. He said the Democrats, under Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are spending the country into a hole from which lawmakers will only dig out with tax increases. Bailouts, stimulus packages and bloated budgets, he said, will drive America down a path of European socialism.
But, he added, "we must do more than argue a philosophy. We must offer solutions."
He said Obama has shown an affection for big government and spending in his first 60 days in office. He said Obama has abandoned a pledge to do away with earmarks, too.
"This doesn't look a lot like the candidate Barack Obama that we met on the campaign trail," Jindal said. "I like that guy better."
Jindal sketched the broad outlines of a four-pronged agenda for the party that focused on health care, education, energy and ethics.
He said Democrats are moving toward a single payer system for health care. Republicans, he said, must respond by supporting electronic, portable patient records, more organized purchasing coalitions, tax code reform and an emphasis on primary and preventative care.
When it comes to education, the governor, a father of three, said parents must have choices about where their children go to school. A nod, of course, to vouchers.
"The left hasn't had an original idea on education since the invention of the chalk board," he said.
Solving the nation's energy crisis, Jindal stressed, requires a multifaceted strategy. "Unlike the Democrats, we shouldn't be willing to wait on clean energy alone," he said, noting that Republicans must push plans to mine for domestically produced energy and explore nuclear energy.
He said Republicans must prove they are "the party of yes." He emphasized that ethical lapses should not be tolerated and that it is when Republicans are reform-minded, as he said they were during the Reagan era, that the public faith in the party grows.
"We came to Washington to change Washington, not to be captured by Washington," he said. "... We must vow to each other that we will never again tolerate ethical lapses in the highest levels of government and business."
Jindal said that strategically Democrats have crafted a false choice between being for the president or against the nation's success. Echoing lines used by Republican congressional leaders, Jindal said there is room in Washington for a loyal opposition. He said the GOP must show voters that voting against the president's policies -- from the use of public money for abortions, support for card check, big spending and borrowing from foreign governments, including China -- is valid.
"We want America to have the freedom to succeed," he said, debuting a line that smacked of a campaign slogan.
And before supporters were served red pepper glazed tenderloin and potato truffle gratin, Jindal framed the pitch another way. "Liberty," he said, "is a key ingredient of American success."
The NRCC -- the campaign organization for House Republicans -- announced that it raised $6 million at the event, attended by more than 1,000 people. Less than a mile away, Obama held the second press conference of his first term in office.
Earlier, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told attendees that Obama's budget adds more to the national debt in the next six years than his 43 predecessors budgets combined.
"The president's budget spends to much," Boehner said. "It taxes too much, and it borrows too much from our kids and grandkids."
Rep. Pete Roskam (R-IL) paid tribute to the NRCC, which he credited with helping him beat Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and Iraq war veteran who lost both her legs in combat. He recounted how the media loved to tell Duckworth's personal story. "Even Al Jazeera came in and covered the candidate debate," he said. "I'm not making it up."
But he said "a funny thing happened." "The good guys have come over the hilltop for me," he added. "You know who came in and rescued me? You did."
(JENNIFER SKALKA)
