Send in the clowns

Paul Krugman ended his column criticizing Bobby Jindal's response to Obama's address to Congress by saying: "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."

Now it turns out that one of the anecdotes that Jindal used to illustrate the threat of government interference was made up. Jindal had implied that, in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, he had been present in the office of a sherrif who was being told on the phone by a beaurocrat from FEMA that he could not allow private citizens with boats to help rescue stranded people because they didn't have insurance and permits. At that time, Jindal was a Congressman from Louisiana.

As reported on Politico:

But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

This is no minor difference. Jindal's presence in Lee's office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story's intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn't there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.

There's a larger point here, though. The central anecdote of the GOP's prime-time response to President Obama's speech, intended to illustrate the threat of excessive government regulation, turns out to have been made up.

More evidence of the intellectual bankruptcy of the conservative movement: The Conservative Political Action Conference has just held it's meeting in Washington. Some highlights: Gov. Sarah Palin chose not to attend, although a big topic of discussion was the way the media had "assassinated" her.

[I suggest playing the re-runs of her interviews with Charlie Gibson and with Katie Couric, both of whom seemed flummoxed by her appalling lack of world knowledge but chose not to go in for the kill. . Is "self-assassination" a word?]

Among other speakers at the C-PAC meeting were those paragons of wisdom, Rush Limbaugh and "Joe the Plumber;" and then there was the 13 year old boy who has written a book to remind Republicans of the definition of "conservatism." He got a standing ovation after his speech.

The MC of the C-PAC Presidential Banquet was the Republican we love to ridicule, Representative Michelle Bachmann, who once called Barack Obama "very anti-American." She also made the headlines today, in her role as MC, by saying to the African-American Chairman of the Republican National Committee: "Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man."

[Forgive the dialect. Michelle is from Minnesota. She probably just got confused and thought that would be funny rather than racist. It's something Beavis and Butthead would have done.]

Then there was the howler by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who claims that conservatives are more "interesting" and "fun" than liberals. McConnell, who looks to me like he's already been embalmed, declared: "who wants to hang out with guys like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich when you can be with Rush Limbaugh?"

But Bush's former UN Ambassador John Bolton, he of the giant mustache, took the cake. He made a joke about Iran posing a threat of nuclear attack on an American city, say, er, Chicago.

And as reported by MSNBC:

The audience erupted in cheers and laughter at the idea of Obama’s home city being obliterated.

There you have it: the opposition party, casting about for some claim to legitimacy after the failures of the last eight years. Acting like Beavis and Butthead just isn't going to do it, I'm afraid.

Ralph