Word of the Day

The Word of the Day is "jejune": according to the American Heritage Dictionary, lacking in nutrition, insubstantial; not interesting, dull; lacking maturity, puerile; from the Latin, jejunus, hungry. What a great word! I love the sound of it. Yesterday, New York Times columnist Frank Rich described Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal as "jejune", which prompted me to look up the word. Jindal provided the Republican response to Obama's address to Congress this past week. Rich accurately described Jindal's speech as follows:

The Louisiana governor, alternately smug and jejune, articulated precisely the ideology — those G.O.P. “policies” in the Times/CBS poll — that Americans reject: the conviction that government is useless and has no role in an emergency. Given that the most mismanaged federal operation in modern memory was inflicted by a Republican White House on Jindal’s own state, you’d think he’d change the subject altogether.

But like all zealots, Jindal is oblivious to how nonzealots see him. Pleading “principle,” he has actually turned down some $100 million in stimulus money for Louisiana. And, as he proudly explained on “Meet the Press” last weekend, he can’t wait to be judged on “the results” of his heroic frugality.

Good luck with that. He’s rejecting aid for a state that ranks fourth in children living below the poverty line and 46th in high school graduation rates, while struggling with a projected budget shortfall of more than $1.7 billion.

The Ecstasy and the Agony

It's hard to believe the Republicans think their position of rejecting the stimulus bill has any appeal. We've been living with 8 years of government "non-intervention," resulting in our current crisis. More of the same isn't going to cut it. That seems insane.