Senator John McCain should have opposed the TARP bailout:

What was McCain’s bold step? He lined up behind President George W. Bush and was perceived as part of the problem on Capitol Hill while he joined his Democratic opponent in the massive spending spree. Is there any wonder why independents and many conservatives concluded that a vote for John McCain was the same as a vote for Barack Obama? If the GOP wishes to regain the majority, it must offer voters more than a distinction without a difference.

and

The GOP must renounce the Bush Doctrine of “…preemptive war and an interventionist foreign policy…” 

Nothing has shaken voters’ trust in the GOP like the lack of justification for the war. While I make the case in my book, “Nothing for the Nation,” that the Senate Democratic leadership in 2002 was just as culpable in authorizing the invasion of Iraq as the House Republican leadership, most Americans see the Iraq war as a Republican creation. If Republicans would renounce the Bush Doctrine by rejecting pre-emptive war and an interventionist foreign policy, they could put the issue of Iraq in the proper current context.

 I quote from his column in Politico of March 24, 2009.  (Hostettler joined Ron Paul and four other GOP representatives in voting against the war in Iraq.)

I think Hostettler is absolutely right.  If McCain had at least offered some opposition to the TARP bailout and stood with the House Republicans (The House voted initially against the TARP bailout) he’d at least given himself a fighting chance.  How many conservatives stayed home (I did not by the way, I proudly voted for the war hero McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin) or voted for a third party due to the TARP bailout. 

I also think that the war in Iraq was at the very least mishandled.  it was turned into an invasion for democracy rather than a coup to overthrow Hussein (if that was necessary) and secure any weapons.  We are still in Iraq several years later and the American people rightly turned against the GOP.

There were other reasons:  Arrogance (read Terri Schiavo – unconstitutional federal legislation to benefit one case), corruption and personal moral failure, and a failure to adequately control spending. 

But Hostettler is right. 

Should libertarians support Hostettler?  I like what I am reading:  A social conservative who is a RP libertarian, too.  I would note that some Campaign for Liberty/Ron Paul supporters are helping him and there is even some evidence Paul himself is supporting him.  The American Spectator reported Hostettler being only three points behind Bayh.  Put me down as leaning toward him.

However, in 2003, I heard about (through a column that I cannot find) to a candidate for governor of Louisiana who had an audacious plan to clean up politics in Louisiana and make the state a leader in a number of items including ethics reform. I felt that anyone with that sort of vision was worth looking into. Especially when he was a conservative Republican.

When I heard Jindal’s resume, I was again impressed. He is an intellectual who won a Rhodes Scholarship and, unlike a certain other Rhodes Scholar from a neighboring state, actually graduated from Oxford. At 32, Jindal had already been a state cabinet secretary (Health and Hospitals), the president of a leading university system (Louisiana State University) and a federal sub-cabinet official (Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation).

Jindal lost the election and I was disappointed until Katrina hit. I think that 2003 loss was a blessing in disguise. Jindal was elected twice to Congress and then came back to run for governor of Louisiana. This time he won in the first primary.

Jindal was able to push through the legislature in three sessions, ethics reform, reform of taxes unfriendly to business interests, and one time infrastructure projects that were needed and for which a budget surplus existed. Almost immediately, Jindal was instrumental in persuading Albemarle Paper Co. to move its office from Richmond, VA! (Ouch! He could have started somewhere else!)

I did hope Senator McCain would appoint Jindal to be his running mate. No one could have made fun of Jindal in the way they (unfairly) did Governor Palin. I further believe his extraordinary success story, an Indian-American son of immigrants, achieving the American Dream, could be a great role model for youth and a force to revive the Republican Party WITHOUT compromising traditional conservative positions.

Jindal is staunchly pro-life, against gay marriage, has an evangelical Christian testimony, and favored the balanced teaching of intelligent design in the schools. Jindal voted against funding embryonic stem cell research and also voted against the S-CHIP children’s insurance program. He is solidly pro-Second Amendment rights. I may be able to discuss some of these issues in later blogs.

The end of the Kingfish era in Louisiana seemed like a dream on the scale of Lithuania seceding from the Soviet Union. Jindal, however, seems to have started the effort to clean up bayou politics and make the state work. Even his foes agree he seems to know how to gets things done, as described by Deepa Fernandes in the Nation magazine article of July 21, 2008:

“Given Louisiana’s harsh economic landscape and its conservative tilt, many Democrats there seem willing to sacrifice an unattainable agenda for these immediate results.”

Here are specific examples from the Nation article:

“Nonetheless, his Democratic successor as health secretary, David Hood, has nothing but praise for Jindal, calling him “the best secretary of DHH that I have seen in thirty years in state government.” Hood says that Jindal was organized, able to generate excitement among staff and had long-term vision.”

“Political consultant Cheron Brylski, a fierce advocate for women’s rights, is just as laudatory of Jindal. “Even as a liberal,” she says, “I felt that Bobby Jindal was the person who offered the most hope for Louisiana at this time.” Despite years of “butting heads” with him, Brylski fully supports the new governor. When asked why she endorses a man who has voted to restrict and outlaw abortion at every chance available to him, Brylski responds, “He’s smart, and he has good connections in Washington.”"

Lithuania is now independent. Louisiana may be well on her way to ending the Kingfish era. I believe Governor Jindal has ended the Huey Long era in Louisiana. He can get results in Washington. Whether he runs in 2012 or later in life, he will be both a formidable candidate and, if elected, a wise President. Now about the Saints…