Jindal, Sanford, and Steele: Making of the New Republican Party

People asked how long it would take for the Republican Party to get its footing, establish a core, and move forward again.

Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, and Michael Steele are all doing that, in different ways.

For Steele, the new Chairman of the G.O.P., it means first cleaning house. The National Committee has become complacent for the past several years under Mike Duncan. Steele is changing the culture, with more aggressive and cutting edge ways to bring people to the party. And of course, don't discount the fact that he is an African-American, and is a vigorous vocal defender of conservative views. Unlike Duncan, who many Republicans would not recognize if they walked up on him the street, Steele is a frequent guest on T.V.. He is quickly becoming the voice most associated with the party.

Additionally, Steele is modernizing the party. The Republicans were defeated on every attack technologically speaking. Steele is determined to change that, by making the party more web saavy, and to use the internet to its greatest effect. They are years behind the Democrats; but for Steele, atleast he now has a vision for where the party needs to go.

Jindal and Sanford, as Governors, are confronting the problem in a completely different way; they have to lead their states, after all. And as successful as they have both been already, Obama's proposals on the national level give both an additional foil to argue their policy points. And they are clearly getting under Obama's skin; Obama made a point of calling them out during the Governor's luncheon at the White House on Monday.

Sanford has been the most vocal. He was actively campaigning against the Obama stimulus plan through out. Sanford is probably the most fiscally conservative governor in the country, and it shows; his government's budget is basically balanced, at least the part that he as Governor controls. He angered liberals, including Paul Begala, by stating that his state didn't need all the money the stimulus was going to provide. Sanford has said he will do what is best for his state. He was the most eloquent of the Governors on the roundtable on Fox News Sunday yesterday.

Jindal has followed the same pattern. At 37, he is the boy wonder; and likely would have been considered more seriously for McCain's running mate if he weren't so young. Although not as vocal as Sanford, he has become the point man in recent weeks, largely because he was the first Governor to openly refuse specific funds from the Stimulus. Jindal, again, has not refused all funds, but has said that funds that cost the state taxpayers too much, or put too many regulations on his state, would be rejected. For example, he specifically is refusing some of the unemployment funds, because, as he eloquently explained on Meet the Press on Sunday, that it would end up costing his state much more than the Federal government would supply. Thus, the classic unfunded mandate. But Jindal has been harshly attacked from the left, basically being accused of simply pandering because he is considering a run of the Presidency in 2012. Of course, turning down tax money is an anathema to the left.

But Jindal's real introduction to the nation will be Tuesday night, when he gives the Republican response to Barack Obama's State of the Union address. Much of the nation will see if this man is truly a different type of politician. Republicans in particular will look to see if Jindal has any vision that can lead the conservative movement. Can Jindal provide a productive policy vision that Republicans can follow? Or is that too much to ask in a singular speech? We shall have a few answers by Tuesday night.

But these three men, in their own ways, are leading a new revolution to change the Republican Party. Whether they are successful, at the very least, should be fun to watch.