I thought they already learned the lesson of saying what people want to hear and then doing whatever they want when elected?

No. Shouldn't they have learned it in 2008? They didn't. They won't learn it now either.

This all means nothing...they are just trying to fill a perceived void in the GOP leadership.

This is the same dance they perform every time they lose a major election. And they'll follow all the same steps from now until November 2016 of slowly ramping up all the behavior they're currently denouncing.

"It's not fair -- he's getting people to vote for him by giving them some of the things they asked for!"

The old school Republicans (what the teabaggers would call the "establishment") certainly have. They realize that the crazy, hatey thing that worked so well for so long is now cutting the other way.

Those of you who say "yeah, this is what they always say...." No. They never acknowledged that fighting marriage equality was a losing proposition before. Certainly not in 2008 or 2006, when those issues were losing at the ballot box while Dems were winning. They never said "Let's stop dividing Americans," because none of those elections illustrated how marginalized the GOP was becoming: A party for old white men only. This is new.

The GOP is descending into civil war, with the pragmatics taking on the teabaggy idealists, and I'm going to enjoy the whole thing.

Exactly. They're rearranging the deck-chairs. Jindal's quote shows he's still thinking in terms of us v them. As Obama & Warren pointed out, and were attacked by Team Rape for it, there is no one who *isn't* 'dependent on the government.' Private enterprise isn't going to upkeep roads & traffic, provide adequate health care, or ensure that pollution isn't running over the land or in our food. It's not going to educate our workforce or enforce laws. Team Rape is still pretending that everything government is the enemy and anything not is wonderful & good.

@6 Sorry, I don't buy it. Those boys have cried wolf too many times. Maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

And they have TOTALLY said they wanted to stop dividing americans before. And yet, every election, that's exactly what they do!

My feet smell bad, but at least I went to the gym today.

The GOP's policies smell worse and they have nothing to show for it.

GOP to Romney: You get to go back to being a rich guy, we still have to work here. Now STFU, you dick.

There is a big fucking difference between "we're fighting for 100% of the vote" and "we're fighting for 100% of the people."

They've learned a lesson, but it isn't the one that they should have learned.

Bob Jindal is FULL OF SHIT! This is just another tired attempt at superficial re-branding with out any true retrospection - aka The Tea Baggers in 2009.

Jindal doesn't propose one singe real policy shift. All he says is "Hey, look you rich racists tone it down a notch and find some secret code to talk in because your making us look like rich racists."

Well, here you go. No lesson learned yet!

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/…

@ 8, I maintain that this is a new tone for them, and that they never were so bold to say anything like this in 2006 or 2008. If someone can show me that they did, I'll buy it. But my recollection was that all they really said after those losses (esp. 2008) was that they needed to get back to "true conservatism."

@14 give it 18 more months.

I guarantee you the GOP will continue it's drive to the far right.

meanwhile, this is not surprising http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15…

Teabaggers unite! There's got to be a way you can sabotage the GOP with your hate filled rants. Come on. You've done it twice now, you can make more signs about us "morans" and get Glen Beck to take back America. All the way back to the fourteen hundreds.

This may be a new tone for them, but it's all about strategy, not content. They haven't said they're going to think differently about issues. They're just going to act differently to see if they can get voters that way.

The danger for Dems is that if the Republicans move toward the middle, the Dems better be prepared to move toward the left or they will have no oxygen. The Republicans take up all the air in the room.

Jindal's talking about ending divisiveness, yet he campaigned against same-sex marriage in MN. Fucker.

@ 18, absolutely. Just like when they went out of their way to court Hispanic voters 10-12 years ago. But then the bigots started making noise about illegal immigration....

I can hardly wait for Rmoney to come to his as-yet-unremodeled La Jolla home (the one with the proposed car elevator). He'll be living in a City Council district that just re-elected a Democrat, in a city that just elected a Democrat as mayor, in a city and county that voted for Obama. (He's very narrowly close geographically to being represented on the County Board of Supervisors by a gay Democrat.) And in one of the bluest states.

Welcome to San Diego California, Mitt!

The Republican Party certainly seems united in its "pro-rape" stance. Sure, there were some public denunciations, but did you notice that only one female Republican had anything critical to say (Kay Bailey Hutchison), and she was not in office, and it was after the election? Who saw any public denunciations from female Republicans running for office prior to November 6 2012?

I agree more with Matt from Denver. Everyone knows that Republicans lost 2008 because America was thoroughly sick and tired, to death, with eight years of the W. Bush administration, and because their standard bearers were such inept buffoons (with all due respect to McCain's war experience and his congressional accomplishments). The idea, for Republicans, was that they just needed to get a couple of super-sharp candidates, not "mavericks", and campaign as the smart conservative alternative. Thus we ended up with Romney/Ryan.

Never did we hear them talking about moderating their immigration stance, or reaching out to women and minorities - none of that. Instead, they courted corporate industry money and created the so-called Tea Party. That is, their response to 2008 was to go further to the right. It worked when they first started and they had the media momentum, but their act got pretty tired pretty fast once America got a good look at what they were proposing.

Now you have some of the big shots on Fox talking about how we're not a white-only country anymore, how we (meaning Republicans) need to come to terms with that reality. We're talking about Bill O"Reilly and Sean Hannity raising the white flag. That's a big deal. It's obvious to the world that Republicans lost because of their anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-women, anti-worker rhetoric. They placed all their chips on the Great White Hope and they lost, baby, they lost. Nobody likes to lose and nobody likes to get thrown out of office, so I think the change is real. They see the writing on the wall.

I'm concerned that they'll just get better at selling the same muck, but would like to see them actually get less crazy: wheels turn, and I think it more likely that circumstance and generic human incompetence on the part of Democrats will put them back into power than that they'll go the way of the Whigs first.

The GOP has used blatantly racist tactics since the days of Tricky Dick (the Sothern Strategy). Moderates have been pushed out of the party over the last 15 years. It's going to take more than a press conference for them to change!

Bobby Jindal is one of the worst people ever. Certainly one of the worst governers this country has ever seen.

Decry federal money until your state needs it, then beg for it? Check.

Actively try to make the educational system more religious and less factual? Check.

Defund basic education and turn it into a voucher program? Check.

Embezzling from charities and running charity scams? Check.

Turning a 1 billion dollar surplus into a 2 billion dollar deficit in under 4 years? Check.

Oppose abortion in ALL instances (yes, even if the mother's life is in danger)? Check.

Appoint an entire state commission just to make sure gays can not get married or adopt? Check.

Running a completely opaque and corrupt administration? Check.

@10

But the people who want him to shut the hell up now voted for him on November 6th and probably campaigned for him prior to the Election. Hypocrites.

@27 Yeah, but in their defense look at who they had to choose from. Romney was the best choice in a very, very poor field.