Jindal set to blast GOP’s focus in speech tonight

As Gov. Bobby Jindal takes to the podium in Charlotte, N.C., tonight to address the Republican National Committee, The Washington Post—which has obtained a complete copy of the governor’s speech—reports Jindal “will deliver a forceful denunciation of his party’s Washington-centric focus.” The newspaper says Jindal will argue that the GOP is fighting the wrong fight as it seeks to regroup from losses at the ballot box in November. “A debate about which party can better manage the federal government is a very small and shortsighted debate,” reads a portion of Jindal’s prepared remarks. Jindal will also repeatedly caution that Republicans in Washington have fallen into the “sideshow trap” of debating with Democrats over the proper size of the federal government. “By obsessing with zeroes on the budget spreadsheet, we send a not-so-subtle signal that the focus of our country is on the phony economy of Washington, instead of the real economy out here in Charlotte, and Shreveport, and Cheyenne,” Jindal is set to say at one point in the speech. At another, he will observe that “Washington has spent a generation trying to bribe our citizens and extort our states,” adding: “As Republicans, it’s time to quit arguing around the edges of that corrupt system.” Read the full story here.