LA Gov. Bobby Jindal Kills at the Gridiron Dinner
Over the weekend, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke at the Gridiron Dinner in Washington. Here’s the text of his hilarious speech, as prepared.
I’m honored to be here tonight, and to have this opportunity to represent my people. As you know, my people are one of our nation’s most accomplished minority groups – doctors…lawyers…business
owners…and of course, I’m referring to the Republican Party.
They say this is a place where you can come and tell jokes about the President…poke fun at yourself…set political ambition aside and just generally say anything you want. Kind of like the Romney campaign.
I spoke to Mitt the other day…told him that I was doing the Gridiron dinner…he said that 47 percent of you can’t take a joke. This of course is the night for the Washington press corps and the President to kick back, share a few laughs, not take things seriously and just generally enjoy each other’s company. Kind of like the President’s interview on 60 Minutes.
The Gridiron Dinner used to be known as the night the media and the administration set aside their
differences — back in the days when they had some. I was on the treadmill the other day and I caught something about the supreme and infallible leader ordained from on high stepping down, and I got all excited, but then I realized it was just the Pope not the President.
You may not realize this, but even though the President may look calm and relaxed…he is sitting here right now quaking in his boots…he’s terrified that I’ll upstage him again…like I did in that State of the Union response a few years ago.
Actually…after my infamous State of the Union response in 2009, I appreciate this opportunity to try to be funny on purpose. I think my performance that night would have been better if I had just taken a 10-minute sip of water, interrupted by 30 seconds of speaking.
After my disastrous speech…people wrote and said a lot of mean stuff. But when they spoke to me in person, they were kind as can be. But…there was one exception to that. My dad. He called that night
and said simply this – “I told you to go to medical school.”
But…what a difference a day makes…now some people have asked me if I intend to run for President in 2016? And the answer is that I have no plans to run. I’ve made that clear, over and over again…in
Iowa…in New Hampshire…and in South Carolina.
There is a reason I’ve got no plans to run. I mean, come on. What chance does a skinny guy with a dark complexion and a funny name have to get elected president of the United States?
The truth is – I am too skinny to run. At least that’s what my friend Chris Christie keeps telling
me. Chris pointed out that my biceps are half the size of Obama’s guns. Not the president’s, Michelle’s. You all don’t know this…but the President and I had the exact same campaign slogan years ago. But unfortunately UPS sued both of us and made us stop using it…you
remember our slogan– ‘what can brown do for you?’ Speaking of
brown, I was hoping to see my good friend John Boehner here. We go
to the same tanning salon. When I first went to congress, I would
always get asked by friends –“hey, have you met my friend
congressman so and so.” So I of course responded – I don’t know,
all white people look alike to me. After a while…I found a better
answer. I would simply say…um…let me think…is he a middle aged
white guy, slightly balding, a little thick around the middle?”
They would always say – “yep, that’s him”…Worked every time. I did
a lot of campaigning in the last election. class=”alignright size-full wp-image-18231″ title=”perryoops”
src=”http://www.calbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/perryoops.jpg”
alt=”” width=”190″ height=”206″ />I was one of Rick Perry’s
strongest supporters. I supported Rick because he’s a loyal friend,
a great governor, and…oops…I forget the third reason. I’m now
serving my sixth year as governor. That’s the longest I have ever
held the same job at the same place since the sixth grade. I was
feeling bad for myself, thinking my career had stalled out – but
then I remembered it could be worse…I could be Steny Hoyer. You’ll
have to excuse me for a second. I’m drying up. I need a drink of
water. I was hoping to finally meet Mayor Bloomberg here
tonight………that’s a lie I was also hoping to see Harry Reid…..that’s
another lie I was actually hoping to see my good friend John McCain
here tonight. In 2008, John talked to me about the Vice Presidency.
I told John not to consider me or even vet me for VP. I wasn’t
ready for the job and I was afraid he might do something crazy…glad
we avoided that. src=”http://www.calbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/reince_priebus-120×150.jpg”
alt=”” width=”120″ height=”150″ />I had a meeting with a man
earlier today who says that his name is Reince Priebus and he
insists that he is Chairman of the Republican Party. Hard to
imagine a better name than “Reince Priebus” to connect with the
working class people and show that we aren’t one-percenters. At
least I had the political foresight at the age of 4 to change my
name to Bobby. I see Mark Sanford is running for office again.
Sanford was so committed to outsourcing that he even shipped his
wife’s job overseas. It was revealed this week that Sanford asked
his ex-wife to run his campaign…Hard to believe Republicans have a
gender gap. It gets worse. Sanford offered to pay his ex-wife this
time. In Louisiana, if you try to get a woman back in your life by
telling her you will pay her…that’s called solicitation.
Unfortunately, there has been an uptick in sex scandals in
Washington D.C. these days. The Menendez scandal is disturbing.
Soliciting prostitution is completely unacceptable. We would never
put up with that in Louisiana. src=”http://www.calbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/elizabethwarren-123×150.jpg”
alt=”” width=”123″ height=”150″ />Great to see the new Senator
from Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren. My staff tells me we’ve got
a lot in common. Well from one Indian politician to another, I want
to wish you all the best in your new job. I ran into Joe Biden
earlier today. I don’t think he recognized me though. He asked me
to go get him a Slurpee. You know, sometimes I wonder where we
would be without Vice President Biden. And then I realize: Pretty
much exactly where we are right now. I see Eric Holder is with us
tonight. I actually heard a rumor that due to sequestration, the
attorney general can only afford to ship a couple hundred illegal
guns across the border this year. I saw a bumper sticker on the way
over here that said, “Honk if you’ve been released by Janet
Napolitano.” I understand that to save money – the President’s
Secret Service detail is being replaced by Joe Biden with a
shotgun. Mr. President, I see a lot of famous people here tonight.
Some of our top journalists. I don’t see Bob Woodward, though. He
sends his…regrets. It’s good to see Colorado Governor John
Hickenlooper here. Somebody better find a Taco Bell that’s open
late, I’m sure he’ll have the munchies later. You know, a lot of
people warned me that if I voted for Mitt Romney, a Wall Street
robber baron who hid his money in secretive Grand Cayman bank
accounts would end up running the U.S. Treasury. I see Jack Lew is
here tonight. Good thing that job went to you instead, Jack.
title=”dennis_rodman”
src=”http://www.calbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/dennis_rodman-118×150.jpg”
alt=”” width=”118″ height=”150″ />Speaking of cabinet
secretaries. Mr. President, while it was a nice bipartisan gesture,
I still think it was a bad idea to have Romney’s pollsters prepare
Chuck Hagel for his confirmation hearing… And Mr. President I want
to commend you on your inspired choice for Secretary of State.
Someone whose integrity and experience inform the world of your
Administration’s seriousness and depth. Let’s all give Dennis
Rodman a hand. Speaking of athletes. I saw that the President went
golfing with Tiger Woods recently. Tiger reportedly said the
President has “amazing touch.” The last time Tiger said that he
lost millions in endorsements and a hot Swedish wife. This may
surprise you, but I’m looking forward to President Obama’s second
term. It will be refreshing to hear him stop blaming all the
country’s problems on the last four years. People say that the
President and I both have trouble laughing at
ourselves.
We can’t laugh at ourselves. That would be racist. My home state of
Louisiana is of course known for colorful politicians. You may have
heard that when our former Governor Edwin Edwards got out of jail
last year he immediately married a woman 50 years his younger. But
you may not have read his quote about that…and I’m not making this
up…he said “you’re only as young as the woman you feel.” My wife
didn’t feel that was funny. David Duke was colorful…his favorite
color was white. This has been great fun here tonight. I’m sure
that my parents could never have imagined me standing here,
particularly after my State of the Union Response. This dinner is a
sign of America’s greatness. The press makes fun of the person
running the country, the President makes fun of himself, the
opposition party pokes fun at the party in power…and no one gets
arrested. One serious note in closing — Having immigrant parents is
not always the easiest thing…there are language issues,
assimilation issues, and the like. But I will tell you this — The
greatest thing about having parents who are immigrants, is that
they force you to understand the value and uniqueness of our
freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of
religion…you name it, they put great value on it and they never
take it for granted. And to them, there is no greater person than
the one who has sacrificed all to keep us free. I want to thank you
all for letting me participate in this little piece of freedom here
tonight. Good night and God Bless.”
A Republican with a sense of humor? Or at least one who has writers with senses of humor? Who knew?
Not so surprising really. I’ve worked for Republicans for 40 years and their love of jokes has always impressed me. It’s just that they have a larger percentage at the expense of the weak than the Democrats I work for. Both have curbed blatant racism, but both still love the occasional denigration of organized labor and women. To which I reserve the right to ridicule the rich whenever I can. Still, I laughed out loud at some of the zingers above.
That was genuinely funny and I commend the script writers for their talent and I commend Go. Jindal for having the dauntlessness for going with it.
One correction I have as I assume it was an error on the part of the writers or on the Governor’s: Grouch Marx is credited with the great quote, “A man is only as old as the woman he feels.”
The quote attributed to Edwards, as phrased, makes little sense.
Thanks, Calbuzz, for reprinting the monologue in it’s entirety. It’s the longest thing I’ve read from a Republican since Conscience of a Conservative, attributed to Barry Goldwater but ghost written by Wm. F. Buckley’s brother-in-law, Brent Bozell. It wasn’t nearly as funny and I’ve purposely left the preceding pronoun antecedent ambiguous.