they kind of suspended their disbelief i think during the last days and weeks of the campaign. they were all on board with romney. they were all saying the polls were going to be wrong and romney was going to get it and romney was on the right track and romney had the right ideas, et cetera, et cetera. they re to be expected to be among the early changers, among the early people on the road to damascus because they ve got one foot in politics and the other in journalism. but i think jindal is interesting. i think the real fight now, chris, is not whether people are getting on the road. it s what they re saying on the road because they have different theories about how to go forward. one is economics, one is cultural, and one is immigration. i think there are basically three routes there. i wonder whether they re all agreeing to changes in their party philosophy that don t affect their central beliefs. let s take a look at jindal who is a cultural conservative. he s acknowledging the
so the lawyers can fight over this, chris. you re right. but the larger point is that the shame that he feels he s brought upon himself and his service trumps any legal niceties, and he, i m sure, felt that he had to resign because he d really violated the trust that everyone in the military had in him, even though he was retired. don t forget that he was go ahead, chris, i m listening. the other general, allen, who is now leading our services is a more live question. how does he explain to the president sending 30,000 e-mails to this attractive hostess in tampa? i mean, does he have to explain that to the president? sure, he has to explain that to the president. but the president s got to be hoping that allen comes out of this cleanly because, you know, general allen has got two big jobs he s doing for the white house.
party philosophy that don t affect their central beliefs. let s take a look at jindal who is a cultural conservative. he s acknowledging the republicans must not be the party of 1%. quote, we ve got to make sure that we re not the party of big business, big banks, big wall street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything. we cannot be. we must not be the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys. now, that s a good southern populist statement by a southern conservative bobby jindal, john heilemann, but you will notice he doesn t give an inch on the cultural stuff like we ve got to teach creationism in our public schools. his idea of compromise, stay out there on the far right on the cultural stuff, i m sure abortion rights and same-sex, but move in on the rich guy stuff. well, yeah. look, i mean, i m not sure we ve got yet a comprehensive statement from bobby jindal about what he thinks modernization and reform of the republican party would look like.
infidelity is a criminal offense. not so in even for retirees, i understand. well, not if you re retired. you re no longer under the code of military justice. well, i just got a different reading on that. i just got a different reading on that ten minutes ago, but maybe you re right. so the lawyers can fight over this, chris. you re right. but the larger point is that the shame that he feels he s brought upon himself and his service trumps any legal niceties, and he, i m sure, felt that he had to resign because he d really violated the trust that everyone in the military had in him, even though he was retired. don t forget that he was go ahead, chris, i m listening. the other general, allen, who is now leading our services is a more live question. how does he explain to the president sending 30,000 e-mails to this attractive hostess in
everything, apparently the national security concerns have all been knocked down. at this point there don t appear to be from the justice department or from the fbi any national security concerns. well, let me go to david wood on that very point. david, your sense of this watching it from above, meaning from the policy level looking at the sordidness of this, what does it mean? it looks like petraeus career has ended. he did the honorable thing i think in the end, i think most of us agree, just falling on his sword. that s over with. what about general allen, our commander in afghanistan? this would seem to be somewhat distracting to be sending something like 30,000 e-mails or whatever out. i don t even know how you do that. i don t e-mail that much, but when i do send them, they re short, a couple lines to my wife or my kids. what does this guy is he at the typewriter or computer all day? yeah. it s pretty astonishing to contemplate a guy who has his hands full running a very,