On Monday, liberal radio talker Randi Rhodes ripped into the South, including a wish that it would secede again. She played clips of HBO interviews of Southerners done for Bill Maher and complained "Bobby Jindal even converted from Hinduism -- Nikki Haley, too -- in order to be acceptable to the conservative South in Louisiana and uh -- [about a five second pause] Georgia! I mean, that is crazy that in order to be acceptable to the party you have to, you know, pretend that you've given up your religion!"
Haley is governor of South Carolina, not Georgia, and her family are Sikh, not Hindu. Jindal converted to Catholicism in high school, so it's a little tough to argue it was all political calculation. Haley and her husband attend a Methodist church but she also was married in the Sikh faith out of respect for her parents. Liberal outlets like NPR have raised questions about the sincerity of her conversion.
Rhodes was angry with the HBO clips she played where a man said he would rather stay true to his Christian principles than accept a handout from the government. She ranted: "I don't get it, I really don't understand it but what is your principle in the Deep South? Is your principle hatred and you would rather starve and die poor than betray your principle? What is your principle?" She suggested these good old boys opposed projects like light-rail transportation for Mississippi and summarized it as "I want to vote for someone who does nothing for me.”
She complained about the Democratic poll that found people didn't like interracial marriage and then concluded: "I hope the South does it again, and by that I mean, secedes. Do you know how much money that would save? Do you have any idea? We could just get on with our business of being a modern, 21st century country? No, I’m kidding...only a little."
