Everybody’s talking about it, almost all the time. It’s been the topic since Rudy imploded and McCain went from also-ran to last-man-standing. The End of an Era. The Conservative Crackup. The Termination of the Contract With America. Other things, too, I’m sure, in a David Brooks column. The GOP is now likened to a cornered, wounded animal; its only electoral defense to lash out desperately at Barack Obama, hoping to hit an angry pastor or a Muslim headdress.

But even now, only year two in the Demise of Rovism, mythologies are stirring. Underneath all the polling avalanches, and documented here from time to time, has been spoken the rise of the savior. Somewhere, from the place you’d least expect, even, a renewal of the Republican Party is brewing. It has even emanated from the mouth of the Prophet, El Rushbo, wandering in the wilderness since 2006, eating wads of gazillion dollar bills. Wide-standing senators, disgraced fighter pilots, diaper-wearing philanderers - Bobby Jindal, meet your flock.

From the first blush of campaigning, Jindal was exciting the mouths of the party. He was young in a greying group. He was minority in the white boys club. He had the whole “Reaganesque” package, as it has been constructed. And he had electoral success in a state decimated unlike any other by the current GOP.

He was endorsed by almost every major outlet in the state, entered office with a mandate to enact his agenda, and set about doing so. The party swooned. The people showered him with praise as he called his special session on ethics. McCain came down to visit. Bloggers blogged, babies were born, life continued on, but more ethically than before.

The murmurs began a little later, when people started reviewing some of the legislation. Of course, the Louisiana leges – those famously corrupt, startlingly incompetent, trembling cowards – were expected to complain. The disclosure laws: too stringent! The reductions on gifts: unfortunate! But they went along with the governor that had swept the Jungle Primary for the first time in state history.

It was a cover story in the Gambit - New Orleans’ “alternative” weekly paper - that seemed to indicate something shifting. Jindal had been having a massively successful special session, getting almost everything that he wanted. There were questions, though, about carving out exceptions for his own office out of the ethics bills. His staff was handing out free Hannah Montana tickets to legislators – an activity supposedly banned by his own ethics package. Disclosure laws were said not to apply to the Governor’s Office. Then a commentary: maybe the ethics package had gone too far; it was hard to find people who wanted to serve on boards and commissions. His hiring freeze made it tough on universities and hospitals. And that ethics violation fine levied against his gubernatorial campaign? Maybe it wasn’t just a misunderstanding.

The grumbles in the media that had unanimously endorsed him exploded with the Louisiana legislature’s passing of a massive pay raise - more than doubling their salaries – that Jindal initially refused to veto. He caved in the face of public pressure and a recall petition on June 30th, vetoing the bill with no complaints from the legislators, many of whom are now facing recall petitions of their own.

Since the debacle, Jindal’s chief ambassador to the legislature, Tommy Williams, has resigned. More tellingly, the Times-Picayune has begun publishing photos of a sad-faced, sweaty, tired-looking Jindal on their online masthead. The tide has, indeed, turned. Even Clancy DuBos – New Orleans’ equivalent of the Common Wisdom – has begun voicing more Jindal-skeptic notions.

Jindal emerges from this six month period with his credibility badly damaged, nowhere more so than in the eyes of the state legislature, a traditionally compliant body that has been showing unusual independence. No polling has been done since the pay-raise ignited the political scene, but it stands to reason that there has been a decline there, as well. And you can bet that McCain’s people have been watching the young governor getting manhandled by popular crosscurrents and wondering.

Much like the current GOP, Jindal is nowhere near the end of the line. He’s been damaged, but how badly remains to be seen. He holds an advantage that the national party doesn’t in that the state Democratic Party is disorganized and weak – there’s no unified voice hammering him daily on his missteps. But the patina of novelty is certainly gone: in much the same way that Obama has become the Man Who Telecommutes From Hope, Jindal is now another Republican, passing chemical castration bills and Creationism enhancements while pandering to the legislature. Watching him being (politely) confronted at a gathering in Shreveport was like watching a puppy get kicked: he’s clearly not encountered that sort of thing before.