Jindal made up hurricane story

This imbecile is actually a serious contender to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012?

Right-wing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has garnered yawns over his response to President Obama's speech about the economy. Jindal hoped to coast on his account of bureaucratic red tape that confronted a Louisiana sheriff during Hurricane Katrina.

Jindal claimed that while he was a congressman during the hurricane, he met the late Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish while the sheriff was calling boats in to rescue people from rooftops. He said that the lawman was talking on the phone with federal bureaucrats who wouldn't let the boats go out until they could prove they had insurance. Jindal boasted that the sheriff and himself then opted to defy this outrageous federal fiat so they could rescue folks.

Bobby Jindal was trying to blame the big, mean libs for this unreasonable insurance rule.

Well, it turns out the incident didn't happen the way Jindal claims.

In a 2005 CNN interview, Sheriff Lee said he didn't even find out about the insurance requirement until a week after the hurricane. In other words, Jindal completely made up what Lee said during the meeting - if there was a meeting at all.

And guess what? There wasn't. Jindal never met Lee during that time frame. Lee had to stay behind on the ground in the affected area - but the only news reports of Jindal coming close to the area were of his aerial tour.

Furthermore, it was the Bush regime that imposed the insurance requirement in the first place - probably to please some insurance companies.

Lee died in 2007, so it's been harder to confirm exactly what happened. If he was alive today, he could help put Jindal's tale to rest once and for all.

Jindal also used Tuesday's speech to criticize federal funding of volcano monitors. "Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington," the embattled governor grumbled.

Uh, Bobby? Several major American cities are within striking distance of active volcanoes. The mayor of Vancouver, Washington, was infuriated at Jindal's remark. "Does the governor have a volcano in his back yard?" the mayor angrily asked.

If Jindal thinks we should cut volcano monitors, does he think we should cut hurricane monitors too? Probably. His ideological rigidity is the same type that was displayed in the mid-'90s when the Republican Congress cut off funding of flood monitors in northern Kentucky. As a result, there was no warning of the devastating 1997 flood. Several people died.

If Bobby Jindal is the future of the Republican Party, they better get used to Obama winning at least 45 states next time.

(Source: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/jindals_katrina_story_a_tall_tale.php;
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/25/121750/746;
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/25/jindal.volcanoes)