Does Jindal Know What He's Doing?

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_06/024455.php

DOES JINDAL KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING?.... We learned something important and unexpected on Thursday night, when CBS News reported that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), for all his rhetoric about an insufficiently aggressive response to the BP oil spill, has chosen not to exercise his authority to dispatch thousands of National Guard troops to the coast. The Obama administration authorized Jindal to use 6,000 troops to respond to the disaster, but Jindal only dispatched 1,053 -- less than a fifth of the available total.

Asked to explain why he wouldn't want every available person on the scene working, Jindal claimed he's forbidden from deploying more because it's up to "the Coast Guard and BP" to "authorize individual tasks." That turned out to be untrue.

Yesterday, the governor came up with a new rationale.

Following a CBS News Investigates report that Gulf coast governors haven't been fully utilizing the 17,500 National Guard troops authorized by the federal government to help them with the oil spill, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's office offered a tart response.

In a statement sent to ProPublica, Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin said that Louisiana would "call up more National Guard troops as the Adjutant General tells us he needs them."

But this actually raises more questions than it answers. First, if Jindal is waiting for word from Louisiana's Adjutant General, why was the governor's initial response a different story altogether? Second, in Louisiana, the Adjutant General answers to Jindal, not the other way around. If the governor wants every available resource on the coast, helping with the response, why is Jindal waiting a request that seems obvious?

The only rationale explanation I can think of here, is that the governor is afraid 6,000 National Guard troops working along the coast might discourage tourism, so he's willing to settle for a weaker, slower response to the spill. I'm not saying that is the reason, but I'm trying to imagine why the governor would deliberately chose not to send every available person, and this is the only thing I can think of. That Jindal is changing his story, and that his second attempt is hardly better than his first, is a bad sign.

If reporters covering the spill pursue this aggressively, it could be a major headache for Jindal.

On a related point, the New York Times reports today that the Louisiana governor, practically from the beginning of this disaster, has "often disregarded" his administration's "own plans and experts in favor of large-scale proposals that many say would probably have had limited effectiveness and could have even hampered the response."

It's starting to cast an entirely new light on why Jindal has been so aggressive in blaming others for an inadequate response -- perhaps he's trying to deflect attention from his own mismanagement.

—Steve Benen

[saltpoint]

1. Jindal's done very little to inspire confidence in

his vision or leadership abilities to date.

It does seem that he is clearing the table of regional emergency to advance his projected national political ambition.

Recommended.

[SpiralHawk]

2. He's just another chickenhawk Republicon FAIL artiste

as usual Big mouth. Nothing else. End of story.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Not to beg the question, but what is the NG for Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida

doing as far as the clean-up?

[CitizenLeft]

15. I saw the report on Rachel's show, found a link to CBS News

Louisiana - 6000 available, deploye 1053
Mississippi - 6000 available, deployed 58
Alabama - 3000 avaiable, deployed 432
Florida - 2500 available, deployed 97

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/24/eveningnews/main6615414.shtml">Link to CBS News

Imagine that - a REAL investigative report to counter Republican lies. Haven't seen that in a long time.

[glowing]

4. Its almost like they forget that we have the modern age of technology

at our fingertips and cannot actually find these things out. CBS has to do their job because on-line response tells them in about 5 mins after posting or reporting a story that Bobby Jindal is actually responsible for his guard and can dispatch at his pleasure now that the President has ok'd it.

[impik]

5. What he's doing? He's doing the GOP work at the expense of real people. as long as they

can blame president Obama - all is good.

[plaidsportcoat]

10. Jindal preventing press access in this way?

As I do read the occasional GOP blog, I tend to agree with
this assessment.
But also, Jindal is beholden to BP--and once the NG is in
there - the press may get more free access. Can they embed in
the NG without Jindal's knowledge or consent? NG has embedded
press in other wars.It's about BP controlling access -
Jindal's direct Corporate Overlord. Hr could give a fu7k about
fishermen or tourism/ His eyes ain't on the prize of Mother
Nature.

[Jennicut]

6. And the sand berms! Don't forget that he allowed them to be built in areas that the feds said was

damaging to the environment and might send oil more to Mississippi. So he is totally mismanaging that too.
Guy is a tool. I can't believe anyone on DU defended his ass.

[ProSense]

7. This is a guy who lied

in his rebuttal to the President's SOTU address: Jindal Admits Katrina Story Was False


Benen is being kind. Jindal isn't lying to protect tourism, he's being an obstructionist for political gain.

Think about it implications: 5,000 additional people is tremendous manpower, nearly half that of the entire Exxon Valdez effort.

[kestrel91316]

8. Jindal's job is to prove that government is incompetent and corporations

are our saviors, and can do it all without help. He's performing it well. The entire purpose of ANY Republican administration, state or federal, is to monkeywrench to create ill will between the people and their government.

[plaidsportcoat]

12. ...so that they will view the corporate overlords

as their only savior. sheeeeeep

[Slit Skirt]

9. I'm a little more cynical....

if the disaster clean up goes well....they can't take down obama...probably direct orders from the gop

they have never put the environment or people first...EVER....why would they stop now?

their agenda is to destroy OBAMA and get control of the power.

[Catshrink]

11. My first response to the question:

:rofl:

[jenmito]

13. I'm glad this is FINALLY getting out there! I remember Joe Scarborough saying that OBAMA is doing

everything substantively right but doesn't look like a leader, while JINDAL is NOT doing the things he should be doing substantively, for instance, not deploying the vast majority of national guardsmen authorized, not doling out the tens of millions of dollars given to him from BP to give to the different parishes, but he looks like a leader with his life jacket on, walking on the sand, getting in front of cameras whenever possible, etc. (That may have been the longest run-on sentence ever.)

Then Joe wonders aloud when Jindal will get any coverage by the media on what he's NOT doing, and I wrote to him that HE'S the media, and HE can cover it more than that one time. He hardly ever mentioned it again.

[Peacetrain]

14. The over-reaction on the right.. gets them in trouble every time

They cannot think things out..its all emotion and hype.. and leaving the mess for everyone else to clean up while complaining...

They just creep me out

[Phx_Dem]

16. If so, he'd be the first Repubican who did. n/t

[bemildred]

17. Is this some sort of trick question? He's an idiot.

Think security alert color codes:

http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm

That level of stupid and irrelevant.

[FrenchieCat]

18. Jindal is a fucking hack!

[Blue_Roses]

19. Jindal is so far up BP's ass he can't see what he's doing...

he "owes" it to BP to "keep things straight" since he's their "go-to guy"! Why isn't it ever mentioned in the media that Jindal was the one who sponsored the DOER (Deep Ocean Energy Resources) ACT?

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.R.4761:

[Cha]

20. So what's his real reason for not calling up more National Guard?

And being so incompetent?

[treestar]

21. Incompetent buffoon

Who should just be letting the market take care of it, since that's his opinion on everything else.

[AlinPA]

22. Yes, he is playing politics and trying to blame it all on President Obama.