A Reminder of What Jindal's Made of

Submitted by Warner Todd Huston on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 16:46

Louisiana

The left this week is rushing to destroy Bobby Jindal before he can even get started in national politics, something the vaunted right-wing echo chamber failed to do to Obama. Don't take their bait, and fight back, no matter who you might support for 2012 or 2016. The record shows that Bobby Jindal took action to cut bureaucratic BS during Katrina.- Patrick.

We all saw the rocky performance that Bobby Jindal gave in his response to the president's not-the-state-of-the-union speech earlier this week. There was a lot of wincing going on during and after his performance. But, let me stress the word "performance," here. It was NOT the basic theme of the speech that was so bad. It was but how he delivered it.

Still, despite his less than show-stopping performance, a lot of second guessing on Jindal started to waft about conservative circles. The "he's not ready yet" stuff was everywhere. So, we need to remind ourselves of just what sort of stuff Governor Jindal is made of. That reminder comes in the form of his reaction and efforts during Hurricane Katrina. If you want a show-stopping performance, there you have one.

With his actions during that natural disaster and his words as a result, we can see his most basic ideals laid bare. And they are ideals we should all applaud. So, as a reminder here are some highlights of his op ed in the Wall Street Journal from September 8, 2005. Jindal began his piece with these words:

Over the past few days, America has been both moved and disturbed by television footage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. But for those of us in Louisiana still struggling to cope, the troubling images are of opportunistic politicians playing the blame game while there is so much real work to do.

Rather than point fingers, we should be fixing the situation on the ground. And that will include taking steps to ensure that red tape doesn't stifle the continued security and rebuilding efforts.

There have already been a number of instances in which an overly inhibitive bureaucracy prevented an appropriate response to the disaster. For example, on Wednesday of last week a company called my office. With only three hours before rising waters would make the mission impossible, they were anxious to send a rescue helicopter for their stranded employees. They wanted to know who would give them a go-ahead.

We could not identify the agency with authority. We heard that FEMA was in charge, that the FAA was in charge, and that the military was in charge. I went in person to talk with a FEMA representative and still could not get a straight answer. Finally we told the company to avoid interfering with Coast Guard missions, but to proceed on its own. Sometimes, asking for forgiveness is better than asking for permission.

True as can be. Big Government does not work. Local efforts are far more effective. And if anything speaks to Jindal's basic American ideal it is this line...

My office became so frustrated with the bureaucracy that we often turned to private companies. They responded more quickly and flexibly.

Rugged individualism and local control. Now THAT is something we conservatives should applaud.

In any case, go on over to the WSJ and read Jindal's whole piece. It is instructive to see what the man is made of. And remember, this came before he was the toast of conservatives everywhere, so he didn't have quite as much to prove then as he might now that ambitions might be a tad more extent.

Lastly, I have to express my own disappointment in those that beat the man up so for his reply to Obama. I thought we were the party of ideas? Why are we so chagrined with a less than stellar delivery when the ideas were pretty solid? Are we going to throw Jindal under the bus so soon just because he doesn't perform like Charlton Heston? I sure hope not. We are better than that, aren't we?

And here is a great video of another Louisiana legend, Sheriff Harry Lee, a self-described "yellow dog Democrat," who is a big supporter of Bobby Jindal!

This is Bobby Jindal. Please do not lose sight of this.

(Photo credit: washingtonpost.com)

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Comments

OK, lets concentrate on the substance

Submitted by NextRightNando on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 09:34.

OK, lets concentrate on the substance of his speech.

The Katrina story / Sherrif Lee has been found to be an exaggeration which his aides have had to walk back.

The point of the Katrina story is your "rugged individualism" and "government doesn't work". But who is the hero of the story? Sherrif Lee - a government official. Who is the villian? A FEMA bureaucrat. So the story is really about competance vs. incompetence. So it ends up reinforcing a Democratic meme.

The other really memorable in the speech was when he mocked volcano monitoring. WTH, how well is your "rugged individualism" going to pan out if you are surprised by a volcanic erruption near your home, leaving you without time to fill the gas cans and load the SUV and get the hell out of there?

Does the gov of Lousiana also mock hurricane monitoring?

That's it in a nutshell. The

Submitted by molotov on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 19:04.

That's it in a nutshell.

The whole point of Jindal's story was to show the benefit of good government vs. bad government.

That's called irony.

I spent a long time

Submitted by acinphx on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 23:03.

I spent a long time researching his views on hurricane monitoring, and couldn't find anything to indicate he has recommended de-funding federal hurricane monitoring. I took it as a given that he doesn't oppose hurricane monitoring for obvious reasons; the real question is whether he thinks it's as inappropriate for the federal government to fund that as he said it was to fund volcano monitoring.

So his comments would seem to be nothing more than mindless adherence to GOP snickering-points or an "I've got mine, the heck with you" attitude toward environmental monitoring that doesn't benefit his particular state.

Or if you want to be charitable, maybe he was just hoping his star will rise a little faster in the GOP universe if Sarah Palin doesn't get on board with the anti-volcano-monitoring BS. He can one-up her if she's not inclined to mock it given the Alaskan volcanos.

Yeah let's not forget what

Submitted by ronbailey on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 17:34.

Yeah let's not forget what Jindal is made of - a cross between Kenneth the Intern and a full on jesus freak who pins sick girls with cancer to the ground trying to drive out non-existant demons.

This guy is the biggest joke I've seen yet. This is the best you got?

Jindal failed his job interview, next please

Submitted by superdestroyer on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 17:45.

Jindal demonstrated that he does not have the leadership skills to lead a conservative movement back from being irrelevant. Knowing that everything he said was going to be facted checked by literally thousands of people, his staff choose to lie. So either Jindal picked a bad staff and thus has bad management skills or he is not capable of getting good work out of his staff.

Second, Jindal has no presence of television and cannot communicate. As one nonpartisan blogger pointed out, he came off as a weak, beta male. His does not have the prescence, the voice, or the persona to be a good candidate.

Jindal shoud no longer be considered for upper management and Repubicans need to be hard on every candidate. After the failures of the Bush Administration, Republicand and conservatives need to stay away from excuse making and demand real performance.

This is so off base that it

Submitted by In between on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 18:20.

This is so off base that it is so laughable. FEMA was gutted by Bush and put in Homeland security. Many experienced people lost their jobs in the process. You had Brown who was in charge, someone who did not know emergency management. You had a video conference with Bush, Brown, and others talking about the hurricane before it struck. And then after it hit, you had a governor and a mayor who were incompetent. But you also had an incompetent FEMA. And after some three days of people screaming, Bush said "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." That is one of many blunders by Bush and company.

During the Clinton years, you had James Lee Witt, who understood emergency management. FEMA worked well, until it was dismantled. James Lee Witt, had personnel stationed in problematic areas before, during, and after. It would have been a different story if James Lee Witt was in charge.

Jindal....

Submitted by GWMustGo on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 19:50.

If Governor Jindal is all that and a bag of chips (and from what I had read about him prior to this last week, he's got some things going for him***), he needs go grow a pair and speak for himself, not become a puppet of the bozos in charge of the GOP.

And he also needs to stop making up stories. If he is all that (plus the chips), stories of things that REALLY happened will be good enough to get his point accross. BS'ing folks just makes him look like a fool (look what the "under fire" story did for Hillary Clinton).

(*** Sadly, some of those things involve curing cancer by removing evil spirits via an exorcism.... We do not yet know if his thoughts on the Easter Bunny, Frosty the Snowman, or Harvey)

Please God ..if your listening.....Jidel/Palin in 2012!!!

Submitted by truthynesslover on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 21:44.

Best reality show EVER!!

Republican tradition: fibbing

Submitted by lgm on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 23:03.

A recent thread turned to memories of Reagan. People need reminding that he was a pathological liar. He made up the welfare queen story. It got to the point that his people didn't bother with "clarifications" and reporters didn't bother repeating them. It just was who he was. Bush also had an "interesting" relationship with the truth.

Now, talkingpointsmemo.com has the goods on Jindal. The Sheriff Lee story is a Reaganisque fib. That makes Jindal the future of the Republican party.

Bad Post

Submitted by cr on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 09:35.

1. "The left this week is rushing to destroy Bobby Jindal": why is it that when a republican f's up, it's always some left wing conspiracy? Give it a rest.

2. The right has been pumping him up (and for good reason, he his smart and talented), and then sent him on a fools errand of coming in behind Barrack in rebuttle with (yawn) stock Rep ideology that is now nationally out of favor. Why do that now? BO has the ratings behind him and a teleprompter in front. This is not a problem caused by the left, but sheer ineptness from Republican leadership.

What were they thinking? the Republican bench isn't that deep. Palin is now in the tabloid zone so forget her in 2012, and Jindal who really had some hope, is now starting on the defensive in terms of a national presense. Maybe there's still time to recover, but . . . I wouldn't bet on it. Yes, hell make the chest thumpers happy, but outside of that, he's quickly becoming an also-ran.

ditto

Submitted by xc1148 on Mon, 03/02/2009 - 09:43.

The left doesn't have to destroy Jindal, he did it himself. (Just like Palin's bailout "answer.") The right over-hyped him, and it's not the media's fault he couldn't articulate an argument for conservatism over liberalism. He is a Rhodes Scholar, and if he wants to let the far right dictate his every move then he can deal with the results. I believe there was a post on this website (in addition to Fox News) about how horrible his speech was, so maybe incorporate some reality into your argument before you post something.

Jindal and Palin birds of a feather

Submitted by artigiano on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 09:50.

Jindal and Palin are identical. Both quickly became national jokes. Why?

Neither had the awareness too know it was too soon. Both of them entered into a task they were not yet ready for, at a time when all the cards were stacked against them. Both failed publicly and miserably.

No one becomes the governor of any of the 50 states without having some very admirable traits and outstanding abilities. Both of these young Republicans could have grown into transformational leaders if given another decade or more to learn and grow.

The GOP is forcing the search for their own Obama. So they are throwing every non-white male youthful face out there for public consumption. The media machine is chewing each one up and spitting them back out.

This strategy is not working. My advice would be to find and promote the next LBJ or Nixon. Maybe the counterpoint to Obama is a seasoned, wise, and trusted leader whose judgement has been tempered by a very long career in public service. Go back to the old-timers bench and rehabilitate the Jack Kemp, John Kasick, Vin Weber, William Weld types.

And they both govern states that are in the top 5

Submitted by NextRightNando on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 09:56.

And they both govern states that are in the top 5 states in terms of money received from the federal government compared to federal taxes paid. Isn't it ironic, yeh I really do think.

agreed

Submitted by cr on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 11:08.

Reps are the party of rural, white amercia. Go ahead and lead with what you got, and work on the minority part in the background. Obama's going to probably win in 2012 so might as well take their time and develope the right people in the right way.

And don't do the rebuttle. It's a high risk, low return proposition.

A lot of hot air!!!!

Submitted by gunthestops on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 12:14.

The party of hope Vs the party of "I hope you fail"-----wow---now that is strategy!!!!!!

Bush who!!!!---lol----yep you own this lead balloon, embrace your failure like men!!!!

The earmark hot air coming from republicans---actually in billions how much is going to earmarks----then do it as a % of the 2010 budget, then break it down per state--lol---but just saying 9,000 earmarks sounds so much better!!!

compare the 2009 budget to the 2010 budget and ajust for war and emergency spending and the budget increase is less then the average of the Bush years--wow--being a bunch of hypocrites and liars is a great strategy for America and republicans--lol

The key flaw in your argument, of course...

Submitted by dean2 on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 14:34.

... is that the failure in Katrina was due to "big government." The problem there is that it was exactly small government that failed. "Big government" would have had the resources and resolve to react/proact to Katrina, whereas Bush's small government failed attempt, inevitably.

Have "conservative" already forgotten that, since 1968, "conservatives" have run the Presidency 28 of 40 years, and that the previous 8 years were entirely dominated by "conservatives"? The "conservative" record speaks for itself. It failed catastrophically.

Actually Jindal and all past Govenors are at fault

Submitted by BulldogsRule on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 14:53.

All were at fault for not standing up and demanding that the levee's be finished and repaired before it became a nightmare.

Yes to Jindal's idea -- but presentation matters

Submitted by TomGrey on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 19:29.

I agree with Bobby Jindal's ideas and his points, but his speech was poor.

You don't vote for an idea for president, you vote for a candidate. I think Mike and Sarah are better candidates than Bobby, so far.

Mitt Romney also has good ideas -- also has a lousy presentation.

Substance does make a difference.

Submitted by T D Williams on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 20:01.

As of November my state, Oregon, was number 5 (undoubtedly closer to number 1 by now since we hit 9.9% unemployment in January) in unemployment. Louisiana was number 36. Jindal is welcome here.

Too many

Submitted by Warner Todd Huston on Sun, 03/01/2009 - 22:33.

Too many of you here (and in the conservative movement generally) suffer from the "no true scotsman" theory. There is no "true" conservative because anyone that makes a move -- even ONE move -- in the wrong direction is thrown under the bus and hated hence forth. Folks NO ONE is perfect. Even Reagan made major faux pas.

A Leader Or An Avatar?

Submitted by Mick Stockinger on Mon, 03/02/2009 - 17:12.

I am increasingly disturbed at the hair-trigger responses to any criticism of Bobby Jindal, but especially the legitimate kind.

Are we looking for leadership, or protecting an heir apparent? The former strides in under their own power, points the way and says "follow me". The latter is stage managed to the last millimeter. I think what's happened is that some in the Republican party saw how Obama came up and decided to make their own Ken doll.

We don't need an avatar for powerful interests looking to protect their perogatives. Jindal's got talent, but he needs to mature as a politician.

We don't need the Democrats to destroy the conservative movement so many of us seem perfectly willing to eat our young.