Even the liberal New Republic is impressed:
Constantly jumping in and out of National Guard helicopters and drawing up plans for additional “burrito levees” and “boudin bags” needed to stop the oil slick from flowing further into his state’s marshes, Jindal has quickly mastered the details of the issue. At a press conference in New Orleans in mid-May, the Washington Post reported that “he gave updates on the size of tar balls washing up in Port Fourchon (up to eight inches), the number of sandbags to be air-dropped (1,200) and state money spent to date ($3.7 million). He also provided a weather forecast (‘The winds continue to come out of the southeast, 10 to 15 knots’).”
This reminds me of when America’s mayor won the Battle of 9/11.
That long black cloud is coming down.
Tonal Crow
The New Republic is liberal?
fourlegsgood
I guess next Jindal is going to admit that this requires a “government” response. Right? right???
fourlegsgood
BTW, I’m pretty sure as soon as this emergency is over, Jindal will go back to bashing the feds and calling for small government.
merl
he better not. that’s socialism, and jesus hates socialism
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Tonal Crow: To the Washington post it is, see also the internet tradition, started by Atrios, that “respectable” opinion on politics runs the gamut from The New Republic to Free Republic.
Linkmeister
I heard something somewhere about the berms Jindal and the Plaquemines parish Prez want; that they might do irreparable harm to the marshes over the long term. I don’t know how true that is, but I wonder if that’s the reason for the delay in getting approval for their construction from the Feds.
Anybody know anything?
Hmm. Here’s something from the Times-Picayune:
End quote.
Polish the Guillotines
The miracle of video will haunt Jindall. Just intercut his classic “volcano monitoring is the bunk” comment with clips of Iceland and flight cancellations, and his threats to give the Stimulus the finger with his cries for more federal aid.
Too easy.
And, of course, President Giuliani is living proof that the White House is just a disaster away for the GOP.
ajr22
I was reading the Flotilla post, and wanted to ask when did the comment section here become the reddit comment section?
Brian J
After listening to his inane response to Obama’s State of the Union speech, I tried to avoid paying any attention to him. Maybe I missed something, but wasn’t he a fairly big supporter of rebuffing any sort of federal assistance for his state when the stimulus was being passed? If so, and even if he wasn’t on the same level of stupidity as Sanford or Perry, how does he square this with his acceptance of aid after Katrina and now after the big oil spill? I’ll be charitable and assume there’s a small chance his set of principles is a little more thoughtfully nuanced than a cursory inspection might suggestion, but if I am very wrong about that, I won’t be surprised. And if I am wrong, why the hell aren’t reporters digging into that instead of trying to make him the Indian Rudy!!!!!!! Giuliani.
Linkmeister
Hmm. From the NYT a week earlier:
More:
That’s probably what I remember hearing.
Comrade Javamanphil
Perhaps Jindal could try an exorcism to scare the oil away?
Tonal Crow
@Linkmeister: It takes a long time to build barrier islands. Isn’t it much more efficient simply to procure more boom?
Tonal Crow
@Comrade Javamanphil: Yeah! I’m sure Palin could help him out with that.
Adam Collyer
Giuliani was a media creation. He’s not that popular in the city anymore, especially after his GOP convention speech ripped on New Yorkers and other northeasterners. He didn’t win the GOP nomination, or even come close. He’s embarrassing.
Bobby Jindal is the new Rudy Giuliani? Excellent.
smiley
I don’t live in Louisiana but most of my family does. Don’t sell this guy short. He has his eye on national office and the GOP clearly wants to promote him as the “dark-skinned, inclusive, big tent” face of the party (the Michael Steele experiment went so well after all). He’ll be on a GOP ticket for president some day (probably not 2012 — but who knows?), maybe after serving as a U.S. senator for a while.
Hal
So if you can master the complexities of weather.com, you can become a disaster expert?
Violet
I heard on the news tonight that the wind is shifting and the oil may be heading to Mississippi and Alabama. Jindal is going to haz a sad if he doesn’t get to play Giuliani all by his lonesome and instead has to share the limelight with governors from other states.
Ash
I’m mostly confused by the weather comment. Okay, so Piyush knows how to watch the Weather Channel. AND?
Hal
The only thing Jindal has done to obtain national attention is his State of the Union Address (a complete bust), and this oil spill posturing, which quite frankly, just emphasizes his drill baby drill attitude.
I would also point out that there are a butt load of presumptive GOP nominees we are not supposed to underestimate, that never the less, only seem to appeal to hard core GOP’ers. Palin, Giuliana, Thompson, Romney.
And I don’t think Jindal is one of them. Exorcism or not, this guy will never earn traction on a national level with base GOP voters.
Rock
I love that quoting a bunch of numbers automatically makes someone a genius. Of course, I’ve heard before that Jindal is in fact extremely smart. But I’ve also heard him buy into exorcisms and mock public investment in science that can keep people safe. So knowing the tar ball size really doesn’t make me want him to govern me….
Citizen_X
Whoa, whoa, whoa! That sounds like something from a volcano or something. Get it out of here.
Brian J
@Adam Collyer:
There was a lot of talk on blogs that followed him of how the New York City police and fireman’s unions were going to make life very miserable for him if he ended up with the nomination. I kind of remember what they are talking about, but I’m sure there was a lot more that was never well known.
I really, really hope that Jindal and especially Giuliani run in 2012, if only to keep me entertained. His hapless presidential run was some of the best comedy I’ve seen in the last couple of years. He was a serious embarrassment, almost comically corrupt and inept, and he was beginning to rival Romney for the number of sheer flip flops.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hal:
My iPhone has a weather app. I assume blackberry and android do, too.
I don’t underestimate Jindal, nor do I underestimate exactly how low down and dirty the 2012 GOP primary will be (of course, they never got as internally nasty as I thought they would in ’08).
Brian J
@smiley:
To be fair, Jindal does seem smarter and more competent than Steele. That’s not a high hill to climb, of course, but still…
BGK
@Linkmeister:
Only in an amateur sense, from living in an area thick with estuarine wetlands for much of my life.
This is a profoundly dumb idea, and I wondered here at BJ last week if the Corps’s silence was because of same. Wetlands and barrier islands are dynamic systems, and depend wholly on the natural flow of tides, changing slowly over time, for their continued health. Blocking that with any kind of artificial structure, especially one thrown up without study, is a fast track to killing them.
I use the local example of the causeway built to Sanibel Island in 1961. The county cheaped out and built a pair of islands, and three shorter bridges, instead of one continuous bridge. The islands disrupted the tidal flow of the upstream waters and permanently killed off the scallop and shellfish beds. When it rained, water couldn’t flow to the Gulf fast enough, and the drop in salinity killed everything sensitive.
If Louisiana puts berms around their wetlands, the trapped water will gradually turn fresh from rainfall, and something similar will happen to the marsh grasses. Not to mention the turbidity caused by the dredging will kill off the underwater grasses.
But hey, young Piyush is a Man of Action, and God knows we need more of them.
smiley
@Hal:
If you read my comment carefully, you’ll see that I didn’t claim that Jindal was running on a presidential ticket (POTUS or VPOTUS) this year, next year, or in 2012, which is an actual presidential election year. He’s young, smart, and there is a lot of time to rehabilitate his image. The Dems would be stupid to not take him seriously. BTW? You don’t know what you’re talking about if you don’t think the GOP base will go for someone with Jindal’s religious beliefs (see Antonin Scalia)
LD50
@smiley: To be perfectly blunt, I think there is a little racial problem that will prevent Jindal from ever being embraced by the GOP base.
He might make it to the Senate if he has weak opposition in the primaries. But if the Base doesn’t trust Mormons, you can imagine their feelings about a brown person named Piyush who, frankly, looks like a dork.
Brian J
@efgoldman:
No, but he call for massive federal aid to the state after Katrina. Or maybe it was Gustav. This Think Progress link says it was Katrina, but the NOLA link it sends us to says it was Gustav. Whatever hurricane it was, he’s actively sought federal assistance for his state.
I guess it’s possible to have such a finely detailed worldview that this apparent hypocrisy really isn’t hypocritical at all. It’d sure be nice if the press would look into this rather than licking his balls.
smiley
@LD50:
OK, but Jindal won the governor’s race in Louisiana in 2007 by 54%. I guaran-damn-tee you that Rahmbo and Axelrod are watching him.
Linkmeister
@BGK: Thanks. When I heard/read that the parish president had been agitating for this for a while my inner cynic began asking why. Leaving out the potential for Louisiana corruption, I wondered if he just didn’t understand the potential impact of building those things.
smiley
BTW? I’ve asked this before but LD50? Really? Why not ED50?
beabea
For Bobby, the berm issue is a fantastic political opportunity. If they are in fact a bad idea, he probably knows that; he’s a smart guy with a science background.
But the beauty part for Bobby is that the Army Corps’ refusal to approve the berms gives him an opportunity to score points by bashing the government, with the added benefit of giving him someone to blame when the oil washes up. “See, none of this would have happened if they had approved the berms I asked for!!!”
All politicians are opportunists to some extent, but I live here and Bobby Jindal takes opportunism and pandering to a whole new level. And the people here just eat it up! It’s unbelievable. They actually turned out to cheer him when he showed up with the giant cardboard checks drawn on stimulus funds that just weeks earlier, he made a show of “refusing.”
No, do not underestimate Bobby Jindal, especially his uncanny bamboozlement skills. It’s like he’s able to do that Jedi mind trick on people: “This isn’t rank hypocrisy and pandering…nothing to see here…move along…”
BTW firing off the succession of facts that impressed even the liberal New Republic–that’s something he’s good at. He did it every day during his news conferences during our recovery from hurricane Gustav in 2008. You might notice that when he is reciting facts, he talks like a normal person. But when he goes into that sing-songy mode–that’s your warning that he is selling b.s. It’s his tell.
Brian J
@beabea:
If the DNC really had some balls, it would erect massive billboards along major roadways in each and every congressional district of individuals that opposed the stimulus but tried to take credit for it. The attacks don’t need to be personal nor necessarily inflammatory to work. Hell, I’ll chip in for the one in Eric Cantor’s district just to see that twerp try to justify his pathetic choices in front of a camera crew.
someguy
C’mon. Give Jindal some credit. It’s not his fault that his request for Israeli commandos to deal with the slick was turned down.
Allison W.
@Brian J:
ENOUGH with the “balls” comments already!!
Why do people boil things down to how big someone’s dong is? enough with this macho crap. We need pols with brains and the ability to think long term.
“if the Dems had enough balls…………” – if I had a nickel for every time I saw a comment start with this line……ugh!!!
Nellcote
Will the berms and currents push the oil off to Mississippi? Haley Barbor has been noticibly silent regarding the oil spill. He was absent from the confab Prez Obama held in the gulf the other day.
beabea
@Brian J:
Anything that would make Eric Cantor squirm on camera, sounds great to me.
But I don’t that would work here. Bobby is like the golden child who can do no wrong. Time and again, he makes decisions that are bad for our state, but good for him. And time and again, he gets away with it.
The local paper’s editorial page takes him to task occasionally, for weakening the state’s ethics laws while he campaigned on the opposite; for embracing the teaching of creationism, or taking helicopter rides to church services on the taxpayer’s dime… but nothing sticks. It just draws LTE’s defending Jindal and criticizing the paper for being “liberal.”
It’s mystifying, frustrating, and sad, especially now.
wrb
It’s getting dark, too dark for me to see
Brian J
@beabea:
It’s worth doing, I think, if for no other reason than the fact that it would galvanize our base.
LD50
@smiley: Oh come on, ‘Lethal Dose 50’ is *way* more badass than ‘Effective Dose 50’.
Max Power
Was the New Republic . . . snarking?
I cracked up at the end.
DougJ
@wrb:
Take this blog away from me.
LD50
@smiley:
Maybe. But how much Louisiana is willing to overlook his brownness is not the question here. We’re talking about him having to market himself to a GOP that is more openly racist and teabaggy than ever before. And, remember, he will be competing with many other equally crazy WHITE Republicans in the primaries.
Fern
@Linkmeister: Yup. We had to kill them in order to save them.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
WANTED: Full-time intern fall 2011-spring 2012.
EMPLOYER: Comedy Central
DESCRIPTION: Will monitor cable news broadcasts for all instances of presidential candidate Piyush “Bobby” Jindal saying the words “Obama’s Oil Spill.”
INTERVIEWING: Immediately.
wrb
@DougJ:
bury my puns in the ground
RadioOne
I’m nowhere close to being a “new republic liberal” — but despite the Presidential aspirations, Jindal tends to be a competent governor when it comes to crisis situations. God knows, he’s had practice, given the hurricanes that have hit Louisiana over the past few years. And I know the New Republic is trying to hype him out to be the next Giuliani right now, but I really don’t think he wants that kind of hype. I might be wrong, but given how all his attempts to get national attention have been ridiculed unilaterally across the country the past year or so, I just can’t see him getting into the national game again anytime soon.
bob h
A pity that Jindal didn’t take the threat so seriously pre-blowout. He could have ensured that adequate supplies of booms were pre-positioned, that the State had an emergency response command and control system for using the fishing fleet.
Just as it was a pity Louisiana didn’t take the hurricane threat seriously enough to make sure the levees were adequate. These people are victims mostly of their own stupidity and apathy.
victory
The Bobby Jindal of 2011/12:
A noun, a verb, and oil spill.
It will be fun to watch a republican running on a platform of MORE government involvement as it will be impossible for him to use this disaster for his political benefit and claim he is for less government involvement.
Henk
@Tonal Crow: That was my thought exactly. Didn’t Beinart drive it off the NeoCon cliff?
Harry R. Sohl
Did he say it in a “sing-song” folksy way – like Kenneth the page – with jokes about “preexisting conditions” and government paying for catastrophic-event warnings systems?
He’s so effective when he does it that way.
gregor
Well, soon they will move to Nikki Haley nee Nimrata Randhawa, the next philandaering governor of South Carolina as the next non-white (but converted Christian) GOP hope.
The Other Chuck
After taking all this government action, Jindal is of course going to ride this to stardom by claiming that government can’t do anything. Republicans will eat it up — logic is for libruls.
uptown
When you have to inform us a publication is “liberal” it usually means they aren’t.
– – – –
Jindal sponsored the Deep Ocean Energy Resources bill which would have lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling.
H.R. 4761 [109th]: Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006
To provide for exploration, development, and production activities for mineral resources on the outer Continental Shelf, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep. Bobby Jindal [R-LA]
freepatriot
Piyush speaks out of both sides of his face
that’s all you need to know