A couple of folks here had trouble imagining that Bobby Jindal might have told anything less that the Gawd’s Own Truth in his Katrina yarn about Sheriff Harry Lee.
Ahem. Jindal just admitted the lie.
Amazingly, for the second time in about an hour, I believe Tom Tancredo is right about something: “I think,” he says, “that performance would very well have put the last nail in the coffin for him, for running for president.”
Yes indeed, and very efficiently too.
UPDATE: “Enjoy” may not be a plausible wish, but anyhow, here ’tis (h/t TPM):
Do I have to go stand in the corner now?
Not unless you wanna go hang out with Bobby, Wanted, which I don’t suppose many do today.
SHEE-it Lotus! You’re a genius. You hit the nail on the head below when you wrote: “You know, Twittering away or not, these guys still don’t understand what world they’re operating in, 3dS. YouTubes. Non-disappearing websites. Cyber archives. Ubiquitous videocams.” Now, would you look for “Susan” that he cast a devil from, and whose cancer he cured?
No genius here, 3dS (but thanky for your kindness) — just marginally more alert than any Republican officeholder seems to be these days. But that’s an awfully low bar.
It’s pretty amazing though, isn’t it? Like, to be one of those, you must be constitutionally unable to tell the truth, whether the subject-matter needs talking-about or not.
Never seen such a thorough trainwreck in my life — in including the actual one I was in as a child, that killed five people.
Anyone who knew Harry Lee knew damn well that conversation didn’t happen with Bobby Jindal in his office. Would someone ask Bobby Jindal if he was ever allowed by Harry Lee to set foot in his office? The lobby, maybe, the office I doubt. And while investigating, would someone please run down “Susan” whom he exorcised, and cured of cancer? I bet that one’s a potential railroad spike in the coffin.
What do you know about that story, 3dS? I’ve just heard that Jindal believes in exorcism. Who’s “Susan”?
Maybe he thought that show was just a practice run-through or that the “sheriff and the bureaucrat” was just a fable illustrating Republican ineptness. Whatever he thought, I’m sure that to Bobby “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
He shoulda told the one about how Leonidas and Blackwater are signing contracts with ATF right now to confiscate (“confisticate” as one of my red pals says it) everyone’s firearms. I hid all mine under the mattress … they’ll never think to look there.
(lote goes tee ‘n’ hee)
Lotus, first, before we leave recent events, check out this Yahoo analysis: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090225123511AA74lTq of some other statements Bobby Jindal made to the nation. Then, for Bobby Jindal’s account on the exorcism and cancer cure, you should go to
http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=1294-jindal and decide for yourself what you think about it, after considering what you just heard about Harry Lee and the train question and answer at the Yahoo site.
This guy’s toast. The next line of questioning needs to be a delve into the Republican vetting process. Who selected Bobby Jindal? What review of his remarks was approved by whom? Might it have been the same folks who vetted Sarah Palin for John McCain? Might it have been John McCain? Senator Vitter?
Well, 3dS, I didn’t elect to pay them the buck-fifty to read past the arrival in her dorm room, but even that much of it creeps me out. Way too much sexual squeamishness to ignore — Fundamentalism’s influence, no doubt.
I wonder what Dr X would see in this tale.
Hmm. Looks like the son of immigrants is just another southern GOB.
I’ve heard that the RNC wrote the speech, but dunno if that’s a fact.
3S: Mebbe it was Sarah herseff. She is increasingly being cast as the GOP’s “star” for the future. She and Bobby would make a fine ticket for 2012. Something for everyone: wolves and bears, nutria and mushrats, guns and beaver traps, some oil, some gas, etc.
Reminds me: didja see pix of the brownbear a guy ran over with his Harley Davidson? Don’t try that with a Honda.
And Ben, never try a caribou with a bicycle. Maybe Sarah wrote this crap for Bobby to get him out of her way. Do you think the writers at Saturday Night Live are busy right now? What possesses the Governor of a State to go on National Television and just make shit up?
Hey 3dSo, I know who SNL could get to play Jindal….drum roll please…..Tim Balducci. He looks just like Jindal and now that he’s been doing some construction work I bet he’s got a good enough tan.
“He shoulda told the one about how Leonidas and Blackwater are signing contracts with ATF right now to confiscate (”confisticate” as one of my red pals says it) everyone’s firearms. I hid all mine under the mattress … they’ll never think to look there.”
Ha! One day, you’ll look back and say “damn, never thought this could happen…” No worries though, I’ll be there pointin’ n’ a laughin’.
Lotus @ 11 – Fundamentalism’s influence, no doubt.
Perhaps, but the Catholic Church didn’t finally ban exorcisms until 1999. There’s plenty of crazy in that department of Christianity, too. Here’s a link that quotes much of that Oxford Review article.
Well, it didn’t seem to hurt B. Clinton when he said he didn’t inhale. Not sayin’ they’re comparable, I’m just sayin’.
3rdSouth, you asked who goes on television and makes stuff up? It’s not made up; it’s simply “dis-remembered.”
Like when Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign was touting her foreign affairs/military experience. She told how in Iraq (or was it Afghanistan?), she landed in the helicopter under attack and had to run to the waiting auto while ducking for cover.
After news video was later revealed that showed a different scene of her helicopter landing, Hillary explained that she was just tired from the long hours of the campaign and just dis-remembered the experience.
Funny how dis-remembering so often dismembers political candidacies, innit?
Good points made at Benen’s, not all by him:
Amen on the post script, Lotus, at 22. It shows what a nation of dolts they take us for, based, no doubt, on the fact that a majority of our fellow citizens elected W once, and made it so hanging chad close he could steal it another time. I can just hear Cheney saying, “Bobby, I told you to say 9-11, 9-11, 9-11 and terrorists, terrorists, terrorists, not that that Katrina ice and rescue shit.”
Final point from me on this mess: Ain’t it funny how these confirmations come through a spokesperson, and not the man who told the lie?
Jindal has told this story dozens of times in Louisiana, but no one there expects politicians to be truthful.
I don’t doubt that Harry Lee told the story but I doubt it is true. If you watched CNN, you may remember that there were no bureaucrats micromanaging the Katrina relief effort. They were in Baton Rouge eating at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and saying everything was under control. If there is any small part of this story based on fact, the more likely scenario is that some of Harry Lee’s cronies were trying to rent their boats and services to FEMA for about 3 times what they were worth and Harry was trying to make sure they would be paid and he would get a cut. Also, of course, Jefferson Parish officials main concern at the time was preventing Orleans residents from crossing the river.
I think maybe Louisiana voters should raise their expectations, Researcher. People tend to do what’s expected of them, and LA politicians do seem to be living up to what’s expected of them.
Pitiful!
Jindal’s a good example of the Peter Principle, a guy best relegated to a position in a middle-level bureaucracy.
His crackpot ideas are now costing N.O. money:
http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1234938291272770.xml&coll=1
And, no, he didn’t carry N.O. when he won as governor.
I know that it’s useless to even mention this, and I don’t know why I’m even doing it, because I don’t give a **** about Jindal. He’s a politician and, therefore, in my view, not worth defending. However, Jim Treacher has a video of Harry Lee that sort of discredits TPM’s reporting on this. I won’t link it since Treacher is considered a conservative but if anyone is interested in the truth, you may want to look at it before deciding who is correct.
Billdees, if I had not had a friend who was deathly allergic to smoke, I would never entertain Clinton’s excuse, but I was there and she so wanted to get high back in the 80s, but was afraid it might kill her if she inhaled. Years later, when I heard his excuse, yes, I died laughing, but had actually seen it in practice.
One of the GAO reports on FEMA screw-ups revealed that FEMA bought 20 flat-bottomed boats (17 new, 3 used) for two-times more than they were worth but failed to acquire the title to any of the boats. FEMA paid the vendor in full but he did not pay one of the companies he bought them from. GAO and FEMA could not find two of the used boats, but eventually local law enforcement found one at the home of its former owner. He said he had received a call from NOPD to come pick up his boat in the Convention Center parking lot so he did.
I don’t know if these are Harry Lee’s boats, but I would bet that the guys who called him were not volunteering but were expecting to be paid very well for their boats, in which case asking them to prove that they actually owned the boats would not be unreasonable. If they just wanted to volunteer they would have launched their boats without seeking out a bureaucrat. Plenty of people helped with no obstruction from anyone. You only encountered bureaucracy if you demanded to be compensated or reimbursed.
lie or no lie. . . this guy is a real weenie.
This story may not quite have the legs that TPM hoped it would have. Kingfish at Jackson Jambalaya has posted (along with some usual Kingfishian snark aimed at this blog) some video showing Harry Lee endorsing Jindal for governor, in which Lee says “the day after Katrina, Bobby was in my office saying what do you need. it wasn’t phone calls. he was in my office.” He talks about flying Jindal around in one of his helicopters then; there’s another video of another sheriff describing Jindal showing soon after the hurricane, showing up also in a helicopter.
Doesn’t 100% corroborate Jindal’s story but there are also reports of Lee complaining about the boats soon after Katrina, so it’s getting close.
If I were TPM I’d post a substantial correction and back off this one.
OK, now I am coming out of the corner. Thanks, NMC.
Then what was Jindal’s spokesperson “apologizing” for? It seems to me, based on this new information, that Jindal still misrepresented the facts. He implied that it was in his presence in the sheriff’s office when the sheriff was wrangling with the bureaucracy over those boats and he, Jindal, saved the day.
TMP wrote: “In our post, we reported — among other red flags — that we couldn’t find any news reports that put Jindal on the ground in the affected area during the time when a boat rescue would have been needed.”
That hole is plugged by the Lee speech. It corroborates this part in my opinion:
“During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office ”
Was Jindal present when Lee was dealing with the boat business? not known other than to Lee, whoever he talked to about it, and Jindal, but an important piece of TPM’s take on this story– that Jindal wasn’t on the scene when people were being pulled off rooftops– turns out to be incorrect.
I’ll add this: When I listened to the speech, the story sounded hyped, that is, exaggerated in possibly important ways. It had the feel of a story that had been molded into “object lesson” status overmuch. The jury is still out on that, in my opinion. But there’s no evidence for outright fabrication at the moment.
If TPM’s account of Jindal’s staff’s dealing with this issue is accurate, he’s going to have to work on the rapid-response part of a presidential campaign a WHOLE lot, and real soon. Right after he fixes that gives-speeches-like-Mr.-Rogers thing.
And I’d still run a correction if I were TPM (about suggesting Jindal wasn’t on the ground then). Tell the whole story, folks.
Where do they say that, NMC? The most recent Jindal post I see at TPM is this one.
“In our post, we reported — among other red flags — that we couldn’t find any news reports that put Jindal on the ground in the affected area during the time when a boat rescue would have been needed.”
From TPM, here.
Okay, gotcha — you’re not quoting TPM in “but an important piece of TPM’s take on this story– that Jindal wasn’t on the scene when people were being pulled off rooftops– turns out to be incorrect.” Nemmind 39.
Bottom line remains that Bobby Jindal would have done himself a power of good to let somebody else take that assignment the other night.
The speech BOMBED BIGTIME.
He had an opportunity to make himself into presidential material. He blew it. He’s not finished by any means (as Kingfish pointed out to me offline, Bill Clinton bombed at the ’88 Democratic convention, although he blew it in a different way) but I think this is pretty serious damage.
The best thing he’s got going for him is the weak field. Mitt Romney? Newt? Sarah Palin!? They’re going to have to have a non-Washington candidate to run against the whole mess up there….