After offering-up the latest GOP lie that $8 billion of the stimulus was line-itemed for "a ‘magnetic levitation’ line from Las Vegas to Disneyland" in last night's widely-panned speech, you'll never guess where Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) travels today:
After giving one of the biggest speeches in his time as a politician, Gov. Bobby Jindal is heading to Disney World.
Jindal's office says the governor and his family leave for the Orlando vacation resort today.
A perfect punctuation mark to the idiocy of last night's GOP response.
Watched the "State of the Union" and then Jindal's "rebuttal" - what the he!!???? Using KATRINA as a model?? OMG.......ending corruption? ....Scooter Libby, Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay.......healthcare reform? Since when has the pubs EVER proposed healthcare reform? Alternative energy? Reduce big government and spending? WHAT DID THE LAST 8 YEARS TEACH US?? If Jindal represents the pub party - it is truly the day the music (dirge) died.
Bye, Bye republican pie, drove my Chevy to the levy and the levy cried - and good old boys were drinking Kool-Aid and rye, this is the day the pubs died.......
Looks like the game is up.
Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night -- about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims?
Turns out it wasn't actually, you know, true.
In the last few days, first Daily Kos, and then TPMmuckraker, raised serious questions about the story, based in part on the fact that no news reports we could find place Jindal in the affected area at the specific time at issue.
Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee "during Katrina," and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn't have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, "that's ridiculous," prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.
But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.
This is no minor difference. Jindal's presence in Lee's office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story's intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn't there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.
There's a larger point here, though. The central anecdote of the GOP's prime-time response to President Obama's speech, intended to illustrate the threat of excessive government regulation, turns out to have been made up.
Maybe it's time to rethink the premise.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/jindal_admits_katrina_story_was_false.php?ref=fp1
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