Bobby Jindal Tells Massive Lie, Many Too Busy Laughing At Him To Notice

Scott's analysis this week has, rightly, centred on President Obama's address to Congress. Elsewhere however the buzz has been about what came after, in Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's pre-taped response. Enduring America may already have scientifically proven that Sarah Palin will be the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 but Jindal's star is rising within the GOP and he's seen in some quarters as a potential challenger to Obama in 2012. So what went wrong for him on Tuesday? And if this speech doesn't kill his career will his lie- about helping a now-dead Sheriff fight bureaucracy to save lives during Hurricane Katrina - do so?

Jindal's canned response has been variously described as hokey, homespun and just plain condescending. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was left stupefied, briefly losing the power of speech before remarking on the hyporcrisy of a Republican invoking "government failure during Katrina as a model for how to move forward as a country":

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOFcaYljKfc[/youtube]

So far, so bad for Jindal. But the following day bloggers at Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo began to raise doubts about Jindal's story of standing alongside Sheriff Harry Lee, as he announced he'd rather be arrested than prevented from sending out volunteer rescue boats which lacked the correct insurance:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8U4zVmJPs[/youtube]

The story is false- Jindal's office has admitted that the governor overheard Lee, who died in 2007, telling the story in an interview several days later. Jindal used a story stolen from a dead man as the centrepiece of Tuesday's GOP response, and in ten short minutes the future of the Republican Party became a laughing stock and a liar.

Comments

[UJ]

Did you hear the one about Hillary landing under sniper fire?

I wouldn't write his political obituary just yet...

[Scott Lucas]

UJ,

I thought of exactly the same incident. And there was Al Gore inventing the Internet....

Agree with you that Jindal can't be written off. I recall an ex-Arkansas Governor bombing at the Demo Nat'l Convention in '88.

Still, it has been quite hilarious to witness the same folks who have done hatchet jobs on Demo "morals" doing cartwheels to get the Sheriff Lee incident in the "right" perspective. Have a look at http://tinyurl.com/ae9u4v

S.