Bobby Jindal should disregard the Interior Department's position

[Danzig]

from Slate:


Are Gulf Coast Governors Dragging Their Feet?

Gulf Coast governors have been quick to criticize the government for lagging in its response to the oil spill, but a CBS investigative report(link to cbs below) suggests that local politicians may not be doing much better. In Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and, most notably, Louisiana, governors have taken their time deploying National Guard troops—even after blaming the administration for dragging their feet. "It's clear the resources needed to protect our coast are still not here," Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal sniped not so long ago, but according to CBS, Jindal has only deployed 1,053 of the 6,000 troops that were sent down to the coast. To be fair, the same is true of other Gulf governors, and as of this week, Alabama has only mobilized 432 out of 3,000 troops, Florida has sent out 97 out of 2,500, and Mississippi has deployed 58 out of 6,000. In total, Obama has authorized sending 17,500 troops down to the Gulf, all on BP's dime. Most of them are still waiting for action. Jindal says that the delay is the result of bureaucratic red tape, but Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen calls that claim bogus. "There is nothing standing in the governor's way from utilizing more National Guard troops," Allen told CBS.


......bobby jindal is a republican. i sure hope he isn't delaying for political points, giving his party ammo against the sitting president. that would be appalling. what are the political persuasions of the govs of the other states mentioned?




http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...n6615414.shtml

[Riot]

Jindal has supposedly been doing very well for Louisiana in all of this, from what I've read.

Governor Haley Barbour (R) of Mississippi is being thought of by some as 2012 Presidential material.



Barbour's most recent famous quote (it came after, "Those are just normal tar balls on our beaches"), is about the BP escrow account to pay for the people they've hurt:

"It bothers me to talk about causing an escrow to be made, uh, which will, which makes it less likely that they'll make the income that they need to pay us."

Uh. Okay.