Is Gov. Bobby Jindal Sabotaging Gulf Efforts for Political Gain?

Lousiana Governor Bobby Jindal gives a press conference in Venice, Louisiana, on May 23 after a trip at sea to see the effects of the Gulf Coast oil spill and a meeting with parish leaders from across the coast. The White House came under mounting political heat Monday, as the Gulf of Mexico oil slick began to devour Louisiana wetlands after BP's failed efforts to plug a gushing undersea well.

Photo Credit: AFP/File - Stephane Jourdain

This story was written by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Zaid Jilani, Alex Seitz-Wald, and Tanya Somanader.

Last year, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) -- a rising star in the GOP and potential nominee for the presidency in 2012 -- gave a widely mocked rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union address, prompting many pundits to conclude that his national political career was over before it began. But, taking a cue from Rudy Giuliani's exploitation of the 9/11 attacks while mayor of New York City, Jindal saw a chance rebuild his political capital by using the Gulf oil spill. He sprang into action with press conferences and helicopter rides to show he's a take-charge leader. The governor quickly became Obama and the federal government's chief critic, relentlessly attacking their allegedly slow response to the spill and lambasting the "red tape and bureaucracy" preventing him from getting the job done. Jindal's theatrical deployment of these trappings of leadership has been largely rewarded by favorable press coverage, reigniting speculation of a 2012 run. But new revelations and a close inspection of the facts suggest that Jindal's sound and fury is little more than political grandstanding for the Fox News set, and it serves to obscure Jindal's own serious failings in the spill response effort. While Jindal has been relentless in attacking the federal government for dragging its feet, he has delayed the deployment of National Guard troops, led a crusade to build artificial sand berms that most experts say won't work, and confused the planning of the spill response. Moreover, experts said his "antagonism could actually slow down that response." "When that stuff happens, you actually take away the ability of the unified command to get their job done," said former Coast Guard official Doug Lentsch, who was involved in the Exxon Valdez disaster and helped develop the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. But the true impact of Jindal's blustery leadership may never be known, as Jindal vetoed a bill Friday that would have required him to make public all of his office's documents relating to the spill. "His excuse is he is afraid that BP would find out something Louisiana did, and I always thought justice was about the truth and facts," said Republican state Sen. Robert Adley.

NATIONAL GUARD: Nowhere has Jindal's hypocritical grandstanding been more apparent than on the issue of National Guard troops. Jindal demanded 6,000 Guard troops in the early days of the spill -- a request the Department of Defense quickly approved. "We are absolutely in a war to protect our way of life," Jindal has said. Despite his constant attacks on the federal government for supposedly under-resourcing his efforts, almost two months after the troop request was approved, "only a fraction -- 1,053 -- have actually been deployed by Jindal to fight the spill," a CBS News investigation found. This prompted Obama, in his Oval Office address, to specifically and publicly urge Jindal and other Gulf state governors "to activate these troops as soon as possible." In response to the CBS investigation, Jindal predictably blamed the federal government for the delay, saying, "the Coast Guard and BP had to authorize individual tasks." But Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander, flatly denied this claim. "There is nothing standing in the governor's way from utilizing more National Guard troops," Allen said. "In fact, the Coast Guard says every request to use the National Guard has been approved, usually within a day," CBS noted. Finally, Jindal's office admitted that the governor "has not specifically asked for more Guard troops to be deployed," but failed to explain why Jindal had not used the troops. As Washington Monthly's Steve Benen noted, "Jindal is either deeply confused about something he should understand, or he was lying." Jindal's failure here underscores the need to bring in the military to take charge of the disaster response, as the Center for American Progress has urged.