The Importance of the Coordinated Attacks on Bobby Jindal

Sunday, March 1st at 1:24PM EST

30 Comments

The defense of Bobby Jindal began here at RedState. You can read more about it here, here, here, and here.

To summarize: Some guy named Zachary Roth is apparently offended that Bobby Jindal is not a Democrat due to his skin color. Roth, who is apparently overly emotional, constructed a fable distorting Jindal’s story about Sheriff Harry Lee. The lefty blogs and MSNBC picked it up and broadcast Roth’s fable as truth and the true story as a fable.

The attacks are, superficially, about Jindal — a popular Republican who might one day challenge Obama. But dig deep, and the attacks are really about big government.

Here’s the story as recounted by Governor Jindal in the Republican response to Barack Obama’s non-State of the Union State of the Union Address:

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walk into his makeshift office, I had never seen him so angry. He was literally yelling into the phone. “Well, I’m the sheriff, and if you don’t like it, you can come and arrest me.” I asked him, “Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?” He told me that he put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up and ready to go. And then some bureaucrat showed up and told him they couldn’t go out in the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration.

And I told him, “Sheriff, that’s ridiculous.” Before I knew it, he was yelling in the phone. “Congressman Jindal’s here, and he says you can come and arrest him, too.” Well, Harry just told those boaters ignore the bureaucrats and go start rescuing people.

The most obvious reason for attacking Jindal is because the left feels threatened by him. But there’s an even more important reason why they are attacking him and attacking the veracity of this story.

The story reminds people of the evils and incompetence of government bureaucracy. At a time the Democrats seek to expand government, this is a dangerous story to tell.

People have a legitimate, innate sense that government bureaucracy is a terrible thing. Mail delivery, standing in line to get a driver’s license, trying to get a passport, sorting out social security benefits, paying taxes — all of these are frustrating experiences dealing with government.

The more government expands, the more these experiences creep into people’s lives. These are mere nuisances. The Katrina story shows that bureaucratic incompetence goes beyond that to the point of directly affecting whether people live or die simply by the bureaucracy functioning.

And Obama wants to have the bureaucracy not just deal with the saving or obstructing the saving of lives in a hurricane, but also in hospitals — in our day to day lives, he wants the same bureaucrats who denied Harry Lee the tools he needed to rescue citizens from a natural disaster to deny doctors, nurses, policemen, firefighters, and others the tools they need to save lives.

The Katrina story is a dangerous true tale of why we do not need and should not want what Obama is offering.

So the left must destroy it as best they can.

That does not make it any less true.

30 Comments Leave a comment

I can't believe our good fortune.

smagar (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 2:11PM EST (link)

If the MSM really picks this up and runs with it, they become de facto owners of this story line.

The MSM’s primary reason for existing—as they put it—-is their professionalism.

This story is obvious garbage. Professional journalists are supposed to attack and kill obvious garbage. That’s one of their duties as “public servants”–to ensure that crap stories like this get killed by the disinfectant of daylight and the truth. That they don’t pollute public discourse by having the chance to become “accepted fact.”

If they don’t do that, the MSM de factos enable such garbage.

If Jindal attacks this story publicly, he should damage its credibility enough that it only catches on with the kook fringe. I.e., belief in this story should be viewed as a symptom of Kook Fringe Syndrome.

Any MSM element that enables this story can, therefore, be assumed to be infected with KFS.

That should be our position:

MSM Reporter: What are your thoughts on the Jindal controversey
GOP Rep: What makes you think the Jindal story is credible. I mean, seeing as you’re an MSM reporter, because you’re asking me about that story, you must think there’s some credibility to it. What makes you think it’s credible?
MSM Reporter Some people think it’s credible.
GOP Rep: Some people think Zionist agents in black helicopters are running our country.
MSM Reporter And now, back to our studio…

“Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?” (Macaulay)

Let's not overreact, though.

smagar (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 2:15PM EST (link)

Most Americans don’t read the lefty blogs or watch MSNBC.

Is there any evidence that the MSM is taking this story mainstream? That they (i.e., the MSM) are giving it any credibilty?

“Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?” (Macaulay)

Some have tried

Erick Erickson (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 2:21PM EST (link)

We must keep punching back hard so that the MSM does not fully run with it.

Who will stand on either hand and keep this bridge with me?Follow @EWErickson

Agreed.

smagar (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 5:14PM EST (link)

Out

“Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?” (Macaulay)

Liberal Jewish Media Cabal

Dencal26 Sunday, March 1st at 2:40PM EST (link)

At the risk of being called an anti semite I can no longer ignore the fact that this seems to be an attack on Jindal because he is a Christian. Perhaps had he been Hindu these attacks would not occur. Look at who is attacking him and Palin for that matter. 2% of America is Jewish and some very very good conservatives among them. But look at who authors most of the articles at Huffpo and other such places. Its time to play the same game as they do. Call them anti christian or Anti White with every word that comes from their mouth .

Right on!

rightfreedom Sunday, March 1st at 3:06PM EST (link)

This is a great corollary to the article.

Libs hate Jindal because he’s brown.

The MSM hates christians because they’re jews.

Are their any other ways we can imitate the leftist victimhood ideology?

It's the Jooooooooooos! Oh, criminy! nt

Steve Maley (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 3:15PM EST (link)

The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.

them joooooooos are pissed off at big oil too!

daveinboca Sunday, March 1st at 5:13PM EST (link)

As a senior Amoco exec, I spent three hours with [now] POIsrael Shimon Peres who astounded me with his brilliance about everything EXCEPT energy and petroleum politics. He bemoaned the absence of petroleum reserves when everywhere else in the Middle East [we were in a hotel room on the Dead Sea] had oil to export.

The Democrats have been against oil and black republicans since forever, and Christians are their latest target. And every person on TV making light or disrespecting Christianity seems to be Jewish or a ‘fellow traveler.’ Try dissing Jews on national TV, even in a comedy context, and if you’re not Jewish, you’re history.

Anyway to explain that to a long-time supporter of Israel like myself?

Need to distinguish between secular and religious Jews for starters

civil truth (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 6:41PM EST (link)

I may be oversimplifying, but my observation is that if a religious Jews attacks a Christian conservative, it is primarily on the basis of political convictions (liberal vs. conservative), not because of their religion per se (i.e. not Jew vs. Christian), which I would view as legitimate behavior. The religious Jews would respect their faith even though they don’t agree with it (except a fair number do get defensive when it comes to Jewish evangelism, which is not an issue here, when we’re talking politics.)

Rather, those attacks vs. people like Jindal and Palin against their Christian faith which come from Jewish commentators are predominantly coming from secular Jews, who basically don’t like any religion. They often are hostile towards religious Jews as well – think of Joe Lieberman, of instance). Many other them are also hostile to Israel as well, but that gets into a whole are discussion.

Keep clear, I’m not saying that all secular Jews attack Christians for being Christians – rather, just that the segment of the Jewish community which does engage in such attacks will almost always drawn from the secular group.

So please don’t turn this into a generalized religious conflict – as 1) the religious Jews are not the attackers, by and large; and 2) most of these attackers are anti-Israel too. Remember that there were an awful lot of Jewish supporters of Israel who were upset at Palin’s banning from the anti-Iran demonstration last fall, and who voiced that upset too.

Or to put it another way, those Jews who are supporters of Israel in general are not engaging in these hit jobs on Republican supporters. So don’t paint with too broad a brush.

The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis

http://www.gmsplace.com/

It becomes part of the Democrat book of urban legends

NickDeringer (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 2:42PM EST (link)

If you ever want to see the affect that this kind of story has just visit a bar in a Democrat neighborhood. They’re still talking about Palin’s son and wanting to see a DNA test. Once this stuff gets out it takes on a life of its own and gets repeated as gospel fact. The MSM knows this and use it as a weapon against people they perceive as a threat.

NickDeringer

They are going to try to do to Jindal what was done to Sarah Palin

Wubbies World (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 3:18PM EST (link)

They are going to try to do to Jindal what was done to Sarah Palin. They will go into overload to destroy any conservative that may threaten their power. All conservatives need to plan on it and expect it. It is now standard operating procedure to “Bork” all conservatives.

Rush is right when he said in his speech yesterday about wanting Obama to fail, and Democrats go beyond that with not just wanting opponents to fail, but rather destroy people. The Palin and now Jihdal destruction effort, and the media’s participation in it makes is obvious.

Any conservative who does not plan on it, nor expect it, is not very bright, or like McCain, have been duped by their “bipartisan love affair” with the Democrats into believing they are immune, which makes them doubly dumb.

Wubbies World, MSgt, USAF (Retired):
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Is Jindal really

I, degsme, defended using "homosexual" as an insult. Sunday, March 1st at 4:43PM EST (link)

Upfront I’ll own the fact that I’m a leftie and so I don’t agree with the way Jindall maps his beliefs onto observable facts.

That said, do you folks really believe that Jindall did a good job with his speech? In my previous job, I did a lot of presentations, to both hostile as well as supportive audiences.

From a purely presentation analytic perspective, I just don’t see that Jindall gave a very good speech. And I’m rather surprised that none of you seem to be willing to own up to that. His speaking was stilted, stiff and relatively emotionless.

for example, the Sherriff story that has been cited – could have been a pretty strong rallying cry to the problems that one-size fits all bureaocracies and timid mid-level managers create. Yet listen to it. Jindall’s level of passion – of outrage about this was less than what I used to use reading RL Styne to my 7yo son at bedtime.

Compare the TONE and Excitement used by Jindall with what Limbaugh, Gingrich or Hannity use.

You can “punch back at the MSM” and you aren’t going to change that.

Agreed

ted40 Sunday, March 1st at 6:43PM EST (link)

I don’t really see that there’s much to argue about when it comes to the “boats” story. It’s a pretty subtle shade of interpretation, which could almost boil down to the verb tenses Jindal used in the original story.

The MSM isn’t going to run with that story; it’s way too subtle. What you have to worry about is the impression that “Jindal = Kenneth the Page.” There’s no deep intellectual content to that, but the damage it does is much more serious.

We're not talking presentation here, but facts

civil truth (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 6:48PM EST (link)

We’re talking about an attack on Jindal’s truthfulness in terms of something he said in his speech – and the exposing of that attack as a malicious falsehood.

This has nothing to do with how he came across in terms of delivery, charisma etc.

And contrary to your assertion, RedState has had discussion and threads on that topic; the consensus is he started off weakly, got stronger as he went on, and was seriously handicapped by the tacky staging and technical set-up. He also did much better in his press interviews the next day.

So no one here has ignored those issues – it’s just that this is not the post for discussing that. Now if you have information about the topic of the post – the way the MSM has approached this slander, the feel free to raise them – and be defend to factually defend our argument. Otherwise, move along.

http://www.gmsplace.com/

Sorry for missing

I, degsme, defended using "homosexual" as an insult. Sunday, March 1st at 7:21PM EST (link)

Sorry for missing those threads

But as someone who has done presentations to hostile audiences – and right now the USA is hostile to the GOP message- fairly or unfairly, factually or not – that’s the audience you face.

And Jindall did not improve as he moved through the speech. Blaming it on staging doesn’t cut it. I first listened to the speech on the radio and it came across very poorly there as well. He just did not speak well.

There also was a problem with his content. As I mentioned before, I don’t agree with his viewpoints, but I’ve heard Gingrich make speeches where I end up writing down points of disagreement which could lead to vigorous debate – but that wasn’t the case here.

His content was very very weak from a STRUCTURAL perspective. Not all his fault, obviously he had speech writers working with him and they should have ripped two sections of his speech right out:

1) the part about governmental transparency. It came across as “mee too, mee too” – the only differentiation he had from Obama’s much more articulate phrasing of that content was the bit about passing a bill the people and Congress hadn’t read. And STRUCTURALLY that was tacked on at the very end.

2) the part about defense spending. At the least it needed to be rewritten. By saying that the miliitary has served us well for decades, his text played right into Obama’s invocation of obsolete cold-war systems. Now you may not agree those systems are obsolete – but then the speech needed to address that. and it did not.

As for doing better the next day in interviews – most people don’t watch those. So those that bother with these sort of exercises, got what they got from the previous nights speech.

As for the so called factual slander. I’m not arguing one way or the other on its accuracy. But as any star that has gotten involved in arguing with the content of somthing like the National Enquirer knows (think “Babs”) if you are arguing the individuated facts on narrow points, you’ve lost the debate.

so go ahead, tilt at the windmill of “MSM”. The reality is that it won’t change the public’s perception of how Jindall did.

Now that is constructive criticism, degsme

civil truth (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 7:41PM EST (link)

Good points, there. And I accept your apology that you didn’t catch the earlier threads where you’re comments could have been better assessed.

Indeed, the biggest problem I had with George Bush’s tenure was that he was inarticulate in terms of defending his policies. Never could figure out if that was inability or whether he never understood the necessity of selling his program to the American people.

One thing I learned from refereeing is that you need to be able to “sell the call” – you can be 100% correct, but if you don’t succeed in selling it so that the players and coaches accept it, then you’re going to lose respect and eventually control. (Of course you need a certain baseline of knowledge too.)

So we need a coherent conservative philosophy – but we also need to explicate in a way that people will hear it, which I think is your point.

That said, when the MSM either misrepresents facts or selectively edits in order to distort – they need to be called out on that, because as the saying goes – they’re entitled to their opinion, but not their facts.

But we can’t make them interpret events the way we want to. Which is why we have to focus on selling our calls to the American people.

http://www.gmsplace.com/

I for one will not feed you, even if you are upfront about your identity. nt

barry915barry (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 8:12PM EST (link)

Sorry, you just did...

dbecraft Sunday, March 1st at 8:15PM EST (link)

Formally known as Deagle… “Golf is a way of life…”

Come on now, dbecraft.

barry915barry (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 8:24PM EST (link)

I think it is pretty obvious thatI was talking about the fact that I won’t engage him like Civil did. He does not add to the discussion. Only attempts to sow discord by “pointing out” that Gov. Jindahl’s DELIVERY was not perfectly polished. typical of the left as a whole. They can not compete on ideas, therefore they try to attack the messenger. You are right however. I probably should have told Civil not to feed the self-identified Troll. I will do better next time.

Yep, just tweaking...heh...

dbecraft Sunday, March 1st at 8:35PM EST (link)

Formally known as Deagle… “Golf is a way of life…”

Of course you aren't, degsme: Olbermann stupidly believed the lie, and you know it.

Moe Lane (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 8:24PM EST (link)

Don’t try to pretend otherwise. Is that understood?

Indicate that you understand in your next post.

The Kim Kardashian of blogging.

Check out my blog at http://moelane.com/.
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Give him time....

jano4 Sunday, March 1st at 6:43PM EST (link)

This was really Jindal’s first presentation before a nation wide audience. And quite frankly watching him, you could see he was trying too hard to get it just right. The Limbaugh’s of the world, though they carry a strong message, are to a large degree entertainers, and as such are much better at calling up to the surface the passions in their hearts.
Jindal is a solid citizen, not as well versed in the quagmire that is national politics. Give him time, he will get it right.

Jindal will be fine

AKSteveB (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 7:45PM EST (link)

This is early Spring Training, relatively speaking for whatever is ahead. I think this Tea Party thing is great stuff, perhaps where it all begins.

Hell is other people – Sartre

I just saw Gov. Jindahl on "60 Minutes" and he was wonderful.

janis (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 8:01PM EST (link)

The usual disclaimer–I never watch this show but saw the preview and wanted to see how they would treat him. By and large, it was pretty fair, although they couldn’t resist a couple of shots at the speech the other night.

Bottom line is that Gov. Jindahl is a major player for a long time to come.

Yeah the 60 Minutes appearance was great.

AKSteveB (Diary) Monday, March 2nd at 12:46AM EST (link)

I’ll say this though, the one thing I felt after watching it was “man Louisiana needs him a lot longer.”

Hell is other people – Sartre

This is how LA got Governor Blanco

bk (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 7:51PM EST (link)

Vladimir can fill in any gaps in my memory here….

When Jindal ran against Blanco for governor, he agreed to run a positive campaign. She came out with a late series of hate attacks that he mostly ignored:
- In New Orleans she campaigned as the DEMOCRAT. Ok fine.
- In South LA she campaigned as Kathleen BABINEAUX Blanco the Cajun candidate. Apparently that’s the only time she ever used her maiden name. I’m not sure there are Cajun equivalents for “um” and “uh”, the two most common words in her vocabulary.
- In North LA she ran as the WHITE candidate, with surrogates doing exactly the kind of stuff Roth is doing.

She ended up pulling a rabbit out a hat and winning 52-48. We can only wonder how different Katrina would have been handled with someone who was not a blithering idiot camera hog running the show in Baton Rouge.

she was just carrying on some old time Louisiana traditions.

kyle8 (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 8:58PM EST (link)

Like Huey Long running as a catholic in the south and a baptist in the north, and accusing his opponent of being a philatelist and his wife of being a thespian!

“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle

from my accounts that story is true, and...

kyle8 (Diary) Sunday, March 1st at 8:46PM EST (link)

Harry Lee was a hell of a colorful guy, Only in America can you get a redneck Chinese Southern Sheriff.

“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle

Of course it's true

dilford Sunday, March 1st at 10:23PM EST (link)

Here’s from the Times-Picayune (even the newspaper names are better Down South!!) story on Friday -
“Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said Jindal appeared at the sheriff’s offices on the east and west banks several times in the days after the storm. The boat rescue holdup by federal response officials did occur initially as citizens brought their watercraft to a staging area in Jefferson Parish, he said. But the problem was resolved and the great majority of boats were deployed to the flooded areas of New Orleans later that day.

Teepell, who after the storm drove with Jindal to visit various sheriffs’ offices in his district, said he recalled being in Lee’s office in west Jefferson on several occasions in the days after the storm. Teepell said he remembers the phone conversation but did not know who was talking to Lee.

Lee was recounting the boat rescue story to the caller on the line, Teepell said. The phone call was not taking place while the boats were attempting the rescue operation, but some days afterward, Teepell said. ”

This Timmy Teepell guy is Gov. Jindal’s chief of staff, so hopefully we’ve heard the last of this idiotic carping about a non-story!! (Although I’m not sure what all this “Arrest him, too!” business was about – could he have been on the phone with FEMA? Sounds like something the feds would do!)

What is Jindal's expertise?..Hint: it's NOT Katrina

nextlevel Monday, March 2nd at 12:21AM EST (link)

I could care less about the MSM Sheriff Lee inside investigation……I’m a Jindal fan but I’m not sure what his mission was on Tuesday….First off, there’s no way that he’s running against Obama unless 44 flips that approval rating before 2012….What’s the rush when you’re younger in 8 years, than Obama is now?….My problem was that Jindal totally missed an opportunity to help out the Party….First off, the GOP (like it, or not) NEEDS to frame alternative solutions on Healthcare…After Obama spends 15 minutes of his speech focused on Healthcare, it’s AMAZING that Jindal gave us 2 sentences on “free market healthcare”. Instead, he chose to focus his talk on 7 variations of “Americans can do anything!”…Here was a chance for Jindal to establish national bonafides while setting the healthcare debate in a less intrusive framing…Jindal was the State’s head of Healthcare —- at 24!…..Who know’s more about Healthcare than Jindal?..ON EITHER SIDE!….He KNEW that Healthcare was a part of the Obama plan. Why not usurp the argument by detailing a Republican solution…His expertise is HEALTHCARE, not “Katrina”…. America’s looking at competence..Bobby Jindal took a mulligan instead of showing his skills…I guess he was already backed for Disneyland. His rebuttal looked like he spent all of 10 minutes preparing for the moment…He mailed it in.