Jindal Stretched the Truth

It wasn’t just Bobby Jindal’s delivery that was off on Tuesday night – new reports suggest that his facts were off, too. In Jindal’s rebuttal of President Obama’s address to Congress on Tuesday, the Louisiana Governor told a story about heroism during Hurricane Katrina: “I visited Sheriff Harry Lee…he was yelling into the phone…[because] some bureaucrat” was stopping him from sending out private citizens’ rescue boats. “I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous,’” prompting the Sheriff to yell, “Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest [both of us]!” In Jindal’s story, his presence in the room helped the Sheriff to put down government meddlers and go ahead with the rescue mission. Too bad Jindal wasn’t there. At all. Jindal heard about the incident from Sheriff Lee later, but wrote himself into the story as if he had been present. The governor’s camp claims the story was not misleading and that the conversation about getting arrested really did occur, albeit after the fact. But some are now arguing that the Louisianan purposely misled his listeners. Adding insult to injury, the only person who could confirm or deny the tale—Sheriff Lee—died in 2007.