Search for leadership on Gulf spill ends with Jindal

Jay Ambrose:

Here it was, the crystallizing moment that told us who is who and what is what in the Gulf oil spill disaster and that also signaled that there really is reliable leadership to be found in this country.

Not that there was high drama when Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal got 16 barges busy dredging up BP oil that was otherwise going to wreak havoc. He has been ever alert, ever in motion, ever figuring out new ways to save his state from ruin, and this decisive action was nothing new for him.

Then, however, we had a counter-attack. The Coast Guard put the operation on hold for fear the barges might not have life jackets or fire extinguishers aboard. To find out the hard way, officers attempted without success to contact the company that built the barges. Meanwhile Jindal was trying to contact someone in the Coast Guard or White House. It took 24 precious hours to wring retreat out of these abettors of gooey grief.

So where was the White House on this, anyway? Happy to see bureaucracy obnoxiously extending itself no matter what the issue? Out to lunch? Or, more likely, out with the boss playing golf? Maybe that's unfair. It's surely excusable for a president to have six hours of refreshment, as on a recent golf outing, even if one online jokester tells us that while Barack Obama swings his clubs, Jindal fills sandbags.

He is a wonder, this Jindal. He has been engaged in every facet of what's going on, as in demanding sand barriers to protect the coast and providing answers to those that questioned the idea's wisdom, in striking contrast to Obama, whose way of addressing the catastrophe has largely been political.

As president of the whole nation, Obama has a great many other big issues to contend with, but that does not explain why his minion-in-chief mendaciously declares that all Republicans want to let BP off the hook, why Obama blames George W. Bush for current regulatory failures, why he says Republicans hate all regulation or why he gives a nationally televised speech that is a cliche pudding. It certainly does not explain the scandalous fact that he has neglected to accept high-tech rescue help from 17 countries that have been offering it.

Then again, Obama's experience in administering anything is nil....

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Jindal has been the true leader in trying to stop the oil from getting to his shoreline and has gotten precious little help from the President. I think Louisiana will remember that this fall when it is electing people to send to Washington. They will need Republicans to fight for them the way Gov. Jindal has.