McCain Veepstakes: Bobby Jindal

Human Events, May 22, 2008 - by John Gizzi

Here’s an important pointer for anyone planning on interviewing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal: Before sitting down with the 36-year-old Republican, clear your schedule all around the time of the interview, because you ask Jindal something, he will always get a detailed answer -- and then some.

When we spoke recently, I reminded Jindal of how I last heard him when he was a U.S. House member two years ago, telling a luncheon audience about how people volunteering their services on relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina found they were thwarted by federal regulations. What particularly moved me, I told him, was his story of how a doctor from Pennsylvania was not permitted to treat patients in parts of Louisiana ravaged by the worst natural disaster in American history until he filled out several forms.

“They told him he literally had to mop floors, if you remember, at an airport that he was in where there were people dying.” Jindal told me, “There are thousands of these stories. I talked to a sheriff in an area where they had people with boats that were ready to go in the water and rescue people and they were turned away because they didn’t have proof of registration and insurance, they didn’t bring the right paperwork. The bureaucracy was just awful.”

The 36-year-old governor then proceeded to tell more sad sagas of Americans from other states who were trying to help Louisianans in their worst hour and kept running into a bureaucratic brick wall. Barely stopping for a breath, Jindal vividly contrasted the horror stories of dealing with government bureaucracy in attempts to help Katrina victims to successful relief efforts by non-governmental sources -- Wal-Mart, Ford Motor and churches. Continued...