EMBARRASSING LEADERSHIP FROM THE TOP – JINDAL AIN’T HAPPY

It’s akin to having the Board of Health walk into a hospital operating room, mid-operation, and order the surgeon to cease what he is doing until the room corners can be checked for dust bunnies and stray lint. Better yet, it would be like the police stopping a fire engine on its way to a raging inferno to make sure its registration was up to date.

If ever there was something that needed to fall into the “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me” file – or the “You Can’t Be F—ing Serious” file, this is it.

On June 9th, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin the process of sucking crude oil out of Louisiana’s waters.

However, yesterday, much to the disgust of the Governor, the barges stopped working. They sat like President Obama at the Oval Office Desk with cameras running: idle.

No oil was being removed.

And it wasn’t because the barges had broken down or were proving to be ineffective. To the contrary, they were working quite well.

No, those barges were ordered to be shut down by the feds so that they could be inspected for life vests and fire extinguishers.

From ABC News:

“It’s the most frustrating thing,” the Republican governor said (yesterday) in Buras, La. “Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges.”

Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP’s oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.

“These barges work. You’ve seen them work. You’ve seen them suck oil out of the water,” said Jindal.

So why stop now?

“The Coast Guard came and shut them down,”Jindal said. “You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, ‘Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.’”

But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.

So, if I may ask: Would it not have been possible to send another vessel full of life vests and fire extinguishers – assuming they were needed – out to the barges? Was it necessary to completely suspend operations while this “inspection” took place?

To be clear, this isn’t about the United States Coast Guard.

This is about where the orders to the Coast Guard came from.

This is why modern liberals cannot be trusted with responsibility. Leaders get thing done. Libs, on the other hand, organize fact finding commitees to determine if hearings will be necessary to establish new bureaucracies.

Following the cue of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Jindal decided enough was enough – that it was up to him to do what the feds would not do. It speaks volumes about the undeniable ineptitude of the Obamacratic regime.

Zip at Weasel Zippers put it best when he wrote: “Jindal might have the toughest job in this whole mess, he’s fighting on two-fronts, against the oil slicks and the Obama administration…”

Indeed.

Incidentally, here’s what a governor who is sick of incompetency looks and sounds like: