Bobby Jindal has been highly critical of the federal government for slow response to Louisiana’s requests for permits & resources. Yet it would seem as yo mama would say: when you point a finger, there are 4 fingers pointing right back at you. The echoes of Katrina in which there was a cascade of errors at the local level, leaving the people of the Gulf region abandoned, sadly continue. I’d urge the president to re-configure his team to coordinate a stronger response on both the federal and local level since, like Katrina, it’s clear that the local level may not be up to the challenge. That’s what worked for Katrina — when the heroic General Russell Honore was brought on board and put in charge. This might be a job for the military. From the NOLA Times-Picayune (photo: Getty Images):

Three Democratic state senators blasted Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday for not quickly distributing $40 million in grants from BP at the same time he’s been criticizing the company and the Obama administration for taking too long to provide needed resources to combat the Gulf oil spill.

Jindal has “been out there talking to the people impacted by the disaster and the media and got his life jacket on and is out in the water, but I want him to use his executive power to get resources out there instead of standing on the bully pulpit and pointing fingers,” said state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans.

Peterson said that at a meeting Thursday with BP officials, coastal Louisiana legislators and representatives of the Jindal administration, it was disclosed that the state has spent only about $3 million of a $25 million BP grant for spill-related expenses, and that it has not yet issued a contract for BP’s $15 million grant to promote tourism attractions threatened by the spill.

It also was revealed that the state has called up only 1,100 of the 6,000 National Guard members authorized for the spill clean-up efforts, Peterson said.

Casting blame is one way to throw off the scent from your own sluggish efforts, it seems…

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