Gov. Bobby Jindal and his advisers are clamoring for damage control in the wake of his idiotic speech in London on Monday but this one could be a tough hill to climb.
In case you’ve been in a cave the past few days, Jindal spoke to a conservative group, the Henry Jackson Society, claiming the existence of “no-go zones” throughout England and France into which non-Muslims are afraid to venture because of what are apparent roving gangs of Islamic thugs just itching to assault any non-believer.
The only problem with his histrionics is that they weren’t true and his source for the information, Faux News, had even retracted its original claim to that effect on four separate occasions prior to Jindal’s speech during what was billed as an industrial recruiting tour.
Never one to admit his error in the face of overwhelming evidence, Jindal repeated his claim to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer while standing outside Parliament.
A wave of public criticism quickly mounted here in Louisiana with much of the criticism pointing out that as governor of Louisiana, Jindal should be home tending the store instead of trying to interject himself into an international debate in which he is pitifully unqualified to participate. http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/11384992-123/our-views-bobby-jindal-shows
But now Jindal’s supporters, which are considerably thinner in ranks than a mere three years ago, have come to his rescue.
Timmy Teepell, Jindal’s personal political guru, came charging in on his white horse this morning in an email blast on which we somehow managed to get included. (We don’t dare give our email address lest they delete us from their mailing list. Besides, we’d rather imagine them going through that email list in a frantic attempt to determine which address is ours.)
“No matter how desperate the liberal press appears, their assaults on Conservative leaders rarely shock me,” he said in the opening paragraph of his little missive. (Yep, he lower-cased liberal and capitalized conservative. That GED of his is really kicking ass.)
“But even I was taken aback when CNN disregarded its own reporting in an attempt to smear Bobby Jindal.” (Apparently Teepell thinks so highly of himself, he considers Bobby as some sort of subordinate and refuses to use the title of Governor when speaking or writing about him; it’s just “Bobby.”)
“We both know many members of the press have their own agenda—but this is beyond the pale,” he said.
“This came about after Bobby Jindal (there he goes again with the “Bobby”) spoke out about so-called “no-go” zones throughout Europe. The locals use this designation because non-Muslims know not to go there, or else they will be subject to harassment by groups of hardline Muslim thugs.”
Teepell said a CNN reporter (that would be Wolf Blitzer, Timmy) “blasted” Jindal and claimed the zones didn’t exist.
Well, we watched that interview and at no time did Blitzer claim the non-existence of the “no-go” zones; he merely noted that the claim (by Faux News) had been retracted and even discredited by the British prime minister. But then Teepell said this: He should have taken the time to watch this CNN report that Red State was able to find – the reporters own network reported on this problem more than a year ago.
Well, Timmy, we did. And while the report did indeed allude to roving groups of Muslim “morality police” who would set upon drunks or women who were wearing dresses deemed by the groups as inappropriate, it could hardly be said anyone could have felt physically threatened.
What we saw were what the CNN report specifically referred to on more than one occasion as “small groups” of Muslims doing little more than preaching their beliefs in much the same manner in which we have witnessed street preachers in downtown Baton Rouge or even on a busy street corner (actually the intersection of the two business thoroughfares, LA. 16 and U.S. 190) berating sinners and fornicators and warning them to repent or face eternal damnation. Between the street preachers right here at home and what we saw on that CNN report, we could discern very little difference in tactics.
In fact, what we saw the Muslim “thugs” doing was far less offensive than what we’ve heard and seen of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, or that Baptist preacher up in Alabama a few years ago who actually compiled a list (really, we’re not making this up) of the individuals in his county who were going to hell.
But what really puzzles us is that Teepell, in addition to being Jindal’s one-time campaign manager and later his chief of staff, eventually became head of the Southern office of OnMessage, the outfit from the Washington, D.C., area to which Jindal has paid some $5 million in campaign expenses.
In paying all that money to Teepell and his organization, one would think that Jindal would expect a little more than just pulling up some obscure report by Red State http://www.redstate.com/ to support his claim.
But Timmy wasn’t through. Oh, no.
After he posted the link to the CNN story which did more for Blitzer’s credibility than Jindal’s, he had this to say:
“Do me a favor—show your support for the Conservative (there’s that capital “C” again) movement by standing with the Stand up to Washington PAC. Your donation of $5 will go a long way in the fight to reclaim America.”
“P.S. After you donate, forward this message to your conservative friends—they need to know what is really going on.
“Timmy Teepell
Senior Advisor, Stand up to Washington PAC
About that last comment, Timmy: We couldn’t agree more. They do need to know what is “really going on” about the denial of equal pay for women, about generous tax breaks for the wealthy while the rest of us are required to pay our taxes, about the lucrative defense contracts for campaign contributors, privatizing governmental agencies and services to the enrichment of contributors, about removing the restrictions on Wall Street banks, thus paving the way for another economic collapse possibly worse than 2008, about an out of control Supreme Court, about Republican’s blocking an increase in the minimum wage while corporate CEOs reap tens of millions in salary and perks.
We could go on, but you get the idea, Timmy. Or maybe you don’t. But yes, your “Conservative friends” really do need to know what is going on.
And, Timmy, since you are a “senior advisor” to the Stand up for America PAC, perhaps you could explain this for us:
How is it that the Stand up for America PAC web page has the disclaimer at the bottom that says, “Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee” when there is a photo (a very dominant one at that) of only one candidate—Gov. Bobby Jindal—smack dab in the middle of that page?
http://www.standuptowashington.com/
Could you explain that to us? Huh? Could you, please?
