Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his speech the other night, the one about how he & Harry Lee told bureaucrats to fuck off? It was bullshit!

Oh boy. You know, I actually questioned the validity of this story when I heard it the other night. I mean, of what I know about the now deceased Harry Lee, and he was a somewhat legendary figure in the New Orleans area, I just can't see him having Bobby Fucking Jindal in his office during the height of Hurricane Katrina for backup. Harry Lee would eat Bobby Jindal on a burnt piece of toast for a mid-morning snack. And what do you know...some of those darn pesky, "pathetic" bloggers went digging around and discovered that it was all a bunch of bullshit...

Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee "during Katrina," and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn't have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, "that's ridiculous," prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.

But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

This is no minor difference. Jindal's presence in Lee's office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story's intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn't there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.

Was there no other instance of "reaching across party lines" in his political career for him to cite, or was this some sort of attempt to Rudy Giulianify himself? Either way, nice work Jinds.