Project Katrina

Yesterday, the White House held a conference call between Vice President Joe Biden and governors of each state. The purpose of the call was to “exhort the states to collect and submit quarterly numbers of jobs created and saved by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act by the deadline of Oct. 10.” Forty-nine state governors or their representatives joined the call. The one person who couldn’t seem to find the time? Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R). From the pool report:

The invite was sent to 55 states and territories; if the governor could not join the call, a Lt. Governor, Chief of Staff or ARRA designee called in. There was one no-show state: Louisiana. Three no-show territories: Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa.

Biden has been aggressively reaching out to U.S. mayors and governors to help them use stimulus funds as effectively as possible.

However, Jindal has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Recovery Act—at the same time he goes around the state and takes credit for the federal dollars he was handing out. In July, Jindal declared the legislation a “stimulus that has not stimulated.” Yet he had no problems with handing out giant checks with his name on them … that contained millions of dollars of Recovery Act funds for job training programs, housing assistance programs, homelessness prevention programs, police training, criminal justice technology upgrades, and community development block grants. You’d just think somebody, like maybe even Jindal himself, would be able to find the time.