Unexpected praise in Louisiana for Obama administration's spill response By Marc Kaufman
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Another Louisiana Republican who is very much on the front line of the oil spill response is Plaquemines Parish President William "Billy" Nungesser, elected in 2006 and a self-styled "Reagan Republican." I visited Nungesser at his Port Sulfur home to discuss his plans to bulk up the barrier islands off the Louisana shore as a way to protect the invaluable marshes inland, and was surprised to hear him volunteer a very different assessment of the Obama administration's performance.
Nungesser said that he had met with Obama for two hours when he came to Louisiana, and that he had met several times with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. He came away from the first meeting convinced that Obama "really cares" and "understands exactly what we face," and that that Jackson "was making things happen." He said he and Jackson hugged after a three-hour meeting.
He said the parish was badly damaged from Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, but that no top government officials came out to see what had happened and talk to the people. Obama, he said, not only came to the parish after the spill, but when bad weather made it impossible to helicopter down to the waiting fishermen and elected officials at that the tip of the peninula in Venice, he drove down - 1.5 hours each way. With some pleasure, Nungesser reported that Obama had driven by a huge plaster Republican elephant on his way to Venice, and that locals took photos of the motorcade passing
"He's a Democrat and I'm a Republican, so we'll have our differences," Nungesser said. "But Obama did something I've never seen before at that level - he came out, listened to what we had to say, and has been delivering on what he said he would."He also said that as far as he knew, Obama was giving other Louisiana officials what they asked for and needed as well. He saved his criticism for the media coverage, which he said have not accurately reflected how well the different levels of government were working together.
Speaking in Venice, La. last weekend, Jindal was not overtly critical of Obama and the federal response, but nor was he complimentary. Asked how he would grade the responses so far of both BP and the Obama administration, he had nothing good to say. Both, he replied, had so far earned nothing more than "an incomplete."
By Mike Shepard | May 14, 2010; 6:00 AM ET
http://views.washingtonpost.com/climate-change/post-carbon/2010/05/unexpected_praise_in_louisiana_for_obama_administrations_spill_response.html 
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