Jindal's work on spill abrasive to some

VENICE, La., May 26 (UPI) -- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is back in the national spotlight, calling on Washington to better its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, observers said.

Jindal, elected on a promise to restore confidence in government after the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina, has been dogged in his criticism of the federal response and BP's efforts that so far have failed to cap a devastating oil leak from a Deepwater Horizon rig resting on the bottom of the gulf.

By all accounts, Jindal flopped in delivering the Republican response to President Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress in 2009. Now, however, Jindal has immersed himself into the crisis, participating in briefings, traveling to parishes in the path of the oil, and blasting BP and government officials alike for what he says is a sluggish response.

"The governor has said (in) private exactly what he has said publicly, that the response to date is incomplete, and while BP is the responsible party, the federal government needs to ensure that they are indeed held accountable and responsible," Jindal's spokesman, Kyle Plotkin, told Politico.

White House officials told Politico they were puzzled by Jindal's rising criticism of their efforts. The near-constant contact between the governor's staff and the administration has been cordial and professional, lacking the sharp rhetoric Jindal has used in broadcast sound bites.

"Everything he's asked for, he's gotten, except for the sand idea, which has some real possible problems," said one official familiar with the situation. The "sand idea" is an untested containment method of dredging sand to build a wall to help prevent the oil slick from inundating the region that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it wants to study first.