Talking Points Memo is claiming that Bobby Jindal actually made up his story about helping a Democratic Sheriff acquire the authority to evacuate people by boat during Hurricane Katrina. Here’s what the governor said his his SOTU rebuttal speech:

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: ‘Well, I’m the Sheriff and if you don’t like it you can come and arrest me!’ I asked him: ‘Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?’ He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go – when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, ‘Sheriff, that’s ridiculous.’ And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: ‘Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!’ Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

Why is this supposedly inaccurate? Because Jindal apparently didn’t visit Sheriff Lee during the storm. It was, uh, a few days later. Yeah, apparently Katrina ended the second the actual storm actually left Louisiana. All of those people who died in the days following the storm? Sorry, not part of the storm. Oh, and apparently there’s no evidence that Jindal used his Congressional power to intervene in the boat story.

But there’s this. It’s Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat, endorsing Jindal in the gubernatorial race a few years ago. The reason for the endorsement? Jindal’s help during Katrina in using his Congressional power to assist in recovery efforts. Oh, and the now-governor’s visit to Lee’s office the…day after the storm.

More: Jim Treacher.