Posted on 05/26/2006 9:21:17 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
I’ll be brief this time about Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans. Due to stupidity and incompetence, he did not carry out the evacuation plan for his city. As a result, more than a thousand of his constituents died, and tens of thousands suffered personal disaster, and had to be rescued by the Coast Guard and the National Guard.
There was an established evacuation plan for Southern Louisiana, dated 1 January, 2004. Local and national media were incompetent in not reporting this plan and its details. The salient point was that the mandatory evacuation had to be called early, to get the people out. It specifically called for “public buses” to carry to safety those who “did not have access to private transportation.”
It was part of the duties of the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans to know this plan, and carry it out. Both failed miserably. Mayor Nagin evacuated to Baton Rouge, but he left public buses sitting in their parking lots, so both the buses and thousands of citizens were drowned where they were.
What was the result of Mayor Nagin’s deadly incompetence? Well, he was just reelected for a new term. Nagin is a mouthy fool who will fail in his new term as he did in the one just ending. But what does this say about the people and voters of New Orleans?
Consider your average third-world nation. They are mired in grinding poverty. Crime is commonplace. The governments tend to be kleptocracies. The only visible skills of the leaders of these countries are to make semi-literate justifications of their “policies” and to attack their opponents. The only difference between such leaders and Mayor Nagin is that it doesn’t seem that Nagin has been stealing money. Other than that, the match is perfect.
Why in the world did a majority of the voters in the City vote to reelect this incompetent buffoon? Well, it shows that in the view of the people of New Orleans, neither stupidity nor incompetence are disqualifying qualities in a potential civic “leader.”
Unfortunately, that leaves Nagin sitting astride the planning for the rebuilding of the City. Based on his prior, abysmal understanding, he will probably insist that the City be rebuilt as is, and where is, but with “better levees.” That only kicks the can down the road, and guarantees there will be another catastrophic flood there with more thousands killed. Another, inevitable Nagin legacy.
The City can be successfully rebuilt to withstand the worst of storms. See “The Hart-Miller Solution to the New Orleans Problem” I wrote more than a year ago. But understanding that engineering – the same thing that Galveston did privately after its horrendous death rate from a hurricane a century ago – is beyond Nagin’s capacity to understand, much less implement.
Perhaps returning this unintentional clown to the Mayor’s office was an aberration. That will be tested this fall, as Rep. William Jefferson seeks reelection as the Congressman representing primarily New Orleans. Apparently, federal prosecutors have him on tape accepting a $100,000 bribe, and found $90,000 of that in his home freezer, wrapped in tin foil. Jefferson claims he “did nothing wrong.” I’ve been around the barn a few times and never encountered the hiding of C-notes like that, except when the money was “hot” and the result of criminal activity.
Jefferson said the prosecutors were “trying to embarrass him.” No, they are trying to put him in jail, which they should do with all politicians who accept bribes. As an experienced lawyer, I conclude that Jefferson is shortly going to be convicted and sent to prison. That’s the same fate as Rep. Duke Cunningham of California. Perhaps Jefferson thinks he can play the race card and avoid conviction, despite evidence that is more solid on him than on Cunningham.
And old case comes to mind. Then-judge Alcee Hastings, now Congressman, beat the rap for taking a bribe for leniency to major drug dealers even though William Borders, the man who bribed him, was convicted. That’s Jefferson’s situation, now. The man who paid the bribe to him has pleaded guilty, yet he still claims he “did nothing wrong.”
So, what will it mean if the City reelects Rep. Jefferson? It’ll mean corruption is also not a disqualifier for public servants in the Big Easy. It’s not even necessary that candidates talk a good game. Jefferson, like Nagin, demonstrates himself to be a public fool, counting on his voters to share his foolishness and elect him nonetheless.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (who grew up in the corruption of Baltimore City politics) is trying to make “the culture of corruption” an issue against the Republicans in the November. Self-evidently the issue falls apart if the Democrats cannot dump their own corrupt candidates, like Rep. Jefferson.
I expect the Democrats will eighty-six Rep. Jefferson before the election. But, if he remains on the ballot, will the bone-headed voters of New Orleans will reward him with another term in Congress? If so, that’ll confirm the voters of the City are incapable of self-government with even the pretense of intelligence, competence, and honesty.
As H. L. Mencken wrote, “The American people get the government they deserve, good and hard.”
About the Author: John Armor still might be a candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
It will also be interesting to see if Blanko Dubois gets re-elected.
As you mentioned on another thread last night, if the Dims really wanted to yank Jefferson off the Ways and Means Committee, they could in an instant. All Pelosi has to do is give the word to Dennis Hastert, and he would lose that seat. So far, Pelosi has failed to do that - all she's done is "ask" him to resign from the committee, nothing but window dressing. He basically responded by telling her to stuff it, and then went crying to his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus, who promptly came to his rescue and circled the wagons around him.
Pelosi hasn't uttered a peep in response to that middle finger waved in her face, much less come out and actually condemn what Jefferson is accused of doing. For that matter, no one on the Republican side has condemned Jefferson - they're too busy engaging in their little turf war with the White House.
If the Dims won't even strip Jefferson of his committee assignment, if the House Republicans won't even stop bickering with Bush long enough to condemn a Congressman filmed accepting bribe money, why should we expect anyone to do anything meaningful to Jefferson? The voters in New Orleans will put him back in office, even if he's sitting in a prison cell on election day. If I were Jefferson, I'd be feeling just about invincible right about now.
No he didn't. He stayed with the city's skeleton emergency staff at the Hyatt during and after the hurricane. Rumors and urban myths gleefully posted on FR does not constitute good sourcing.
Nagin is a mouthy fool
Perhaps so, but you are the last person who should be criticizing him.
Since Nagin's runoff appointment was Mitch Landrieu, his family hip deep in decades of entrenched Dem corruption, are you saying NOLA should have elected him? Nagin may have been incompetent, but his reputation among local NOLA freepers is one of an outsider fromt the ol'boy Dem network who attempted some reforms to start weeding out corruption. Why not post this in the LA topic, they'd know more about this than you or I.
Unfortunately, I never got a chance to visit. But - and I could be severely mistaken - I thought the French Quarter, downtown, and the nicer neighborhoods were mostly above-ground, and remain standing. Doesn't seem like the 3rd-world-like slums that drowned contributed much to what made the city fun. Or was the rest of the city damaged beyond repair as well?
Should read, "Since Nagin's runoff opponent was Mitch Landrieu"
Thanks. I look forward to reading them.
You're using one of my favorite Mencken lines.
Actually, he's misusing/misquoting it.
The source, of course, is H.L.Mencken and George Jean Nathan's A Book of Burlesques in the section entitled The Jazz Webster. The quote itself comes from the definition of Democracy: Democracy is the theory that two thieves will steal less than one, three thieves will steal less than two ... and so on; the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
Nonetheless, Billybob mangled the quote, losing much of Mencken's deftness with the language, and confuses it with portions from other famous quotes:
"Every country has the government it deserves"If you're going to "quote" someone by name, use their actual words, or else drop the quotation marks and indicate that it's a paraphrase or your own restatement inspired by the original.
-Joseph de Maistre (1753 - 1821) Written on August 15, 1811"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
LOL!
Trash Nagin all you want for failing to get those buses moving and get more people out of town before the storm, (although nobody has ever admitted that it would have been pretty tough to force 200 part-time school bus drivers to abandon the evacuation and safety of their own families to drive those buses) but most of the blame for the horrible response to the storm lies with Kathleen Blanco and her pissing match with President Bush over the use of the National Guard. Ray Nagin was the proverbial grass that lost when those two bull elephants fought. Blanco had the power to commandeer school bus fleets from other cities to go to New Orleans immediately and get those people out of the Superdome and the Convention Center. She didn't do it. She had her people keeping the Red Cross away from the Superdome.
Nagin just engineered a $150 million credit line from JPMorganChase to keep the city operating. I doubt Mitch Landrieu would have had the business acumen to do that, and if he did, the Landrieu family would have skimmed $10 million off of the top before the city saw a dime.
Bingo! Nagin was the 'Devil You Know.' It's not as if the alternatives were any better.
Nagin may be incompetent but those who Decided not to evacuate are morons.
This critique of Nagin is way over the top. He's not that bad a guy. If you knew anything about his opponent you'd have voted for Nagin. The Landrieu family are the originators of the French Creole kleptocracy that got started in the 60's by Mitch Landrieu's dad. Every subsequent mayor got his start under old Daddy "Moon", except for Nagin.
Nagin has his faults, but he's clean as a whistle. There were no scandals in his first 3 yrs, he co-operates with the feds on cleanin up entrenched corruption, he modernized city hall technology, brought in the movie industry, and in general was doing a good job as a reform mayor, a first in N.O.
I don't blame Nagin for the apocolyptic week that followed Katrina. That blames goes to Gov. Blanco, but I can't get started on her right now.
And Nagin is no political lightweight anymore. He survived everything that the most powerful interests in the city, state and national DNC could throw at him, no small feat.
But the most important thing to come from this election is that the Blacks turned against their long-time Landrieu, Creole protectors and voted for an independent-minded, pro-business, individual responsibility guy for mayor. That is a huge change in the wind that I think spells trouble for the rest of the old machine.
Why is it so many "Conservatives" believe it is the Government's responsibility to Evacuate people prior to a hurricane?
I don't know. I'm not one of them.
McDermott keeps getting re elected here in Washington State, so anything is possible.
"Doesn't seem like the 3rd-world-like slums that drowned contributed much to what made the city fun. Or was the rest of the city damaged beyond repair as well?"
Parts were. One problem is with all the solid waste. MANY buildings, houses, appliances, vehicles, etc all still have to be disposed of. Numerous buildings remain to be demolished and is an overall slow, tedious process that is going to put a huge strain on the city for a good long time.
I don't think most hardworking, roll-up-your-sleeves type people mind taking that on but as it turns out, they aren't going to have much of a political voice. They are in the true minority residents in New Orleans and quite a few decided to cut their losses.
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