Going into this weekend, I wasn’t sure if the re-election of Ray Nagin as mayor of New Orleans would be tantamount to Marion Barry’s re-election in Washington, DC after being caught smoking crack cocaine.
Then the city’s member of the House of Representatives got caught on video taking $100,000 in cash to facilitate bribing Nigerian officials for an internet venture (evidently not this one), and I thought, “Well, at least Nagin’s not part of the political establishment.”
Will Collier at Vodkapundit has a good take on the need to revamp politics in New Orleans and Louisiana:
Louisianans in general and New Orleanians in particular made too many bad choices for too long. They acquiesced to governmental corruption and incompetence with a shrug and the inevitable, “that’s just Louisiana.” They allowed an unfettered criminal class to fester and thrive, until it literally took over the city. They put too much trust in luck and “the great elsewhere,” as local author Chris Rose puts it, to bail them out when things were at their worst.
And so they lived and died with those choices.
Now it’s time for them to choose again.
Read the whole shebang.
I never understood that veiled-threat rhetoric he uses, that thing where people are “We’ll help you out, but you people need to stop voting for dunderheads.” That whole thing.
What happens if they don’t stop voting for idiots? Do they have to refund the money? Is there a point at which the city gets walled off, Kurt Russell style, if they keep voting for boobs? Are we really helping people out of an expectation they change their ways? If that’s true, can they be forced to be nicer to tourists? Maybe carry my stuff back to my hotel if I ask?
I’m confused how this is helpful in any way but to make Vodkapundit look caring yet moral and superior for a few minutes.
I’m also amused by the hubris. “I’m not comfortable giving New Orleans these bags of money,” says the Senator. “Could we put in a clause that says they have to come to a gentleman’s agreement of Vodkapundit’s choice? He’ll work out good terms.”
Okay, okay I’m just kidding. I understand articles like this. It’s Monday, though.
I was more interested in writing about the Nagin vs. Barry matchup, or the Gooden vs. Rasheed one, but I guess I fell for the stern touch in that Vodka-post.
Anyway, David Weigel has a lighter touch on it than Vodkapundit, in this Reason post, even if he did steal my title.
that Dallas/SA series may be the greatest series in any sport I’ve ever seen.
Too bad the Clips tapped into the spirit of Loy Vaught last night.
Phoenix/Miami?
I’m hoping for Dallas over Miami. As is, of course, Mr. Cuban, who found the time to blog about his team’s win last night.