Rating C-Ray: Judging The Mayor of New Orleans
"Don't believe any false rumors unless you hear them from me!"
That rhetorical gem was uttered by that master of malapropisms, New Orleans Mayor Vic Schiro during Hurricane Betsy back in 1965 and is perhaps the most memorable act of that mayor during the city's worst natural disaster up until three weeks ago.
How the current city leader will be remembered in posterity in the tragedy named Katrina is a matter of great importance in the very near future.
Mayor (Clarence) Ray Nagin will be on the ballot this coming February, assuming New Orleans has by then returned to functioning order and that attorneys for partisans do not try to have the election held up for political reasons.
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Nagin lacked a significant announced opponent, not that some Lilliputian candidates had not already promoted themselves through illegal yard signs scattered across the city's neutral grounds (medians).
Even without a declared opponent of substance, Nagin has caught political heat. Politically active African-American ministers, men of God who have curiously been lockstep with a corrupt political machine, have challenged the mayor's "blackness" and obnoxious "drop pieces" have circulated around predominantly poor areas portraying City Hall as being under the control of a bunch of "Uncle Toms" and "Steppin Fetchits."
Ethically, the mayor's administration has been blasted over several questionable contracts by insiders that include an embarrassing pricey garbage can endeavor and the controversial matter of swapping out the old working parking meters with new complicated electronic ones that don't accept dollar bills (though similar devices that do are in use in Miami).
Nagin also falls short as a warm and personable politician. Not that congeniality is indicative of competence or morality, being gregarious is important to lending an air of being one with the people. But should anyone expect anything else than aloofness from the man who used to run the cable company?
And then there is his unenviable streak of backfired political endorsements that inspired a Saints fan to beg for him to "endorse" the Atlanta Falcons.
However, the aforementioned now lacks significance as Ray Nagin will be judged on one thing alone when his name appears on the ballot: his response to Hurricane Katrina.
The most vivid albatross around Nagin's political neck is the photo of those flooded buses that were not used to shuttle residents who lacked their own transportation out of New Orleans.
Some have mused that if the city machines had those same buses at their disposal and if there was election going on, every inner city resident would have been whisked away with unparalleled efficiency. But lives, not an election, were at stake, possibly explaining the dearth of vim and vigor on the part of the Democratic organizations towards their most loyal constituency.
Assuming the buses were up and running, where would the refugees (or whatever politically correct euphemism that also applies to yours truly) have been sent? You'll have to see the "special woman" in Baton Rouge for that answer. And she and her cohorts proved to be as equally unprepared as the city.
The local reaction to Katrina indicates the current generation of city politicians has done more whistling past the graveyard than taking proper preparations, not that there is a dust-covered binder containing an effective evacuation plan in the bowels of City Hall with "Dutch" Morial's name on it
And then there was Nagin's ill-advised announcement about the secondary nature of arresting looters in Katrina's wake, though to the mayor's credit he reversed course soon enough and unapologetically called for a crack down on the chaos that engulfed New Orleans.
Where Nagin shined brightest was through his passion on behalf of his citizens and personally being on the scene, at times literally standing up to his neck in the thick of the waters. Though Nagin's language wasn't G-rated, it belied the sense of urgency of the situation.
The mayor never minced words about the shortcomings of the Democratic governor's indecision nor the Republican administration's tardiness. It's hard to imagine any Dem politician in this partisan day and age not employing restraint on chiding a fellow Democrat official. It's this trait that has made Nagin an unwelcome figure in the Louisiana Democratic establishment and a welcome alternative to the political norm.
Sure Nagin committed blunders but who is to say any other candidate for mayor from the 2002 crop that was mostly chaff would not have made the same errors as Nagin or had done worse.
There is no doubting Nagin has fought his heart out for his hometown, without factoring in party advantage.
In other words, I'll give C-Ray a "C".
That rhetorical gem was uttered by that master of malapropisms, New Orleans Mayor Vic Schiro during Hurricane Betsy back in 1965 and is perhaps the most memorable act of that mayor during the city's worst natural disaster up until three weeks ago.
How the current city leader will be remembered in posterity in the tragedy named Katrina is a matter of great importance in the very near future.
Mayor (Clarence) Ray Nagin will be on the ballot this coming February, assuming New Orleans has by then returned to functioning order and that attorneys for partisans do not try to have the election held up for political reasons.
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Nagin lacked a significant announced opponent, not that some Lilliputian candidates had not already promoted themselves through illegal yard signs scattered across the city's neutral grounds (medians).
Even without a declared opponent of substance, Nagin has caught political heat. Politically active African-American ministers, men of God who have curiously been lockstep with a corrupt political machine, have challenged the mayor's "blackness" and obnoxious "drop pieces" have circulated around predominantly poor areas portraying City Hall as being under the control of a bunch of "Uncle Toms" and "Steppin Fetchits."
Ethically, the mayor's administration has been blasted over several questionable contracts by insiders that include an embarrassing pricey garbage can endeavor and the controversial matter of swapping out the old working parking meters with new complicated electronic ones that don't accept dollar bills (though similar devices that do are in use in Miami).
Nagin also falls short as a warm and personable politician. Not that congeniality is indicative of competence or morality, being gregarious is important to lending an air of being one with the people. But should anyone expect anything else than aloofness from the man who used to run the cable company?
And then there is his unenviable streak of backfired political endorsements that inspired a Saints fan to beg for him to "endorse" the Atlanta Falcons.
However, the aforementioned now lacks significance as Ray Nagin will be judged on one thing alone when his name appears on the ballot: his response to Hurricane Katrina.
The most vivid albatross around Nagin's political neck is the photo of those flooded buses that were not used to shuttle residents who lacked their own transportation out of New Orleans.
Some have mused that if the city machines had those same buses at their disposal and if there was election going on, every inner city resident would have been whisked away with unparalleled efficiency. But lives, not an election, were at stake, possibly explaining the dearth of vim and vigor on the part of the Democratic organizations towards their most loyal constituency.
Assuming the buses were up and running, where would the refugees (or whatever politically correct euphemism that also applies to yours truly) have been sent? You'll have to see the "special woman" in Baton Rouge for that answer. And she and her cohorts proved to be as equally unprepared as the city.
The local reaction to Katrina indicates the current generation of city politicians has done more whistling past the graveyard than taking proper preparations, not that there is a dust-covered binder containing an effective evacuation plan in the bowels of City Hall with "Dutch" Morial's name on it
And then there was Nagin's ill-advised announcement about the secondary nature of arresting looters in Katrina's wake, though to the mayor's credit he reversed course soon enough and unapologetically called for a crack down on the chaos that engulfed New Orleans.
Where Nagin shined brightest was through his passion on behalf of his citizens and personally being on the scene, at times literally standing up to his neck in the thick of the waters. Though Nagin's language wasn't G-rated, it belied the sense of urgency of the situation.
The mayor never minced words about the shortcomings of the Democratic governor's indecision nor the Republican administration's tardiness. It's hard to imagine any Dem politician in this partisan day and age not employing restraint on chiding a fellow Democrat official. It's this trait that has made Nagin an unwelcome figure in the Louisiana Democratic establishment and a welcome alternative to the political norm.
Sure Nagin committed blunders but who is to say any other candidate for mayor from the 2002 crop that was mostly chaff would not have made the same errors as Nagin or had done worse.
There is no doubting Nagin has fought his heart out for his hometown, without factoring in party advantage.
In other words, I'll give C-Ray a "C".
posted by BourbonConservative at 2:40 PM
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