First, C Ray is the Mayor of New Orleans, the slow recovery is *partially* his responsibility. Of course, as the world's oldest teenager, he doesn't like the R word. Second, the Louisiana pols who C Ray dislikes so much-Governor Meemaw and the Landrieus-are heavily dependent on African American voters. That "they" has no interest whatsoever in bleaching, ethnically cleansing or, whatever you want to call it, the racial makeup of New Orleans. C Ray's buddy, Piyush (Bobby) Jindal is the likely beneficiary of any demographic changes in the voters of Orleans Parish. Finally, as we locals know, C Ray is opposed to re-opening public housing and hasn't lifted a finger to help poor folks return home except to vote for him last Spring. If there's a THEY, C Ray is one of THEM.
I'll only add that it's particularly insidious given that there is a grain of truth to the mayor's comments. There has indeed been a concerted effort to alter the electorate in Orleans Parish after the flood. As Adrastos points out, it has been orchestrated largely by C-Ray and his State Republican buddies. But there is also a palpable antagonism toward New Orleans and its recovery from the rest of the country that does muck up rebuilding efforts.. and yes a large part of that antagonism has to do with race. So once again we find C-Ray contributing to AND exploiting the delayed recovery process.
The clowning also allows the mayor to steal another page from the President's book and occlude one scandalous event with yet another scandalous event. It's too late to ask if he can continue to get away with it. He was reelected, after all. But, in the meantime, David has a cogent suggestion. Besides, there were much more important things to worry about this past weekend.
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