Mayor Nagin is in two places at once

You've got to hand it to Mayor Nagin's administration. In the space of one week, they've treated us to not one but two spectacularly Clintonian semantic arguments. You may remember that on Friday, Nagin's communications director told WWL that just because the Mayor tells us x number of crime cameras have been "repaired" we shouldn't conclude that he is also telling us they are "working".

Tonight, in light of the fact that the Mayor is currently sitting in quarantine in Shanghai, a new discussion has bubbled up over the question of who should serve as "acting mayor" in the absence of the officially elected honorable person. It turns out that the Mayor's practice of appointing an acting executive from within his administration to serve during his travels abroad technically violates a city charter provision which requires the temporary Mayoral purple to fall to one of the two At-Large Council members.

Now while sane persons at this point in the story are asking questions like, "What does a temporary 'acting mayor' actually do anyway?" or "Is this something any of us should spend more than two minutes worrying about?" this evening we find City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields presenting us with the far more interesting brain twister, Does indefinite detention on the far side of the globe, in fact, qualify as "absence"?

Fielkow said citizens voted on the requirement in the charter, and it should be followed. But the city attorney argues that the mayor is not absent.

"The mayor is in charge. He's directing. He's advising," said city attorney Penya Moses-Fields. "He's giving direction as it relates to these matters. Of course, the chief administrative officer as always provides insight and direction as it relates to operational departments, but as far as I'm concerned, the mayor is still in charge."

We are left to assume that Nagin is providing direction and advice through the use of some modern communications convenience...although we find it hard to believe anyone in city government wants to spend too much time emailing these days. Maybe he's Tweeting it.

In any event, what we'd like to know is if Mayor Nagin never intended for his voyage to China and then to Australia to qualify as an "absence" why bother to appoint Dr. Brenda Hatfield to temporary Herzzoneritude in the first place? If he's not really absent then she's not really the acting mayor, right? Does she know this? Do you think maybe it bums her out just a little?