Not unique but well-branded

Every time Jim Letten rides his white horse into City Hall and produces another "bad guy" for everyone to throw tomatoes at, a predictable event occurs on talk radio, on the editorial page, on Twitter, etc, where we all take turns slamming New Orleans' "unique culture of corruption".  It's everyone's go-to excuse to beat up on their neighbors or to talk about why we don't deserve the nice things the people who live in the supposedly less backward places have. 

Funny thing, though.  Those other places are really no better than us.

TRENTON, N.J. - FBI agents on Thursday raided City Hall in New Jersey's capital, a day after searching the home of the city's embattled mayor, his brother and a campaign donor.

The FBI said they had a search warrant for several offices but declined to be more specific. About a dozen FBI vehicles were parked outside City Hall, and some city employees were milling around outside but none could say which offices had been targeted.

Mayor Tony Mack, 46, on Wednesday denied wrongdoing after the FBI spent the overnight hours searching his home, and the homes of his brother, Ralphiel Mack, and businessman Joseph Giorgianni, a campaign donor who is a convicted sex offender.

The Democratic mayor's first two years in office have been punctuated by accusations of reckless spending, cronyism and mismanagement.

For some reason, though, New Orleans does have a slight edge on the rest of the country for impotently despising itself.  We have a knack for using public corruption as an excuse to deny each other services while at the same time promoting a myth that this excuse is something endemic to our culture that will never really change. It's sort of a permanent artificial barrier to progress. But hey it's great sport and it keeps Letten on TV.. and, of course... keeps the brand out there.