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KAISER ED STRIKES A NERVE
Adam Nossiter's profile of Ed Blakely continues to reverberate around the blogosphere. Kaiser Ed is being praised, damned, explained, interpreted; you name it, he's being called it. Personally, I wish that der Kaiser would keep his lips zipped more tightly BUT the impulse among some to run Blakely out of town is short sighted. Rightly or wrongly, Blakely is seen on Capitol Hill as the person who broke the NOLA planning impasse. After hostility from the Hastert-Frist Congress, the Democratic leadership is on our side. And Blakely’s relationship with Speaker Pelosi is one of the reasons for our new found clout on the Hill. Another reason is Harry Reid’s desire to give Mary Landrieu everything she needs to hold her seat in 2008. If Kaiser Ed is thrown overboard, it will comfort our enemies and afflict our friends. There are times where one has to work with people one doesn’t care for and this is one of those times. (One is apparently NOT the loneliest number, in this post at least.) I find Kaiser Ed to be as imperious and arrogant as others do BUT I agree with Mr. Clio who called him in a comment at the mime blog: “The one-eyed man at a blind City Hall.”
Blakely has attempted to clarify and/or augment his comments in an interview with WDSU-TV: "Blakely apologized when he was asked to explain his "buffoon" comment. "I meant by that, look, this is a great city and people aren't going to take racism and sexism and so forth, anymore. We've got to step out of it. We've got to be a good city. We have to be a kind of city we want to live in. Everybody here has to be respected. They can't be dominating one another. They have to start working together."
"It's like a comedy act," he continued. "One side gets up, the other side goes down. I probably shouldn't have used that terminology but it seems ... foolishness."
Later, he added, "I regret using that terminology, I probably should have said 'foolish.'"
On referring to the city's racial environment as "a bit like the Shiites and Sunnis," Blakely said he was in an environment he must work around rather than try to change. "My job is to put out the truth," he told WDSU-TV. "As your grandma says, 'Sometimes people can't take the truth." I work around it and go straight up all the time."
He said he regrets ruffling feathers and "never want to put anyone offside ... but I am who I am."
Hey, he's Popeye. That means that Ashley Morris is Bluto; Arnie Fielkow is Wimpy and C Ray is Swee'pea. Pass the spinach, Kaiser Ed.
Finally, here are some links to the NOLA Blogosphere’s Blakelypalooza. I agree with some of the posts and comments thereto and disagree with others but the response shows that Kaiser Ed has a hit a nerve and a raw one at that: Library Chronicles ; Ashley Morris-Mach 1 & Mach 2; Got Law; Wet Bank Guide; Traveling Mermaid ; G Bitch; Moldy City ; Nix Bits and Think NOLA . This list is by no means comprehensive but I hope that it's comprehensible.
UPDATE: Varg at the Chicory has chimed in with a thoughtful and well reasoned post. LINK .
Does that make Stacey Head Olive Oyl?
I like the Buffoonicles roundup you've got. We DO still need to wait and
see on Monsieur Czar.
Oh, and sorry for not commenting at your blog yesterday, Shecky. Mea culpa
from a shonda fur da blogpocheh. 8-S
So be it. Blakely keeps his job, and we must all continue to endure his
endless mind-numbing blather because he is the holder of all essential
"truth" and he has the balls to say it, unlike the slow and clueless
locals. Okay. We critics will take one for the team, hope for the best and
pray that this boorish, self-absorbed academic will eventually dispense
some wisdom along with his insults.
I think the reaction is overblown; to some degree a reflection of how good
it feels to be indignant. I really got a kick out out of Clancy DuBos
loudly saying that this town was big enough for one opinionated loudmouth.
Maybe he meant in public office.
A voice of moderation and reason. We'll keep him for Mary.
I'm officially bored with the Blakely controversy unless some new shit hits
the fan. We just have to live with him and use his connections. Does anyone
think Nancy Pelosi will pay any heed to Nagin?
"Does anyone think Nancy Pelosi will pay any heed to Nagin?"
I think the "controversy" such as it is arises from the tension between our
dissatisfaction with the way things are in this city (I think the GBitch
post you've linked captures it well) and our concern that the rest of the
world is unfairly condemning us for our problems.