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THE PICAYUNE STRIKES AGAIN
Photo by Lisa Palumbo.
When I saw the headline on Sunday's paper, I was hoping to be able to have a post title such as this: Picayune Discovers Nagin Is Unpopular. Then, I started reading the piece by Frank Donze and I realized it was the same old, same old about C Ray. The story did start of with a few critical comments about C Ray's directionless leadership style and general lassitude BUT the Picayune party line seems to be that Nagin woke up and started busting his ass after the March on City Hall. Me, I think he woke up for a few days, took a few tokes, buffed his head, told everyone how pretty he is and went back to sleep.
I have to give the Times-Pic credit for deviousness. The headline and first few graphs of the story make it look as if we were in for a critical analysis of C Ray's abject failure of leadership post-K. Instead, to summarize my colleague Bayou St. John David, it was as if Donze took dictation from the Nagin camp. David's analysis is, as always, excellent and detailed. Check it out: LINK.
The most surreal part of the article was when Donze portrayed C Ray as an excellent nuts and bolts manager. C Ray the detail man? C'mon, man, get a grip, man as the man himself would say, man. Nagin has always been a horrible manager and a fly by night idea man with no follow through. The only reason he rose to the top of Cox Cable was through his ability to schmooze, suck up and ingratiate himself to the city council and, I daresay, the Morial Administration. The only bathroom C Ray could find at Cox was the executive's loo. Flush. I expect he spent a lot of time primping in front of the mirror there. I can just see him wearing a butch khaki tutu and singing: "I'm so pretty. I'm so pretty." Buff, buff, shine, shine...
Here's one of my favorite parts of the article: "For instance, his awarding of new garbage contracts -- something that might be considered less than statecraft -- may be the boldest initiative of his still-young second term. Initially, the contracts aroused controversy because of costs, at $33 million nearly double the price of pre-Katrina garbage collection, but since their implementation they have garnered nearly universal praise."
Let's see: a few people in the Quarter are happy because their streets are getting swept; people in the rest of the city are relieved to have twice a week pickup. That doesn't amount to UNIVERSAL praise, ya'll. I think tentative initial praise is a more accurate term. We also haven't gotten to the gnarliest part of the process: the city's imposition of monsta 90 some odd gallon trash cans on ALL households. That amounts to 3 standard trash cans. Where will some people with narrow alleyways store these monstas? On the sidewalk, that's where the likes of Mr. and Mrs. Moron will place their monsta. In my case, I'll have to choose which side of the house that I don't mind accessing only AFTER moving the monsta. Finally, with twice weekly service back, we usually put out only one or two cans. Dr. A and I simply do not need a monsta trash can. But we're going to get one because our so-called rulers think we're too stupid to choose a smaller version.
The other bit in the article that irked me was the implication that unhappiness with Nagin's performance is either a zeitgeist thing or based solely on one's vote in the last election. On the zeitgeist thing: yes, when people are pissed off or unhappy they'll focus their anger on their leadership. But in this case Nagin has done little or nothing to help the situation, hence grievances with his job performance or lack thereof reflect genuine public discontent. Then there's this quote from the horse's
This is pretty good spin and with a manly ending to boot. The people who vote against a pol sometimes *do* hold a grudge but not always. Since Nagin did a constituent switch from his first election, many of the people who voted against him in 2006, voted *for* him in 2002. Even in the blogosphere, there were many who were willing to give C Ray a chance right after the election if he had reached out to Landrieu supporters. He did not.
The other flaw in C Ray's logic, if that word can ever be applied to him, is that there is no way on god's green earth that his current approval rating is 52%. Does anyone think he's even above 40%? But since there's been so little public polling in post-K Debrisville, nobody knows for sure. I have certainly heard my share of "I can't believe I voted for that fool" stories. Another factor in C Ray's low standing is this: many of his voters came to town, voted for Nagin, then immediately left and still haven't returned. Many of these folks were bused in by ACORN and other groups and some of them were public housing residents. Does anyone believe that pre-K public housing residents would vote for C Ray today?
So, New Orleans continues to stagger from crisis to crisis because of a lack of leadership at City Hall. The people in the neighborhoods, flooded and unflooded alike, are doing their best to fill the vacuum but they don't control the purse strings. The City Council is too busy patting itself on the back and posturing to make a positive contribution. If the Council had the stomach for a knock down drag out fight with the Nagin administration, they could fill the gap. But as long as Oliver the Actor runs the council that won't happen: Oliver is a obsessive consensus seeker, which is why, while he might make a good replacement for Dollar Bill, he would be a terrible Mayor. And Oliver clearly wants to be Mayor.
Finally, it's always frustrating to read the MSM because they can't or won't call an idiot an idiot. The biggest problem with Nagin is not his casual demeanor or laid back leadership style but the fact that he's not very bright. He's a dim bulb, a dumb ass, a dummy. There's an argument to be made that pre-K, he was a useful idiot. But in the post-K crisis he's a useless idiot, which is the worst kind.
Most people only read the headline and the first couple paragraphs anyway.
So all that extra stuff doesn't really matter. The headline is all that
counts.
Uh, oh Bart you're starting to sound like an elected official now.
<ducking> I think the few remaining newspaper readers read more
carefully than that but I'm sure that they read the boxed quotes from C
Ray, which are to say the least self-serving.
I HATED this article. HATED it. Someone needs to teach the
Times-Pick-Yer-Nose (as my husband calls it) that flattering our walikng id
of a mayor by kissing his butt will do NOTHING.
GRRGRGGGggggggrrrrrrgrgggggagaaarrraraagggggrrrrrgh.
Leigh, if you must hurl do it at your own blog please.
And here we have yet another in a long line of C-Ray and W parallels. Both
have answered their critics by pointing out that their jobs are "hard
work"!
It was an amazing suspension of reality.
C Ray was elected because he was *perceived* as an outsider and got away
with it. Roy Rodney one of his closest friends and associates is also close
to Prince Marc. And that's not the only connection. In short, the Nagin
campaign did a helluva sales job. No surprise: as I've said before C Ray is
a lousy Mayor but a terrific candidate.
The kleptocracy in New Orleans is very small, very close knit and
multi-racial. It would be astonishing if anyone got elected without some
significant connections. The best that can be hoped for is a marginal
degree of separation.
Has anyone heard of any of the people on the recovery czar's staff? Or who
the other 17 are? The "breaking news" section of nola.com just posted the
list:
Sorry about the Grrrrarrrgh-ing. It was SUPPOSED to be a growl.
What does anyone know about C-Ray's medication schedule. I've heard he's
drugged to the gills, which would explain a lot. Any truth in that?
Adrastos, Liprap thought that I was Dr. A. I would not dare call my self
"doctor" in mixed company.
I was inclined to agree with Editor B, that's actually why I was little
restrained in my criticism. Now, I think that was wrong, and I should have
been more critical.
Hoo boy. All this missed signals stuff. I'm getting a little
farklempt...talk amongst yourselves...
Lip, I guess you do need to read backwards: Dr A is my wife. I call my
friend Ashley Morris, the Perfesser.
LMAO. You call Ashley a number of things. <ducks>
Ohhh, boy, I'm hearing the cat screeches and hissing now...
I guess you don't have to be smart at all to be "clever." That's why I
prefer cunning. I remember an old Rolling Stone interview with John Huston
in which he called Reagan dumber than mud, but a cunning bastard. Guess
the same may hold true for Nagin. I've never met him in person, he doesn't
seem that stupid on TV.