Breakfast at Tiffany's – Because I Do Not Know

Fool Me Once, Shame On You ...

But fool me twice, then shame on me. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal takes a close, hard and eye-opening look at Louisiana's political "leaders."

Put bluntly, the local political cultures don't engender confidence that aid won't be diverted from the people who truly need and deserve it. While the feds can try to ride herd on the money, here's hoping folks in the region take the opportunity to finally demand their own political housecleaning. Change is past due. Last year, Lou Riegel, the agent in charge of the FBI's New Orleans office, described Louisiana's public corruption as "epidemic, endemic, and entrenched. No branch of government is exempt."

Louisiana ranks third in the nation in the number of elected officials per capita convicted of crimes (Mississippi takes top prize). In just the past generation, the Pelican State has had a governor, an attorney general, three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a state Senate president and a swarm of local officials convicted. Last year, three top officials at Louisiana's Office of Emergency Preparedness were indicted on charges they obstructed a probe into how federal money bought out flood-prone homes. Last March the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered Louisiana to repay $30 million in flood-control grants it had awarded to 23 parishes.

Much of the region has long had a relaxed attitude towards corruption. ABC's Cokie Roberts, whose parents, Hale and Lindy Boggs, both represented New Orleans in Congress, was only half-joking when her first suggestion for speeding reconstruction was releasing convicted former governor Edwin Edwards from prison because he "knows how to get things done."

Do not give the corrupt Louisiana and New Orleans establishment one single penny without someone from the U.S. General Accounting Office standing there. There is no longer in a "life-and-death" situation in New Orleans. Looting of any kind shouldn't be tolerated -- particularly when it's by the same people who took federal funding for years and built bridges, casinos and a goddamned fountain instead of reinforcing levees and planning a real evacuation.

Instead of writing these so-called leaders a blank check, we should be throwing them in jail.

If there are any cells left.

3 comments Jake McCafferty last posted at 6:26 PM
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3 Comments:

a friend was saying that the evidence locker for the new orleans police department was in the basement. well, we all know what happeend to N.O. Twice. so anyways, there's no evidence, and many many killers, rapists, drug addicts are gonna go free. who can argue for conviction against the no evidence claim?

By kinkyrhombus, at 11:53 PM

Not to mention all identity theft opportunites-any grifter can simply claim they're from N.O. to explain lack of references,records,etc. Also,plenty of missing/dead persons to
steal info from....you notice that no one's seems to have considered the possibilty at this point and until they catch a few folks doing this,they won't.

Human nature..what fun!

By lady t, at 5:04 AM

Ceiting, I might point out most of the evidence in those lockers is stolen by the cops before it ever makes it to court. ;-) But, seriously, the criminal justice system -- as it existed -- is wrecked further.

Logistically speaking, as both of you point out, it's a records nightmare.

By Jake McCafferty, at 6:53 PM