Quin Hillyer
Hurricane Katrina still in the spotlight
While federal government bumbling in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has faded a bit as a political issue, Democrats still believe they can get some mileage from it as an example of what they view as Republican incompetence.
Hence the decision to have former President Jimmy Carter give his speech Monday evening not at the convention hall, but from New Orleans.
On Sunday night, at a well-attended bash thrown by the Friends of New Orleans relief organization, Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu (brother of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu) told the Examiner that Louisiana right now is the proverbial “tale of two cities” (the best of times and the worst of times).
Due in part to the oil revenues, state government is running a temporary surplus, but the city of New Orleans itself is still suffering, Mitch Landrieu said. But while he said that “ongoing” federal help is necessary, his message was not the familiar plea for a handout.
“In the next couple of years we have to really show people we are ready to help ourselves,” he said. But, he said, because of New Orleans’ strategic location, what is good for the city will also “be good for American’s national security and for its economic security.”
What he wants, he said, is for the next president to use the challenge of rebuilding New Orleans as “a laboratory of democracy, a chance to be really innovative regardless of ideology.”
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Landrieu’s vulnerable Senate seat?
The conventional wisdom for political junkies this year is that Democrats expect to gain anywhere between three and eight new U.S. Senate seats — but that the one Democrat potentially vulnerable is Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, who won each of her previous two elections in squeakers and whose New Orleans political base was badly eroded in Katrina. But you could look in vain at the Friends of New Orleans bash Sunday night to find anyone who thinks she is in real trouble.
She’s leading in the polls by nearly 20 points, she has a large campaign war chest, and she’s running a critically acclaimed commercial using humor to mock opponent John Kennedy as a spinning top because of his number of alleged self-reinventions to suit the political needs of the moment.
Only her brother Mitch, the lieutenant governor, offered a cautionary note. The spring after Katrina, he lost a runoff for mayor to incumbent Ray Nagin, who many observers had thought to be so discredited by his handling of the crisis that he was a political goner.
“Politics in Louisiana has been an uncertain science for the last three years,” he told the Examiner.
But with a large group of New Orleans Republicans having just reached across the aisle to host a successful fundraiser for the senator, her brother expressed great optimism.
“We feel really good about things,” he said. “She is credited locally for leading a bipartisan coalition on energy issues.”
