Monday, August 20, 2007
Just a Thought
On Web site blogs and talk radio shows, Thomas was lambasted all week for betraying the public trust.
Frank Donze
I won't have time to do a post on the really important campaign,
It's still important, IMO, because I think we're going to see what amounts to a second campaign over the mayor's emergency powers and control over the city's share of the reconstruction money.
a campaign in which the mayor continues to steamroll the little opposition that he does occasionally face, tonight. But, I will point out that that the people at the Picayune do notice what bloggers write. So, for that matter, does Gambit weekly*. At the very least, it's an excuse to introduce an unpleasant or controversial subject. That's why I think of it as a lost opportunity whenever I see a Nagin critic link to Dambala's posts about the technology office without mention the secrecy or earlier examples of cronyism. Still, an earlier post was overstated; bloggers don't have much power over public opinion.
However, if you view the last fifteen months as an extended campaign (the analogy would be to the campaign for a party nomination) to control reconstruction policy and spending, the sad fact is that we've** been getting our clocks cleaned and that's what has me so angry. The mayor has taken his lumps on crime and his tendency to stick his foot in his mouth, but he's won every single struggle over power or finances. Of course the mayor, and every other elected official, should feel heat over the city's crime problem, but that pressure gets divided at least three ways before race confuses the issue. Criticisms of the mayor for his stupid statements are a waste of time -- been there, done that, the shit doesn't stick. Make fun of the buffoon all you want, but the fact is, the buffoon's calling all the shots.
*That Gambit article ran eleven months ago. People love to talk about the Picayune's brief moment of glory after Katrina, I think that Gambit had a brief moment of glory after the last election. It briefly acted like a true alternative weekly trying to shine a spotlight on the shady dealings at City Hall that the major daily chose to ignore. But even before that column, Gambit showed signs that it was ready to go back to selling advertising.
**By "we" I mean anybody who would like to see at least some limits placed on the mayor's ability to bankrupt and generally fuck up the city
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The true "jump the shark" moment for Gambit was that puff cover story on the Tulane layoffs. When they went with a conspiracy story as their cover the next month, I knew the paper was lost...
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