Today's Hoot!

In the matter of Motor Pool Mayor Ray Nagin, James Gill at The (New Orleans) Times Picayune says We've survived crazy politicians before:

Louisiana survived Earl Long's trip to the nuthouse, so maybe New Orleans can survive Mayor Ray Nagin's apparent descent into lunacy.

But Long managed to put his eccentric episodes behind him and remained a political force, going on to win a congressional election just before he died.

Nagin may not be so lucky. It will be hard to recover from his Martin Luther King Day tirade, because it was not just insane. It was stupid. The mayoralty is there for any credible candidate who wants it, because Nagin just threw away the white vote that got him into office in the first place.

The sooner we reschedule the election, the better, because we aren't going to accelerate the Katrina recovery so long as the whole world knows the man in charge down here not only chats with King but is also a confidant of the Almighty.

Actually, we've known about that for quite a while.