Ray Nagin was recently a Repug; gave to Bush campgn; didn't endorse Blanco

[gauguin57]

For those of you wondering about those moments when Nagin and Bush seem to be getting along famously (his radio rant notwithstanding) ...
now you know.

For those of you who haven't heard, Ray Nagin was a rich, Republican businessman ($400,000-a-year cable exec) who decided he wanted to be mayor, and changed his party to Dem. just three years ago when he decided to run for mayor of a city where a Repug can't get elected. This was no Jim Jeffords situation -- this was a man changing his party for political expediency. *sigh*

I first learned this from Keith Olbermann, and have found out other stuff since ...

Though he's donated to Democratic campaigns, Nagin ALSO donated to George W. Bush's primary campaign in 2000 (YUCK!) and to Billy Tauzin's campaign a couple of times (YUCK 2!). When you hear Nagin bitching about Bush, remember: He contributed money to help put him in office. Nagin also endorsed the Repug instead of Kathleen Blanco in the 2003 LA runoff (she must LOVE standing next to him in the press conferences!).

From Wikipedia:

"... Before his election, Nagin was a member of the Republican Party and had little political experience; he was a vice president and general manager at Cox Communications, a cable communications company and subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. Nagin did give donations periodically to candidates, namely President George W. Bush and former Republican U.S. Representative Billy Tauzin in 1999 and 2000, as well as to Democratic U.S. Senators John Breaux and J. Bennett Johnston earlier in the decade.

"Days before filing for the New Orleans Mayoral race in February 2002, Nagin switched his party registration to the Democratic Party. Shortly before the primary election, an endorsement praising Nagin as a reformer by Gambit Magazine gave him crucial momentum that would carry through for the primary election and runoff. In the first round of the crowded mayoral election in February 2002, Nagin received first place with 29% of the vote, against such opponents as Police Chief Richard Pennington, State Senator Paulette Irons, City Councilman Troy Carter and others. In the runoff with Pennington in May 2002, Nagin won with 59% of the vote. His campaign was largely self-financed.

"Shortly after taking office, Nagin launched an anti-corruption campaign within city government, which included crackdowns on the city's Taxicab Bureau and Utilities Department. Nagin also made a controversial endorsement of current Republican U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal in the 2003 Louisiana Gubernatorial Runoff over current Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco, and only reluctantly endorsed U.S. Senator John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential race."

[gauguin57]

1. From the Black Commentator, 2003

http://www.blackcommentator.com/65/65_cover_louisiana.html

"Ray Nagin never sold out the Black majority in New Orleans, since he was never a Black leader, nor had he held elective office prior to winning the Mayor’s job. Nagin is precisely what he appears to be: a businessman on the make, adept at using politics to effect bigger deals, a prime advantage in the thoroughly politicized world of cable television. The former $400,000-a-year Cox Communications vice president’s main asset in the 2002 campaign was that he wasn’t part of the local Black political machinery. It also didn’t hurt to have the support of virtually the entire local corporate community.

"Nagin’s anti-corruption platform won him majorities in Black precincts, even as he opposed a Living Wage referendum that was supported by two of every three voters in the city. As reported on May 8, 2002, Nagin “donated money to George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, prompting a group of Democrats to run radio ads dubbing him ‘Ray Reagan.’ His courting of conservatives included a call for repeal of the residency law for cops, provoking outrage from the head of the city’s Black Organization of Police.”

"Black New Orleansians seem to accept as a matter of course that Nagin is a Republican with non-matching voter registration. The Mayor bears an uncanny political resemblance to another African American cable businessman: BET’s Bob Johnson, a nominal Democrat who placed himself at the service of George Bush’s anti-Estate Tax campaign, in 2001. Johnson gathered a Who’s Who of Black media owners and executives to back Bush’s regressive legislation, which would mainly benefit the very rich while draining the federal treasury of funds for social services to the many. Most of the signatories are also nominal Democrats.

"What sets this class apart from traditional Black business is their recently acquired ability to directly negotiate substantial deals with large corporations and their representatives in government, thus allowing this relatively tiny Black circle to operate at a political distance from the community at-large. Mayor Nagin, who remains a co-owner of the New Orleans hockey franchise, made a career choice to move among the Republican elite. But could he move significant numbers of African Americans into Republican voting ranks?". .......

[wtmusic]

2. Is Nagin bent out of shape because of the destruction of NO business

or the homelessness of its residents? My guess is the former

[mac56]

3. What is the purpose of this?

Look what this guy has been through. And we're dumping on him because he used to be a Repug and switched to being a Dem?!

Man! What does it take?!

[Roland99]

No kidding.

[skids]

6. He'll be a scapegoat anyway.

...the Rethugs will sell him out to try and keep Bush blameless, even after the masses of freepers catch on that he's a DINO (and a blatant one at that.)

So we should try and keep him from becoming the scapegoat.

However, this is good info to know, and I'm glad it was posted. It explains a lot about some of his moves to date.

Besides, truth needs no purpose.

[gauguin57]

7. The purpose of this is to give biographical information.

When I heard Keith Olbermann talking about Nagin, I wanted to find out more ... so I did, and I'm passing it along. I think it's important to know that background of the players in this drama ... there's a lot of political sh*t that contributed to the slow response to Katrina. I think it's important to know what's behind it all. Perhaps what I've posted can shed some light.

[stillcool]

9. i feel the same way....

This catastrophe is about federal response to the breaking of the levees and the drowning of an American city and its people. Those in New Orleans trying to save lives during the week that wasn't have my respect for all they tried to do, regardless of their political history.

[billyf65]

13. Watch Meet the Press from yesterday...

He did his very best to try and throw Blanco under the bus while giving mixed reviews to the Administration.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9240461/

MR. RUSSERT: How would you grade the president's performance thus far, A through F?

MAYOR NAGIN: How would I rate it?

MR. RUSSERT: Yes.

MAYOR NAGIN: Oh, I don't want to get into that, Tim. I mean, I will tell you this: I think the president, for some reason, probably did not understand the full magnitude of this catastrophe on the front end. I think he was probably getting advice from some of his key advisers or some low-level folk that had been on the ground that this was serious, but not as serious as it ended up being. My interactions with the president is, anytime I talked with him and gave him what the real deal was and gave him the truth, he acted and he made things happen.

MR. RUSSERT: How about the governor?

MAYOR NAGIN: Well, you know, I don't know about that one. We fought and held that city together with only 200 state National Guard. That was it. We did not get a lot of other support for three or four days of pure hell on Earth. There were resources that were sitting in other parishes. I just don't know. I mean, and then when a group did come down to review what was happening in New Orleans, it was a big media event. It was followed with cameras and with AP reporters, a little helicopter flyover, and then they had a press conference and it was gone. So I don't have much else to say about that.

MR. RUSSERT: It sounds like you don't think the governor has done a very good job.

MAYOR NAGIN: I think there was an incredible breakdown of coordination, of resources, and decisions were made to move resources and to not move resources that just don't make sense to me. And then there was this incredible dance between the governor and the president about who had final authority, whether this was going to be federalized, who was going to be in charge at the end of the day, and I just don't appreciate that kind of stuff when people were dying in my city.

[gauguin57]

14. I noticed that slam on Blanco, too

I was also bothered, in Nagin's MTP interview, that he didn't really answer the questions about evacuation plans for those without cars or the financial means to leave. Tim asked him the question about three different ways, and Nagin never answered it to my satisfaction.

Maybe someone can tell me ... in that huge NOLA evacuation plan, was there a plan for WHERE TO TAKE THE PEOPLE who had nowhere else to go and no money to check into a motel? Nagin kept talking about "taking people to higher ground" and "evacuating them vertically" (hotels, etc.). Was that what the plan called for? Or did it call for actually getting people OUT? And if it did only call for "vertical evacuation," what the hell?!?! Apocalyptic predictions + only "vertical evacuation" = no sense.

[oasis]

17. Nagin was reluctant to comment on Bush's performance but when it

came to Blanco he put the hammer down.

[pnorman]

15. I'm with you on that.

I've played that video clip several times over, and IMO, his heart was breaking for his city, and the people who live there. And he was genuinely PISSED! He wouldn't be the first opportunistic Republican who had seen the light, and "gotten religion". He's come very close to having burned his bridges with that crowd. Don't lets shit on his doorstep and discourage him.

Having said that, it's good to know as much as we can about his background.

pnorman

[Kerry fan]

4. Nagin is just another republican party hack.

Probably changed party registration for the sole purpose of helping the neoCons take control of New Orleans.
Probably doesn't have as much experience at ruthlessness as Rove and the administrarion, and maybe watching all the dying he helped perpetrate started getting to him.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. I have a different attitude for Ray Nagin after finding out

that he is a republican. I still support him in what he is trying to do for NOLA but if his party continue to place the blame solely on him instead of the chimp, then I don't think I'll feel sorry for him.

[Bridget Burke]

8. Where's the proof that he "reluctantly" endorsed Kerry?

Except for the Wikipedia, message boards & blogs that repeat that exact phrase?

Anyway, he DID endorse Kerry & he is a Democrat.

The fact that he had "little political experience" before running for Mayor makes me think he wasn't that interested in politics before he decided he wanted to be mayor.

[tx_dem41]

10. I grade this as a "B-" on the...

political smear campaign scale. Points off for not knowing this stuff has been posted incessantly on DU for about a week.

[gauguin57]

11. I personally posted this stuff about a week ago; I know it's out there.

But reading so many posts about Nagin ... I can TELL people still don't know his background. When I tell people this stuff, I still get surprised, slack-jawed response. So, just making sure people know.

And my purpose is not a political smear. I repeat: Politics has played and is playing and will play a huge role in the Katrina drama. I think it's important that everyone know who the players are.

Gee, a B minus. I'll just be depressed all day. Will that go on my "permanent record," teacher?

[tx_dem41]

16. Yes....but you can do extra credit work.

:)

My point is that Nagin has been the only politician passionate about rebuilding my hometown. I couldn't care less whether he has an R or a D after his name.

[txaslftist]

12. I wonder if he'll start to see the light and become a democrat...

...other than "in name only" after this?

Of course, he may be pilloried so effectively by the Republicans that he never enjoys public office again.

After all he does for them, they go and call him Mayor Naygor...

This is a pretty good lesson for African Americans who become Republicans. They may get to go to the club, but they'll never be members.

[UTUSN]

18. Wow, Congratulations! I Have Been Catching Hades

for quoting the very same Wikipedia item on NAGIN. Your thread, by contrast, is a model of decorum.

[gauguin57]

19. Yeah, I know. Wikipedia is a little iffy. But Newsmeat confirms

the contributions to Bush and Tauzin. And the Black Commentator gives another source of analysis.

Newsweek's article about "How Bush Blew It" (in this week's edition) talks about Nagin's pro-business bent:

"Nagin's eye had long been on commerce, not catastrophe. A former executive at Cox Communications, he had come to office in 2002 to clear out the allegedly corrupt old guard and bring new business to the city, which has not prospered with New South metropolises like Atlanta. During Nagin's mayoral campaign, the promises were about jobs, not stronger floodwalls and levees."

[Sgent]

20. Ray Nagin

was a so-so (IMHO) democrat before this. His mere accomplisments were:

A major cleanup of corruption in the awarding of contracts and patronage employment.

He has also saved millions in such things as bond issueing and costs for city services by eliminating duplication.

He has attracted more jobs -- both tourist and non-tourist related, than any mayor in modern history.

His support for Jengal was a negative. That being said, Blanco wasn't a great candidate.

The "black" establishment in NOLA has been as corrupt as any for the last 20 years. I remember when I was still living there and trying to start businesses, it was impossible w/o payoff's to a half dozen council members and people in the administrative depts.

Morial may have been well liked, but he only took the city backwards in every way a city is supposed to go.

[bklyncowgirl]

21. Nagin's not singing a different song from Blanco

Neither has chosen to "Play the blame game".

Why? I suppose it has to do with the need to play ball with Bush in order to get the aid they need and also to retain a voice in what happens next.

That's reality. We're concerned with getting rid of or at lest neutering Bush. They're concerned with survival (and probably spinning at least a few recoverey contracts to their own supporters).