Two pieces today make the case that Republicans will do all they can to create a rebuilt "whites only" city.
While catastrophe was unfolding in New Orleans, Dennis Hastert said out loud what many Republicans were undoubtedly thinking: why rebuild at all? John Nichols makes a persuasive case that Hastert was not talking about the city's location at all, but about the political power of African-American voters there:
(More after the jump.)
Hastert is about as crass a political player as you will find in Washington. To the speaker and those around him, New Orleans is little more than a Democratic town full of African Americans, Latino immigrants, gays and lesbians and a few remaining pockets of Southern white liberalism. Republican strategists have long been frustrated by New Orleans, a city so blue that it has often tipped the political balance in an otherwise red state.
It was New Orleans that gave Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu her narrow first win in 1996 and her only slightly more comfortable re-election victory in 2002. Votes from New Orleans helped make Louisiana one of the few Southern states to back Democrat Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election, and they kept Democrat Al Gore competitive with George W. Bush in 2000. In 2003, overwhelming support from New Orleans gave Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco a come-from-behind win in the state's gubernatorial contest.
Raw Story also reports today on a rich white bastard who's making cocktails while security guards protect his New Orleans mansion:
"The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."
Catastrophe and thousands of deaths won't stop this determined gang of wealthy scum from mixing highballs while pondering how to achieve their goals of racism and greed.
It's imperative that progressives keep close watch on rebuilding plans to prevent these morally repellant worms from creating a whites only New Orleans.