At the beginning of the post, Avman shows a brief video of Mitch Landrieu during a 2006 mayoral debate, featuring an inelegantly chopped quote. The tv graphic indicates that the mayoral candidates were discussing the issue of housing. Avman chops the following comment to show Mitch saying:
I don't want to go back right pre-Katrina, I want to think about the city of New Orleans in the early sixties...
Viewers don't get to see Mitch's full opinion on, presumably, the housing recovery of New Orleans following the Federal Flood. But I'd bet Mitch's "early sixties" reference refers to the population level of New Orleans, which peaked around that time (perhaps earlier) and decreased ever since. In other words, I'd bet that Landrieu's statement refers to his goal of growing the city's population beyond where it was prior to the storm/ff. Until I can find a transcript, that's my reasonable interpretation of the chopped quote shown by Avman.
But guess where Avman takes it? Avman interprets this quote to mean that Mitch wants to return New Orleans to the days of segregation. I'm so not kidding. Avman compares Landrieu's quote to "Trent Lott saying he voted for Strom Thurmond", and sees this as grounds for Mitch's resignation.
Last week I asked if Avman can get any more deathlessly inane. Apparently so!
Conservatives never tire of reminding us that Mitch Landrieu comes from a political family. But here they conveniently forget the admirable anti-segregationist stances of his father, Moon, during the turbulent sixties. When most "conservatives" were opposing civil rights legislation, many brave" liberals" were supporting it. Moon Landrieu was one of those liberals. Mitch is rightfully proud of that, and (in my opinion) is tone-perfect on race issues. He is comfortable directly answering questions concerning race in a way that makes sense to most people of all colors. That's one of the reasons I'm a fan of Mitch*. To imply that Mitch Landrieu is a closet segregationist based on a chopped quote where he's discussing post-Katrina housing and population levels... again, can it get any more deathlessly inane than that?
Oh dear. Maybe so. I haven't reviewed the rest of Avman's post, where he gets to the heart of the matter.
That "stupid idea" came from Matt Drudge, who issued a "report" about DNC involvement in the New Orleans mayoral election, only to retract it. However, despite the retraction, Drudge's false claims were widely repeated by national conservative pundits, as well as local pundits including the Dead Pelican (DP "flash sheet" no longer in the archives) and Wizbang! They dutifully treated this report as fact while national GOP elements, according to Clancy Dubos and Jeff Crouere, were engaging in a "carefully orchestrated campaign" to sink Mitch Landrieu and elect Ray Nagin. According to one GOP operative near the center of the anti-Mitch campaign, the "macchiavellian" reason behind these shenanigans was to assist Bobby Jindal's 2007 campaign for Governor in the N. Louisiana parishes. But now, after he and his fellow travellers helped re-elect Ray Nagin, Avman is convinced the DNC will interfere "again" on behalf of Mitch, when they never even did it the first time!!
Oh dear. Maybe so. I haven't reviewed the rest of Avman's post, where he gets to the heart of the matter.
[W]hat I really wanted to talk about was the possibility that the DNC was going to get involved in this race. Is it really wise of the DNC to back a white candidate for a second consecutive race, the same candidate who in the previous race talked about taking New Orleans back to the early 1960’s?
...
Whose stupid idea was that to bring the DNC into this race the first time?
That "stupid idea" came from Matt Drudge, who issued a "report" about DNC involvement in the New Orleans mayoral election, only to retract it. However, despite the retraction, Drudge's false claims were widely repeated by national conservative pundits, as well as local pundits including the Dead Pelican (DP "flash sheet" no longer in the archives) and Wizbang! They dutifully treated this report as fact while national GOP elements, according to Clancy Dubos and Jeff Crouere, were engaging in a "carefully orchestrated campaign" to sink Mitch Landrieu and elect Ray Nagin. According to one GOP operative near the center of the anti-Mitch campaign, the "macchiavellian" reason behind these shenanigans was to assist Bobby Jindal's 2007 campaign for Governor in the N. Louisiana parishes. But now, after he and his fellow travellers helped re-elect Ray Nagin, Avman is convinced the DNC will interfere "again" on behalf of Mitch, when they never even did it the first time!!
Avman concludes
So here is the post, in sum: Avman uses a fallacious 2006 Drudge report to support his current (unsourced) worries about the DNC helping Mitch; then he couples this worry to a chopped quote that implies Mitch Landrieu wants to re-segregate New Orleans.
Imagine that, the Democrats twice trying to impose their will by putting a White Mayor in a city that’s majority African American? That should go over real well… and might just be a start in taking New Orleans back to the early 1960’s.
So here is the post, in sum: Avman uses a fallacious 2006 Drudge report to support his current (unsourced) worries about the DNC helping Mitch; then he couples this worry to a chopped quote that implies Mitch Landrieu wants to re-segregate New Orleans.
What the hell is Avman's problem, anyway? How inane in the membrane can someone be? Was he conceived by a weak sperm, or something?
Can't wait until the Dead Pelican promotes the next idiotic "anti-Mitch" commentary from Avman. It's funny that Dead Pelican publisher Chad Rogers feels that Mitch is one of the best candidates running for mayor, but also consistently promotes (often false) anti-Mitch Landrieu posts and videos.
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* Conservatives and Republicans could learn a lot from Mitch in this area. But it seems, at best, they'd rather stammer and blubber their way through boilerplate answers on questions of race, either pretending its a non-issue or that tax cuts are a sufficient remedy.
Labels: Cons, Couhig Conservatives, Dead Pelican, Dems, Elections and Campaigns, Mitch Landrieu
