New Orleans Mayor Apologizes

WaPo reported An avalanche of criticism, stoked by heated talk-radio rants, forced Mayor C. Ray Nagin to apologize Tuesday for declaring that God wants New Orleans to be a "chocolate city."

Too fattening.

Nagin, who is black, had said during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech that "this city will be an African American majority city. It's the way God wants it to be."

Has God been speaking to him personally?

He also said "God is mad at America" and "is sending hurricane after hurricane" because He disapproves of the United States invading Iraq "under false pretenses."

I do recall God destroying a city (actually two: Sodom & Gomorrah), but it was not because of war under false pretenses, but because of wiked behaviour. Perhaps he should consider what goes on during Mardi Gras

Nagin's remarks drew a furious reaction from white and black leaders, as well as residents, in New Orleans, prompting him to tell reporters Tuesday that the comments were "totally inappropriate."

Open mouth, insert foot.

The dustup is the latest in a series of controversies over remarks made by the mayor, a former cable television executive elected in 2002 without experience in elected office. Nagin was lambasted by Hispanic leaders last fall for asking a business group, during a speech, what he could do to prevent New Orleans from being "overrun by Mexican workers."

Oops.

He also was criticized for saying shortly after Hurricane Katrina that 10,000 people had probably been killed in the city, and that there were rampant rapes and murders taking place at the Louisiana Superdome, where thousands had sought shelter after the storm. The actual death toll for the state was closer to 2,000, and journalists and law enforcement officials have criticized the initial reports of rapes and murders as grossly exaggerated. "I think he should speak less," Loyola University political analyst Ed Renwick said Tuesday. "He has a reputation of saying the first thing that comes into his head without thinking it through."

He is not the only politician that does that.