Wouldn't the Repugs be excited to know that Ray Nagin is one of their own?

[gauguin57]

Nagin is basically a Republican pretending to be a Democrat. He was a Republican until he ran for mayor and realized he had to change his party to Dem in order to win. Don't flame me -- I just like to know who all the players in this drama really are.

Wouldn't the Freepers love to know that their new demon, Nagin, was recently a Repug, contributed to George W. Bush's campaign and endorsed the Repug running against now-Gov. Blanco?!

I first learned some of this from Keith Olbermann, and have found some other unsettling analyses of his political career since. Ray Nagin was a rich, Republican businessman who decided he wanted to be mayor, and changed his party to Dem. 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*

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!). I have to stop myself from yelling at the TV screen when I hear Nagin bitching about Bush -- 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?". .......

[FreedomAngel82]

2. Kick

This is amazing news. I wonder why they are specifically targeting him? You hear more about him then you do the governor... Maybe it's the whole payback thing? Very interesting. We should blast this information around. Send it to everybody you can.

[marbuc]

4. I like Nagin

regardless of political affiliation. He wants to help his city, which is more than I can say for GWB.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

10. I like Nagin too! I only officially became a dem in 2000. My voting

wasn't republican prior to that, but I changed to show the Repub's I was pissed about the Clinton witch hunt. Maybe, Nagins had the same situation.

[CascadeTide]

3. Honestly I don't think any mayor could have done anything

In that situation, your entire city is flooded, you have no communications and you have massive amounts of people with no resources, what do you do?

I think most agree that Rudy Giuliani was great in a time of crisis.

He did a great job after 9/11 but the area of effect was what 20x20 blocks? Rudy also had massive amounts of resources at his disposal immediately and he never had to deal with a lack of basic necessities for survivors.

Giuliani may have kept a better presence for the media but I doubt he would have been able to do a whole lot more than Nagin, other than have more influence in getting the feds to move faster.

[CottonBear]

5. Nagin is a Repub turned Dem turned Crisis Mangaer hung out to dry by *

I can forgive him his past tresspasses in light of his efforts to evacuate 80% of a city of 500,000 and save 35,000 of the 60,000+ citizens left in NOLA.
Hopefully, he will never vote or run as a Repug EVER again.

[xray s]

6. The Republican/Democrat dicotomy is a false one, especially in Louisiana

The philosphical divide is between those that believe the government is "of the people, by the people, for the people" vs "of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations". When it comes to bowing to the corporate rulers of this country, the D's and R's are kissing cousins in LA. (Old Lou Dobbs hit this on one the head today)

The D's of Louisiana supported Bush's Iraq war, that has decimated their National Guard. They supported Bush's tax cuts to the rich that starved their levee projects.

Ray Nagin was a "liberal" Republican (translation he supports abortion rights) before switching to the Democrat brand to draw in those brand loyal voters in his race for mayor. His main concern is "improving the business climate in NOLA". I doubt he began most of his "Come move your business to NOLA" pitch with a recap of the Times Picyune articles warning that the city was at risk to drown.

And we now hear he is looking for a seat at the table of the powers- to-be to split the gold soon to flood the streets of NOLA from DC. (That is, unless he "got into trouble", as he feared he might, over his rant against Bush the night the waters rose).

More juicy details about the real power in NOLA and Nagin's role here, also posted on DU's front page;

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05251/567892.stm

I would love to hear from actual NOLA citizens about all of this. But they have been scattered to the winds.

[Secular Agent Man]

7. Here's my take:

I think Bushco and the Repubs are going to whisper sweet nothings in Nagin's ear to reel him back into the Repub fold. He may be useful to them like Powell was. Blanco is who they're more concerned with, she's on their radar to destroy politically. All my opinion of course.

[gauguin57]

8. Wow ... I'd never thought of that possibility.

Curiouser and curiouser

[OrlandoGator]

9. Does this mean Rush Limbaugh is going to stop calling him "Nayger"?

Just curious.