Nbadan
08-27-2006, 03:31 AM
New Orleans needs a Mayor who will rise up to the challenge of rebuilding or demolishing the remaining structures that were damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and rebuilding the city's lucrative tourist industry. Instead, Nagin, a former Republican, is too busy traveling to neighboring states raising cash for a future run at office....
Saturday, August 26, 2006
By Gordon Russell
Once, his opponents derided him as "Ray Reagan."
These days, Mayor Ray Nagin is wearing a new nickname, courtesy of talk-radio host Garland Robinette: Mayor Ray "Nay-gone."
While his press office tried to play down reports of a national tour after his re-election May 20, Nagin has since kept a travel schedule rivaling a professional sports star or a touring rock act. A partial list of the stops thus far: San Diego, Chicago, Baltimore, Memphis, Indianapolis and Houston.
In some cases, he's made a speech; in others, collected campaign cash for as-yet-unnamed political offices Nay-gone may seek in the future. Term limits prevent another run for mayor.
For a while this spring, the mayor struggled to raise campaign dough, but he's apparently rolling in it now.
"People want to give me money, man," a grinning Nagin said this week, adding that he's turned down some invitations to far-flung fund-raisers. "I'm just taking it. You want to give me some money? I'll take it."
Nagin's most recent trip was to Philadelphia, where Andre Duggin, a politically active insurance broker in that city, hosted a fund-raiser Aug. 17. Among the guests were Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor John Street.
Nagin called the event "a follow-up from the election."
NOLA (http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-16/1156572779292430.xml&coll=1)
As an avid supporter of Phil Hardberger, I gotta say, Nagins been a piss-poor excuse for a Mayor. Maybe some of the responsibility for the slow progress in rebuilding NO isn't completely his fault, after all, the FEDS are still sitting on billions of dollars of appropriated money for rebuilding, but if it's times like these that try a man's soul, then Nagin has failed miserably.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
By Gordon Russell
Once, his opponents derided him as "Ray Reagan."
These days, Mayor Ray Nagin is wearing a new nickname, courtesy of talk-radio host Garland Robinette: Mayor Ray "Nay-gone."
While his press office tried to play down reports of a national tour after his re-election May 20, Nagin has since kept a travel schedule rivaling a professional sports star or a touring rock act. A partial list of the stops thus far: San Diego, Chicago, Baltimore, Memphis, Indianapolis and Houston.
In some cases, he's made a speech; in others, collected campaign cash for as-yet-unnamed political offices Nay-gone may seek in the future. Term limits prevent another run for mayor.
For a while this spring, the mayor struggled to raise campaign dough, but he's apparently rolling in it now.
"People want to give me money, man," a grinning Nagin said this week, adding that he's turned down some invitations to far-flung fund-raisers. "I'm just taking it. You want to give me some money? I'll take it."
Nagin's most recent trip was to Philadelphia, where Andre Duggin, a politically active insurance broker in that city, hosted a fund-raiser Aug. 17. Among the guests were Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor John Street.
Nagin called the event "a follow-up from the election."
NOLA (http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-16/1156572779292430.xml&coll=1)
As an avid supporter of Phil Hardberger, I gotta say, Nagins been a piss-poor excuse for a Mayor. Maybe some of the responsibility for the slow progress in rebuilding NO isn't completely his fault, after all, the FEDS are still sitting on billions of dollars of appropriated money for rebuilding, but if it's times like these that try a man's soul, then Nagin has failed miserably.