In the New Orleans-area congressional runoff between Democrats Karen Carter and William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson, the parish poobahs of Jefferson (the parish, that is) are lining up behind the alleged crook, Jefferson (of the $90,000 hidden in the freezer, that is).
Now why would they do that? Apart from the fact that it's Louisiana, that is.
Well, the rulers of Jefferson Parish, which lies immediately to the west and to the south of the Crescent City, are P.O.'d that Carter, a 37-year-old state legislator, said less than nice things about the "unwelcome mat" Jefferson (the parish, not the cold cash man) officials put out for desperate, mostly African-American residents of New Orleans trying to escape the waterlogged, hellish city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year. As an Associated Press story puts it:
A popular but pugnacious suburban sheriff unleashed an attack this week on Jefferson's opponent, state Rep. Karen Carter, because she called officials "inhumane" for stopping thousands of people from walking across a Mississippi River bridge to the less-impacted west bank to escape New Orleans after Katrina.
Jefferson faces Carter, a fellow Democrat, Saturday in a runoff that will decide one of the last unresolved midterm congressional elections, its lateness tied to Louisiana's multiparty open-primary system.
On Tuesday Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee called a news conference and railed against Carter for nearly 20 minutes, charging "she wanted to run her fat mouth" to get attention by laying down racist charges.
Carter, 37, is well-financed and politically connected. She's seeking to become the first black woman from Louisiana ever elected to Congress.
The incident opened old wounds and the images of chaos after Katrina, which continues to haunt the lives, and historical record, of leaders in Louisiana.
"When their obituary is written one day, the main point will be that during Katrina they did this or they did that in the city's darkest hours," said Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University history professor and author of a criticized book chronicling Katrina.
Last spring, the mayoral election was dominated by Katrina. Ray Nagin managed to wade through the fallout from the Aug. 29, 2005 storm to win re-election. Next year, Gov. Kathleen Blanco is up for re-election and she faces questions about her performance after the catastrophe.
But the congressional race had marched to a different beat.
"It's hard to overshadow Katrina as an issue, but Jefferson has managed to do that with his bribery investigation and the $90,000 in the freezer," said Susan Howell, a political scientist with the University of New Orleans.
Jefferson's troubles surfaced last year when the FBI raided his homes and offices in Washington and New Orleans in an investigation into African telecommunications business deals. The FBI alleges agents found $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer. Two Jefferson associates have pleaded guilty in connection with the probe.
In the fallout, Jefferson was stripped of his seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee and a posse of candidates was lured into the race to unseat the embattled congressman. Jefferson has not been charged with a crime and has denied wrongdoing.
So, Lee's outburst has interrupted a campaign that had settled into a somewhat predictable mudslinging contest between Jefferson and Carter and provided Jefferson a breather from attacks against his moral standing.
Carter's comments were aired during Spike Lee's in-depth documentary on Katrina. In one segment she says: "There's no question that the officials there were wrong, absolutely wrong, and they need to be reprimanded accordingly. It was unjust, it was inhumane, and it was unacceptable."
Lee, who looked rattled and acted belligerent toward reporters during the news conference, said he was "incensed" by her comments and that he could not stomach the idea of having Carter represent his parish, which makes up the populous western and southern parts of the metropolitan area.
"She makes us look like a bunch of yahoos down here, a bunch of racists, that we kept black people out of Jefferson Parish," Lee said. The people of Jefferson Parish, Lee countered, "think we are heroes for what we did, and there were no racial overtones whatsoever."
Sheriff, Karen Carter didn't MAKE y'all look like anything. Any resemblance of Jefferson Parish officials to yahoos and racists is . . . more or less on the mark, actually.
If readers are interested in exploring exactly how ugly that scene on the Crescent City Connection (the river bridge in question) was that day in 2005, I cannot recommend Brinkley's book "The Great Deluge" highly enough. Your eyes will be opened.
Unless you're from Louisiana, of course. Then your worst realizations will be reconfirmed.
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