Things Just Work Differently in The Big Easy and Louisiana

OpinionJournal's John Fund notes LA's scary corruption Hat tip to Catholic Analysis.

Here's the quote that I nearly fell out of my chair after reading:

No state turns out better demagogues than Louisiana--the state that Huey Long ruled with an near-fascistic fist and that inspired the new Sean Penn version of "All the King's Men" that hits movie theaters this November. While the Bush administration and Congress aren't in danger of being fried as witches, they better figure out that they and the taxpayers are about to be fleeced like sheep as they ship south $62 billion in emergency aid with few controls or safeguards.

How priceless is that? The rest of the story isn't as funny:

More will be coming. Last week, Louisiana's two senators didn't even blink when they asked the feds for an ultimate total of $250 billion in assistance just for their state. "We recognize that it's a very high number," Sen. Mary Landrieu admitted. "But this is an unprecedented national tragedy and needs an unprecedented national response."

Even if the total ends up far short of that figure, the opportunity for fraud and waste will be unprecedented. "We're getting a lot of calls" on emergency aid abuses, reports Gen. Richard Skinner, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. Last week, police officers found a treasure trove of food, drinks, chainsaws and roof tarps in the home of Cedric Floyd, chief administrative officer for the Jefferson Parish suburb of Kenner. Mr. Floyd is one of several city workers who will likely be charged with pilfering.

Despite assurances from President Bush, "the government is fighting this war [on waste] with Civil War weapons, and we're just overwhelmed," Joshua Schwartz, co-director of the George Washington University Law School's procurement law program, told Knight Ridder. Democrats are already scoring political points. Rep. David Obey, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, is lamenting the lack of accountability in the aid package. He is calling for "the beginning of some new thinking" on how to handle disaster relief.

Put bluntly, the local political cultures don't engender confidence that aid won't be diverted from the people who truly need and deserve it. While the feds can try to ride herd on the money, here's hoping folks in the region take the opportunity to finally demand their own political housecleaning. Change is past due. Last year, Lou Riegel, the agent in charge of the FBI's New Orleans office, described Louisiana's public corruption as "epidemic, endemic, and entrenched. No branch of government is exempt."

Louisiana ranks third in the nation in the number of elected officials per capita convicted of crimes (Mississippi takes top prize). In just the past generation, the Pelican State has had a governor, an attorney general, three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a state Senate president and a swarm of local officials convicted. Last year, three top officials at Louisiana's Office of Emergency Preparedness were indicted on charges they obstructed a probe into how federal money bought out flood-prone homes. Last March the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered Louisiana to repay $30 million in flood-control grants it had awarded to 23 parishes.

Much of the region has long had a relaxed attitude towards corruption. ABC's Cokie Roberts, whose parents, Hale and Lindy Boggs, both represented New Orleans in Congress, was only half-joking when her first suggestion for speeding reconstruction was releasing convicted former governor Edwin Edwards from prison because he "knows how to get things done."

This decadent corruption so violates the people's trust that it's a wonder the residents of NOLA stayed at all. The American people want to see New Orleans and the damaged regions of Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast restored. They don't want to stand naked in the wind while greedy politicians pick their last pocket!

If the government can't make at least a satisfactory effort to make sure the money goes where it's needed, then why is so much going? Sadly, government fund rents a lot of goodwill. The President has taken heat for FEMA's slow and sluggish response to Katrina--rightly, I might add. (Of course, suddenly it's anathema to even imply that NOLA authorities shared any responsibility for their own inadequate response. "Oh, no! Not us," Louisiana and NO's politicians seem to spin, "We just do things differently down in the Big Easy!") While the Federal government should coordinate and provide some relief, it should not be used as an ATM by a president who struggles in the polls.

If NOLA's fat cats practice politics as usual with the money, that's exactly what the President's financial recovery plan will look like. Those that need help the most will once again suffer the most, since they'll be left with little or nothing.

We must not allow that to happen. Insist that your Congressional representatives and Senators hold Louisiana and New Orleans--and everywhere else--responsible for the appropriate expenditure of this Aid. Don't allow Katrina's survivors to become NOLA's latest victims. They deserve better. So do we!