Nagin: Jindal helps money flow

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said Wednesday that President Obama can score an “early win” and shift the political landscape in the Republican-dominated South if he helps rebuild the city and “did what Bush couldn’t do.”

Ironically, the Democrat said federal money has been flowing to the city since Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, took over in January 2008.

The mayor, who became a national figure during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, said Mr. Obama’s push to help with recovery so early in his presidency gives him a “great opportunity” to win in 2012 some of the Southern states he lost in November.

”If he can help us to finish this work in New Orleans, it’s going to demonstrate to the South he really cares about the South,” Mr. Nagin told editors and reporters during an interview at The Washington Times. “I think they see it and I think they are seizing the day.”

“This administration can have the legacy of ‘we came in and did what Bush couldn’t do, and oh by the way America - we righted an incredible wrong and we restored this great American city,’ “ he said.

Mr. Nagin said he was feeling much better about the city’s future than he did during his last visit to The Washington Times a year ago, citing the influx of backlogged dollars he credited to his own persistence and “when the administration changed in Baton Rouge.” Much hurricane aid had remained tied up in state government led by Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat.

“Money solves a lot of problems, and money is flowing right now,” he said, lamenting the days when he was dealing with “the realities of not having money and having a Republican president and a Democratic governor in the midst of this incredible struggle and I’m the one on the front line.”

“But now everything’s flipped and I have a Democratic president and a Republican governor,” he said. “The difference this time is I’ve got someone in the White House that is definitely [incentivized] to get a huge win from the work that we’ve done over the past 3 1/2 years, and besides wants to help us and his people want to help us.”

Mr. Nagin said he thinks by contrast, President Bush “misunderstood” the situation on the Gulf Coast and his team didn’t make it a priority.

“I think America looked at New Orleans and saw itself and said, ‘This is not an America we want,’ ” Mr. Nagin said.

Asked to comment directly on the young governor, Mr. Nagin called Mr. Jindal a “bright guy” with “tremendous ambitions.”

“He’s put himself in a very difficult spot being the front-runner supposedly of the Republican Party to try and run against a very popular president,” Mr. Nagin said.

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