[StBernard] Congress: Don't Trust Louisiana Pols

[Westley Annis]

Congressman: Don't Trust Louisiana Pols 
By NewsMax.com

A Republican congressman has raised the hackles of Louisianans by declaring
that no federal disaster aid should be sent to local officials due to the
"long history of public corruption" in the state.

Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
urging him to create a "bipartisan select committee" of members of Congress
to oversee federal disaster spending in Louisiana.

Tancredo wrote: "Given the abysmal failure of state and local officials in
Louisiana to plan adequately for or respond to the effects of Hurricane
Katrina on the city of New Orleans, and given the long history of public
corruption in Louisiana, I hope the House will refrain from directly
appropriating any funds from the public treasury to either the state of
Louisiana or the city of New Orleans."

He goes on to say: "The head of the FBI in New Orleans just this past year
described the state's public corruption as ?epidemic, endemic and
entrenched.'

"Over the last 30 years, a long list of Louisiana politicians have been
convicted of crimes; the list includes a governor, an attorney general, an
elections commissioner, an agriculture commissioner, three successive
insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a State Senate
president, six other state legislators, and a host of appointed officials,
local sheriffs, city councilmen and parish police jurors.

"I am not confident that Louisiana officials can be trusted to administer
federal relief aid."

A Louisiana newspaper, the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, fired back in an
editorial: "If the Colorado congressman and potential candidate for
president is not playing politics, he is into something that smells much the
same.

"He says Louisiana officials are too corrupt to handle federal funds, yet he
has no problem with money flowing into the hands of Mississippi officials.

"Granted, Louisiana is ranked as the third most corrupt state in the nation.
Mississippi, however, is Big Number One - the most corrupt of all the
states, according to The Corporate Crime Reporter. Tancredo conveniently
overlooked that."

In any case, Tancredo's call is not likely to be heard, according to
Business Week, which points to "the difficulty of rebuilding without local
politicians."