I'm like everyone else: I've been distracted by the first weekend of Carnival and a certain big sports event. I can't quite remember what it's called and who won it though. Dr. A's young nephews also paid us a whirlwind visit and ran us ragged but I did watch returns on Saturday night. Dennis, Angela and Clancy did their customarily stellar work on WWL-TV and the Super Bowl spared us from having to listen Lucy's deep political thoughts since she was in Miami. Thanks, Saints

The theme of the night was experience; with the exception, that is, of Council District A where more than 60% voted against former counciltool Jay Batt. While I expected Mitch Landrieu to win in the primary and get between 55 and 57% of the vote, his smashing victory surprised even me. Voter's remorse trumped the race card. I think that Ray Nagin injecting himself into the campaign with a radio ad and an OTT appearance on WBOK reinforced the voters sense that the amateur pol/businessman model should be binned. Just think: our next Mayor will be a Democrat but not a jackass.

Here are a few random and scatter shot comments:

James Perry showed class and policy savvy. It's a pity that he didn't couple his policy smarts with political savvy but it was not the year for a youthful outsider; even an Eagle Scout with a potty mouth.  Perry definitely has a future but it may not be here since he's the darling of the net roots progressive set. 

I was gratified that the Magnate spent at least $400 per vote and couldn't even get 10% of the vote. I am baffled by his talk of running for Lt. Governor. The only ones who would benefit from such a move would be the political consultants. They know how to separate a fool from his money. I wonder if he'll switch parties again. He could try reviving the Know Nothing party...

Troy Henry ran a crappy campaign but showed some class by going to the winning locker room, as it were, to congratulate the victor. Of course, it's easy to be magnanimous when you lose by 52 points. Yikes: 52 frakking points.

I'm pleased that Landrieu got over 60% of the African-American vote. It will quiet down the shadow government/conspiracy theory types for a while. But the Malcolm Subers and Mama D's aren't going away, they'll just recede for the time being.

I was NOT surprised that Stacy Head won in a landslide. Anyone who thought Corey Watson had a shot, spends too much time staring at their computer screen. I was, however, surprised by the thrashing Kristin Palmer administered to Tom Arnold. I thought she'd win but the voters treated the veteran pol to both a pantsing and a swirly.

Experience obviously counted in both the assessor and Council At Large races.  I didn't see Erroll William's big margin coming and expected Clarkson and Windy-Lewis to be in a run-off.  I'm going to miss Cynthia in an odd sort of way, it was like having a very feisty and talkative terrier on the council. 

Finally, New Orleans politics continues to be unique. There's anti-incumbent fever in the land and we re-elected a whole passel of incumbents as well as treating Mitch Landrieu like a de facto Mayor. Once again, we've confirmed our uniqueness but this time it feels good to be unique and a New Orleanian.

I'm going to miss the big parade. I'm trying to stay healthy for this week's endless festivities. I do, however, love the notion of Lombardi Gras. A little known fact about Vince Lombardi is that he was a FDR/JFK Democrat and one of the ways Green Bay became a great team was because of his knowledge of traditionally black college football teams. Vince thought that Grambling's Eddie Robinson was one of the best football coaches on the planet long before most people had ever heard of Coach Robinson. I also love that Vince's grandson Joe is one of Sean Payton's assistants. Uh oh, I seem to be pandering to my Cheesehead readers...

Anyway, enough about the Lombardi connection. Back to Drew Brees. One of things that people like me love about Drew is that he lives in the City. No gated communities for Drew's family. They're Uptowners. One of my PAN friends delivered some Voo Dat swag to his house and found a shrine to Drew and the Saints there. BTW, don't ask me for Drew's address, I'm not talking:

If anyone missed it, Clancy DuBos wrote one of the best pieces so far about Drew and the Saints. He drew (pun intended) a comparison between Brees and Seabiscuit with Peyton Manning  cast as the heavily favored War Admiral. LINK.

Finally, I caught Drew on Letterman last night. He was glowing so much that even Indy fan and professional grouch  Dave couldn't glower at him:

I'm not one of those people who fixates on the Super Bowl commercials; especially not this year. I vaguely recall hearing Cheap Trick in the background and then resumed chatting, noshing or drinking. I didn't realize there was a stink about the Green Police Audi ad until I read Kevin Allman's piece in the Gambit Tabloid blog. Now I have an earworm courtesy of Kevin:

We watched the Super Bowl at the Folse's house and slowly realized that it was really happened. We drank, ate, danced and jumped around. It felt really frakking good to realize that:

I'm tired from a day of visitor tending, election results watching and patting myself on the back for some decent local punditry. This song features one of Hiatt's best and most underrated backup bands, the Nashville Queens. The song itself has nothing to do with the horrendous and unfunny movie "comedy" of the same title that came out last year.

NOLA.com may be distracted but it's election day so we should all toddle out to vote before getting back to the business of Carnival and the Super Bowl. So, vote for the candidates of your choice BUT if you're tempted to vote for the Magnate repeat this mantra: Deke, goat, goat, goat.

Blogging will be light for the next few days. I may not get to an election aftermath post until my visitors leave.

I don't do "endorsements" it strikes me as a bit pretentious and pompous for a mere blogger such as myself to do so. I am, however, willing to tell you how I'm voting this weekend and how I'd vote in a few targeted races that I've paid attention to.

There are also a couple of races that I'm skipping: Princess BOLD versus Irma Muse Dixon for the State Senate is one. The Princess will thrash the perennial candidate handily and I'm not crazy about either of them so I'll make like Thomas Morestead and punt. Ditto on the Clerk and Coroners races. I did like the Morgus/Frankenstein ad from the McKenna campaign though. Holy body parts, Batman.

MAYOR: Mitch Landrieu. Yeah, I was annoyed with his dilly dallying about getting into the race. But he's run a stronger campaign this time around and has done some effective counter punching at forums and in his teevee ads. My fingers are crossed that he'll win an outright victory in round one. I'm sick of both the Magnate and Troy Henry and wish to never think about them again if at all possible.

COUNCIL AT LARGE:

Arnie Fielkow. He started off cautiously and then emerged as a strong councilmember and a strong critic of Naginite misrule. Look for Fielgood to win in the first round.

Nolan Marshall. I don't really like either Jackie Clarkson or Cynthia Willard-Lewis. They're fun to mock but otherwise I wish they'd both go away. So, I'm voting for change and for Mr. Marshall who should be an improvement on either of the sitting councilmembers. I expect a run-off for the second slot in this  race. 

COUNCIL DISTRICT B: Stacy Head. She's not warm and fuzzy and doesn't always pick her fights very well or wisely. BUT on balance she's been a responsive councilmember and dead right on the sanitation contracts.

ASSESSOR: Janis Lemle. She's smart, tough and honest. Her election would also end the custom of inherited assessorships which has long been a pox on the city. If you like the ancien regime vote for her opponents...

JUDGES: I think Judges should be appointed so like the Gambit, I'm taking a pass on these races. I also don't have any strong feelings one way or another about the contenders.

SHERIFF: Marlin Gusman. Yeah, he's a bit oily but he's reasonably competent. I also thought his ad featuring regional law enforcement endorsements was very effective.

Okay now for a few races that I cannot vote in but have a preference.

COUNCIL DISTRICT A: Susan Guidry. I'm an anybody but Batt kinda guy and if Ms. Guidry is good enough for Dangerblond, she's good enough for me.

COUNCIL DISTRICT C: Kristin Giselson Palmer. She ran a very good race against the ultimately disappointing James Carter 4 years ago. She's smart, tough and by all accounts a methodical and well organized person. Those are qualities rarely seen at City Hall.

That's all, folks.

I'm not sure if these are Gret Stet or Florida swamp chicks but the tag line on Swamp Babe is a winner:

Yesterday I posted about the "civic group" LAVA's endorsement of John Georges for Mayor. It turns out that the guys who filed the papers for LAVA are tied to contractors. Hmm, now what could that possibly mean?

LAVA Incorporator Kevin Kernion's father is one of the honchos of Cycle Construction, which specializes in civil engineering projects including demolitions. I'm technically impaired when it comes to such things so I'll quote their web site description:

Cycle Construction is a privately held civil construction firm specializing in construction management, site preparation, emergency response, heavy construction, demolition, and underground utilities. Collectively, our leadership team brings many years of experience in all phases of civil construction projects, and possesses vast experience in closely coordinating with local and national agencies.

Civil construction? Vast experience in closely coordinating with government agencies? Sounds right to me. I'm sure this contracting thing has *nothing* to do with LAVA's mission to do whatever it is they do to aid the recovery. Hey, I know: getting John Georges elected is *synonymous* with recovery. Silly me.

The real issue I have with the LAVA endorsement of Georges is his campaign's claim that this is some sort of grass roots group when it clearly is not. It's a PAC: pure and simple. Why the artifice?

To parphrase Ira Gershwin: You say grass roots, I say astro turf; let's call the whole thing off. 

John Georges has another "grass roots" endorsement from the Lake Area Voters' Association aka LAVA. The Georges camp is spinning it as a post-K community group:

The Lake Area Voters’ Association is endorsing John Georges for Mayor of New Orleans.  LAVA was formed after Hurricane Katrina and is comprised of lake area residents concerned about the future and welfare of our city.

“Our group understands that we need a strong leader to make the positive changes we need for our city,” said Amy Burris, President of LAVA.  “We believe John Georges is the one who can get things done and we will be visible and actively volunteering for him on election day.”

“I am proud to have the endorsement of such an active and involved group,” said John Georges.  “It’s neighborhood groups like this that I pledge to continue working with when I am mayor.  They truly do make a great deal of difference.”

Sounds mighty uplifitng and rootsy BUT the only other LAVA listing I can find on the internets is as a registered PAC.   If you're interested scroll down to number 154. The names of the incorporators are Dan Growley Jr. and Kevin Kernion; neither name rings a bell with me. Here's a link to LAVA'S filings with the state. Oddly enough for a group issuing endorsements, they haven't filed a disclosure form since 4/22/2009.

LAVA is also not listed with the NPN or on other civic group listing.  So, unless they're Luddites who don't use the interwebs it smells like astro turf, not like teen spirit to me.

Now where did I put my lava lamp...

The bi-valve has an excellent post about the New Orleans Tribune's endorsement of John Georges after they castigated Ed Murray as a traitor to African-Americans for quitting the race. LINK. What does endorsing the Magnate make Mr. McKenna? 

Remember when NOLA transplant James Carville assured us that the Saints playoff run and Carnival wouldn't distract us from the municipal election? Forgot it? Me too. I got distracted:

The sub-krewe of PAN got a whole lotta love on the parade route mostly because of my friend Jay who I cast as Drew Brees. I feel like Kazan after casting Brando in Streetcar only taller, balder and only half as Greek. For more of Dr. A's pictures click on this LINK.

All hail the King of Krewe du Vieux, Mac Rebbenack:

It's time for the 2010 Krewe du Vieux parade and I'm certainly fired up and ready to go. Above is a sneak preview (before the float was 100% done) of the bright lights that PAN will be shining on the Marigny and the Quarter. We're as usual near the end of the parade, in the 14th spot. They, of course, want to save the best for last or some such shit. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Look for me: I'll be the voodoo doll/zombie kinda guy in a Falcons jersey. That's right I took one for the team and will be in dirty birds mufti or is that muffaletta? Mmm, olive salad...

Anyway, here's a wee musical selection, the Neville Brothers putting some Voo Dat on it:

Substantive blogging *may* be a little light the next few days as I gear up for Krewe du Vieux. Dr A and I have costumes to pimp, which almost makes me feel like Little Liddy the Pimp. I made some disparaging remarks about Jersey recently but there are some good things about it and the Smithereens are at the top of the list.

And once I started thinking of the Reens, I got Blood and Roses stuck in my head and it was a thorny bloody mess. Here's a live version  from back in the day when Pat and I both had hair and he had a combover. I did not. The clip is introduced by a chick with a weird t'ing on her head. She looks like an ostrich instead of an English rose:

The ringleader of the wingnuts who tried to sabotage Mary Landrieu's phones,  Little Liddy the Pimp, has been ordered to live at home with Mommy and Daddy in New Jersey. Unless, you're Bruce Springsteen this sounds like a savage punishment to me: Little Liddy has stay within the Jersey state boundaries or have his parole revoked. Hmm, I wonder if he'll hang out with Little Steven? Probably not: Van Zandt's a rabid lefty, after all. 

If you believe what these cretins told the Feds, their intent was to sabotage/vandalize Senator Landrieu's phones in order to report on her reaction to such a problem. This may not be bugging but it's still ratfucking like the stuff Don Segretti and Karl Rove did for CREEP back in 1972. Tricky Dick may be dead but his spirit is eternal.

I have a bit of a dilemma now as to what to call Little Liddy the Pimp and his crew. Should they be the Saboteurs or the  Vandals? Any thoughts, gentle readers?

My friend Maitri suggested a name for the scandal in a comment at my blog that I quite like: HaleMaryGate. Hale is for the Hale Boggs Federal Building and the rest is self-explanatory. I think it not only rocks but it rules.

Cross-Posted @ First Draft.

The anthropomorphizing of death has always stuck me as a curious thing. Death is clearly neither a he or she but an it. I had no idea that it rode public transportation or was an old school Mormon. Who knew?

That's my new nickname for James O'Keefe the ACORN punking wingnut who was arrested for messing with Mary Landrieu's phones at her office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building at Camp and Poydras. More details are posted at First Draft because I can't embed WWL's video here at the Adrastos Virtual Cafe. I can, however, post this:

The Nation's Katrina Vanden Heuvel has endorsed James Perry's Mayoral candidacy. LINK. This could well push him over the top in Gentilly and perhaps even Algiers. It could, however, hurt him with people who don't like the name Katrina for some obscure reason...

I'm sure that Mr. Perry is relieved that he hasn't lost his grip on the crucial out of town progressive vote. First Skip Gates and now this. Who's next? Markos Moulitsas? Perez Hilton?

I nearly had a coronary but the Saints are going to the Super Bowl. I immediately, of course, thought of my late, great friend the Perfesser: