Will This Be the Year for the Saints? Yes. No...Really?

Will this be the year that the Saints finally go all the way or will this just be the latest installment of a post-2006 season “great pumpkin-esque” Super Bowl vigil?

As a longtime follower of the Black and Gold dating back a tad prior to the team’s first taste of success in 1987, pessimism comes natural. And after the heady days coming from the team’s first conference championship appearance, the pattern is pointing to another let down.

I like what I saw this off-season with the moves made in free-agency (no undersized cornerbacks acquired at a premium this year) and to a lesser degree with the draft (defense, defense and special teams). And I like the play calling I saw on both sides of the ball in preseason.

To hell with heartbreak as it’s hard not to be optimistic, especially since the NFL’s most potent offense from last season is returning intact. Mostly.

Deuce McAllister, the best running back in team history, is gone as his “bodyguard” fullback Mike Karney. However, Deuce’s last year was more of a sad farewell tour as he played sparingly and Karney had his least productive year with the team. However both of these letdowns could just as easily affixed to Head Coach Sean Payton’s play calling than the cut duo’s capacity to play.

Another missing piece, albeit temporary, is Pro-Bowl Offensive Tackle Jammal Brown, who will be out of the first four to six games of the season. Brown’s presence will be missed as he contributed to a line that provided the protection that helped make Drew Brees one of the most prolific passers in NFL history.

But there’s a big upside to this season’s offense.

Running back Reggie Bush and tight end Jeremy Shockey go into the new season healthy and hopefully the injury prone “celebri-thetes” will avoid spending too much time on the back of a golf-cart heading towards an x-ray room.

Wide receiver Marques Colston seems to have returned to old form after struggling in 2008 with a finger injury and Lance Moore, who largely filled the receiving vacuum when Colston was sidelined, appears to have rebounded from an injury he sustained while lifting weights in the off-season.

Devery Henderson, whose reliability has steadily improved, and Robert Meachem, who has shown the stuff that led the team’s front office to use a first-round draft pick on him in 2007, give Brees the plethora of targets that will further confound opposing secondaries.

The return of John Carney as kicker should give the team the kind of stability they have been lacking since the infamous Orlindo Mare “upgrade”.

The biggest offensive concern for the Saints was the running game, which was underscored by the team’s interest in making a trade to land Buckeye running back Beanie Wells in the latter part of the first round in this year’s draft.

Wells was the last person I felt the Saints should have been pursing due to questions about his durability hovered over him during the draft and that the Saints should not have even considered mortgaging a future first round draft pick and complicating the team’s salary cap picture when they already possess the necessary talent at that position at a bargain.

Running back Pierre Thomas still holds the distinction of being the only Saints player to have achieved 100 yards of receiving and 100 yards of rushing in a single game and in my opinion was not given ample opportunity to prove his worth, but that problem was not the fault of Thomas but the man doing the play calling.

The Saints ranked 21st in average yards per carry but were 26th in rushing attempts. Payton’s refusal to balance the offense and obsession with a gunslinger approach resulted in a lack of clock control that kept his own defense on the field longer than they should have been.

Though Thomas will likely miss the first game of the season, Bush will be complemented with heavy-duty backs Mike Bell and Lynell Hamilton, the latter could prove to be a true diamond in the rough if his preseason performances are any indication of his talent.

The biggest problem for every Sean Payton team has been the defense, which declined with every passing year. Last season they allowed 393 points. This year they finally did something about it.

To Mickey Loomis’s credit, the front office was fairly aggressive in addressing the team’s most glaring weakness, landing Gregg Williams as the new defensive coordinator- perhaps the most highly anticipated assistant coach in the history of the franchise, thinking defense and special teams in the draft, cutting players in the secondary that didn’t get the job done and bringing in new…scratch that…different players in free agency.

The Saints’ secondary has been virtually remade with two new cornerbacks and two new safeties in addition to shifting former cornerback Usama Young to safety. Cornerback is no longer the Achilles heel of defense and the two veterans (Darren Sharper and Pierson Prioleau) that were brought in would be hard-pressed to do worst than their predecessors, even if they’re short-term fixes.

Though defensive ends Charles Grant and Will Smith are suspended four games their presence won’t be terribly missed if they don’t improve from their combined 6 sacks in 2008, equaling what part-time defensive end Bobby McCray accomplished by himself last season.

Grant hasn’t broken into double-digits in sacks since 2004 and Smith hasn’t since 2006. Any improvement at all would go a long way for the Saints defense.

The Saints seem solid at defensive tackle with Sedrick Ellis continuing to justify the trade Loomis made to leap ahead in the 2008 first round to draft him.

Perhaps the greatest area for concern is at linebacker. While there is no questioning the ability of Jonathan Vilma at middle linebacker, outside linebackers Scott Fujita and Scott Shanle have not exactly set the world on fire with their play. What’s ironic about the pair is that despite Shanle having made two sacks last season while Fujita had none, Fujita continues to enjoy wide popularity with the fans while Shanle has assumed the role of team “goat” now that the Black and Gold faithful no longer have Fred Thomas and Jason David to kick around anymore.

Hopefully linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar, who seemed to be a one-man army in the final preseason game against Miami, will have an opportunity to prove his value to the team during the year.

The team that will take the field against Detroit on Sunday will be a vastly improved squad over the one that opened up last season. Loomis has without much fanfare put together the pieces needed to compete at a higher level.

When looking at the schedule, which is hardly a walk in the park, I can still see this team finishing 11-5 and contending for the NFC South, which will be a duel with the rival Atlanta Falcons.

If ever there was a Saints team on paper that looks Super Bowl worthy, it’s this one.

Keys to success:

1) A healthy Drew Brees (teams that lose their star quarterbacks end up finishing behind teams like the Dolphins)
2) A commitment to running the ball to use the clock against opponents
3) Jeremy Shockey and Reggie Bush being healthy and productive, if only for distractive purposes in terms of opposing defenses and not tabloids
4) Putting more pressure on opposing quarterbacks so they all don’t look like Michael Vick
5) Converting on the 3 and 1’s that were the bane of the team’s existence last season

Snarlin' Arlen Goes Home

The year was 1992. President George H.W. Bush was making a poor effort in a two-front contest for a second term while Republicans in Congress attempted to salvage what it could from the collapsing national campaign and a president who seemed more interested in supermarket scanner technology than winning re-election.
I was rooting for the GOP in all of the competitive congressional fights with a single exception where I was secretly hoping that a liberal Democrat named Lynn Yankel would successfully unseat a certain Republican incumbent US Senator from Russell, Kansas.
That Republican was Arlen Specter, the less famous (or more infamous) of the two national politicians hailing from that prairie town.
When asked by a reporter on Tuesday afternoon about Specter’s bolt, I replied that I had been expecting it for no less than 16 years. All Specter’s victory over Yankel did was prolong the inevitable and divert millions of Republican campaign dollars away from more deserving congressional candidates.
Specter’s shift back to the party he was registered with at the beginning of his political career underscores Specter’s mantra of practicing the politics of the possible.
It was Specter, then assistant counsel to the Warren Commission, who conjured up the “single bullet theory” that President John Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally were wounded by the same projectile in order to support the contention that only one gunman was involved in the Kennedy assassination.
And it was an opportunistic Specter that sought the Republican nomination for District Attorney in Philadelphia while remaining a registered Democrat.
His switch to the Democratic Party has been spun by Specter’s old policy/new political allies as a sign that the Republican Party is crumbling under the weight of an uncompromising right-wing.
Republican leaders, after ending their self-imposed gag-rule of criticizing Specter, have finally spoken with candor about the calculating nature of his defection. Specter, who was barely renominated in 2004, found himself in hot water with Republican voters (go figure) for his support of President Barack Obama’s economic policies.
Furthermore, polls indicated that Specter would probably lose the GOP nomination to a conservative challenger in 2010 in a state that tends to back the Democratic Party in national general elections.
Despite his welcome by the president and other Capitol Hill Democrats, such traitorous gambits of political expediency don’t always payoff.
In 1999, New York Congressman Michael Forbes jumped from the GOP to the Democrats and received a commitment of political support from President Bill Clinton, whom Forbes had voted to impeach months earlier. Unfortunately for Forbes, Democratic voters were less forgiving and made someone else their nominee in the general election.
I don’t harbor bitterness towards Specter as much as I do at Republican establishment types (most notably former President George W. Bush) who steered millions of dollars of GOP campaign money and the full might of the party apparatus to save Specter from voters that were tired of being made to feel obligated to support “half of a Republican” in the primary because “the powers that be” (i.e. much of the braintrust responsible for the GOP’s current state of affairs) coveted his caucus vote.
For those Republican activists who were condemned for supporting Pat Toomey in 2004, Specter’s defection is your vindication.
We should thank the reconverted Democrat for illuminating for the politically near-sighted GOP beltway elite what Republican proles knew all along: Arlen Specter never had any business being a Republican.
Sad to say, those Republicans who have stood by Specter through the years probably have no regrets for the support they gave him, since in their minds, Specter’s defection was a case of the talk-radio crowd running him off and not the senator running out on those who went to bat for his renomination in the GOP primaries and chairmanship of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee.
The party base disliked Specter not just because he didn’t agree with them on many of the GOP’s core principles; rather, Specter always made a point of harboring a disagreeable attitude towards conservatives. Specter’s sin wasn’t that he was a liberal Republican, but rather an imperious liberal Republican.
Perhaps Rush Limbaugh’s Operation: Chaos could return in a limited engagement in 2010 in which conservative Republicans in Pennsylvania could masquerade as Democrats during the US Senate primary for the sole purpose of denying Specter, who has spent the last few decades masquerading as a Republican, the nomination of his old/new party.
Talk about poetic justice.

Saints Avoid Riot, Blow Opportunity in 2009 Draft

For the first time in my three trips to the New Orleans Saints’ official NFL Draft Fests, I noticed that the assembled throngs were not chanting any particular name when it came around time for the Black and Gold’s first round pick.
In 2007, the crowd huddled under the air-conditioned tent a stone-throw away from the team’s practice facility was screaming “OLSEN…OLSEN…OLSEN” (a reference to University of Miami tight end Greg Olsen who was later selected by the Chicago Bears), easily drowning out my solitary hollers for Robert Meachem.
There was a virtual consensus the following year when the Saints traded up to snag USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis.
In 2009, the crowd yelled, rather demanded, not a player but a side of the line of scrimmage: DEFENSE!
And the crowd got more than a little antsy when ESPN, which had cameras trained on the player that was selected prior to the NFL commissioner’s stroll to the podium to announce a team selection, showed Ohio State running back Beanie Wells.
For a moment, it appeared Tom Benson was going to have to evacuate the Saints’ headquarters via helicopter and would have to pay a few property insurance damage deductibles. But the cameras moved on to fellow Buckeye Malcolm Jenkins, the cornerback the organization has made no secret of coveting.
Relieved that Wells was passed on though distraught my ideal pick strategy of trading down was pissed on, I slumped down into a rental folding chair and booed, not that anyone in particular noticed by disappointment.
That the team’s biggest weakness in the Sean Payton era was its secondary is hardly a secret. After 2006, they signed undersized cornerback Jason David away from Indianapolis. Well, we all know how that panned out.
In 2008, the Saints used their second round pick to land Louisiana native-Indiana cornerback Tracy Porter. Until he was sidelined with a severe wrist injury, Porter showed much promise and will likely resume his starting position in 2009. On top of Porter, the Saints also signed free-agent cornerback Aaron Glenn, though he went down quick himself.
Veteran cornerback Mike McKenzie’s 2008 season ended in game seven.
So I can understand the team’s anxiety over depth at cornerback.
But football is a contact sport. Things happen that can change your season in a single play. Just ask the Brady-less New England Patriots.
With the selection of Jenkins, the Saints are as loaded at cornerback as they are at wide receiver. After the conclusion of the ritual contract holdout by the team’s number one pick, Jenkins will compete with Porter, free-agent Jabari Greer, Randall Gay and Leigh Torrence. Oh, I almost forgot, Jason David, who I should mention is no longer #42, which is now in the possession of one Darren Sharper, the free-agent safety the team pursued after cutting its ties with Josh Bullocks, who left as a free-agent, and Kevin Kaesviharn, who left on a rail (cut).
Cornerback Usama Young might have a chance to salvage his thus far undistinguished career with the Saints in a move to safety.
The concept behind the Jenkins pick-up was to move him to free safety, where he would join Sharper and fellow FA acquisition Pierson Prilou. As neither Sharper nor Prilou are expected to be long-term solutions due to their age.
However, next season is projected to be a better draft for defensive backs (Jenkins at 14 was the first cornerback taken) and with what should go down as the best free-agency trawl by the team since 2006, particularly concerning the secondary, addressing the Saints’ relatively weak front seven seemed to be bigger priority.
That the team was picking at 14 in a rich linebacker draft further underscores the opportunity cost of going with Jenkins, to say nothing about the potential to have traded down and still left the first round with a star linebacker.
The Saints will in all probability start their first four games without their star, make that star-ting, defensive ends. Not that Will Smith, who was hobbled with a sports hernia, and Charles Grant, who has been hobbled with a severe case of lazy ass, contributed much in 2008. Their Star-Caps related suspensions come at the thinnest time of the Saints’ schedule so they’re temporary departure will at least come at a convenient time.
Aside from Ellis, there are questions at defensive tackle. Aside from the existing cast of characters that neither made the earth shake nor opposing quarterbacks, the team will have back a healthy DeMario Pressley, who was drafted last year and injured prior to the start of regular season, and the unretired Rod Coleman, who is making a comeback to pro-football after an injury in early 2007 took him out the game. Ole Miss defensive tackle Peria Jerry was still on the board when the Saints picked and a bit thereafter and would have been a sure thing. Now, the only thing certain is the Saints offensive line will have to work to keep him away from Drew Brees as he tries to break through twice a year when the Saints play the Atlanta Falcons.
Linebacker has been the position that I felt was the most critical to address in the draft. With the exception of middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma, the Saints’ linebacker corps has been more the “Gnome Patrol” than the “Dome Patrol”. The only pre-draft additions made were the concussion-susceptible Dan Morgan’s decision to unretire (got to love this Frank-Madoff-Obama economy) and San Diego washout Anthony Waters.
Unless Gregg Williams is the MacGyver of defensive coordinators, in which he can transform low-grade linebackers into an effective defensive component, I believe the Black and Gold will be haunted by not going with a linebacker in the first round.
Coach Payton would be wise to make sure our defensive backs build up their endurance as I expect them to be doing a lot of running as opposing quarterbacks bide their time behind Saints-resistant offensive lines.
Hopefully, Jenkins will prove me wrong as he and his teammates are lifting the Lombardi Trophy in 2010.

Overall take on the draft:

Malcolm Jenkins Cornerback , Ohio State: Not to further enrage the folks at PETA for beating a dead horse, I don’t think Jenkins was the optimal choice though he was probably the best defensive back in the draft. At least depth at cornerback won’t be the same problem it was last year.

Chip Vaughn Safety, Wake Forest: Talk about overkill with the secondary. It seems Sean Payton has taken the hints about his overly offensive-minded view of the game and decided to make up for the sins of the past by overcompensating in 2010. Vaughn will join Young, Prilou and Sharper to erase the stains of Bullocks and Kaesviharn. Not a bad pick up, though this would have looked much better had the Saints gone elsewhere in round one.

Stanley Arnoux Inside Linebacker, Wake Forest: Touted as a bargain by his college head coach, Arnoux is supposed to play the weak-side, competing with Scott Shanle (who will soon become the new whipping boy for the fans), Morgan (if he makes it through training camp) and the up and coming Jo-Lonn Dunbar. Of the three defensive players selected, Arnoux might be the one to have the most immediate impact on the club if only due to his competition.

Thomas Morstead Punter, Southern Methodist: I was for the Saints picking a punter, though not this one. University of Cincinnati punter Kevin Huber is someone I’ve had my eye on since I saw the booming punts he made in the Orange Bowl. Unfortunately, his hometown pro-team grabbed him first. The Saints traded up in the same round to get Morstead, who has good leg strength (does this story sound familiar?) but tends to hold the ball a bit too long. Though one of the less appreciated aspects of this sport called FOOTball, punting determines an opposing offense’s field position. Saints might be guilty of having the right thought, just not the right player.

Winners and Losers

Winners-

Gregg Williams A defensive-minded draft is a sign that Sean Payton is willing to accommodate his prized defensive coordinator and that he might just have learned that one does not win by putting him a ton of points alone.

Pierre Thomas, Lynell Hamilton, Mike Bell: If there was any doubt whether Pierre Thomas would be the team’s featured back, the lack of a drafted running back, contrary to the national sports media’s predictions, is the surest sign Thomas will start. The question is how many times will Payton actually give him the football. Though the specter of an added free-agent looms on the horizon, Bell and Hamilton live another day with an open field going into pre-season. Now to find out which of the two emerges as the big back to get those cursed 3 & 1s.

Loser-

Jason David: Memories of that exhibition game against the Houston Texans has largely poisoned my view of David as the weak-link every team have not been bashful of exploiting over and over again. David was nor a bad player; rather, he was put in bad plays. The team’s massive investment in free agency and the draft for defensive backs are a sure sign that the scrappy David won’t be wearing his newly acquired #29 jersey for too long.

Saints Draft 2009: Can They Have Their King Cake and Eat It Too?

General managers can be defined by whom they select in the first round and how a player contributes to the team. Team front offices can also be haunted by the opportunity costs of what they passed up, which is why many people have the mentality that teams should pick the best player available and not so much attempt to address current needs.
I tend to be of the school of thought that short of being a perennial bottom-dweller, a team should always try to address need based upon your selection position and which first-tier players are still on the board.
For example, if you’re the Detroit Lions, your needs are so great that picking the best player at any position makes sense. Picking the best quarterback alone won’t solve the problems of the NFL’s first single-season 0-16 team.
On the contrary, the New Orleans Saints, which had one of the league’s most prolific passing game since 2006, would not be inclined to pick a quarterback with their first round pick even if the best overall rated player on the board is a QB.
Teams (like the Saints) that were only a few points away in a handful of games from post-season and have a largely intact team returning for the upcoming season should pursue need first.
That the Saints go into the draft with only 4 draft picks (with their first rounder being the only first day selection) need to take need and depth into consideration.
Anyone who watched the Saints play last season are all too aware of their two biggest problems: the inability of the offense to convert on 3rd and 1 and the inability of the defense to stop their opponents on 3rd and 10.
Both were vexing and both needed to be addressed if the team wants to not just go to the Super Bowl (Arizona Cardinals) but to actually win it (Pittsburgh Steelers).
Safety is the consensus weakness position and the Saints front office wisely chose to dispense of the team’s two starting free safeties, not retaining the winner of the “2009 Fred Thomas Scapegoat Award” Josh Bullocks and releasing “runner-up” Kevin Kaesviharn.
The team replaced both safeties in free agency nabbing the coveted Darren Sharper after what for sports talk fans had been an agonizingly long pursuit and Pierson Prioleau. Both veterans are long in the tooth as Sharper has been in the league for 13 seasons and Prioleau has played for 11, so neither are long term solutions which has led to the local sports media cries for the Saints to draft Ohio State cornerback Malcolm Jenkins and convert him to free-safety.
One, I’m not sold that Jenkins is the answer to the Saints’ defensive woes.
Two, he’s probably not going to be on the board by the time pick number 14 comes around. As the Saints have no selections to spare, a trade up is improbable and the Times Picayune’s sportswriters constant pegging of Jenkins as the team’s first round pick is wishful thinking.
The national sports media have largely speculated that the Saints will choose Jenkins’s fellow Buckeye Beanie Wells to pick up where the canonized by the fans and furloughed by the team Deuce McAllister left off as running back.
Unlike Jenkins, Wells will likely be available when the Saints select though I have a few reservations about picking the halfback.
One, Wells has durability issues, something that should trouble an organization whose star backs have had their contribution to the offense minimized due to serious injuries.
Second, I don’t think Wells is worth a 14th overall selection.
Third, I don’t think running back is the Saints’ most pressing need.
Fourth, and most importantly, the Saints already have the big back needed to pick up the short yards, Lynell Hamilton. The ex-San Diego State player showed his potential in the 2008 pre-season.
Part of the reason why the Saints ranked 28th in rushing yards is Sean Payton’s preference for passing over keeping the ball on the ground. If Reggie Bush stays healthy and Pierre Thomas and Hamilton are given the opportunities to run the ball, the Saints would have greater control of the game clock and giving the defense a rest.
Where the Saints really need to improve is putting pressure on opposing team’s quarterbacks. The team’s overpriced and unproductive defensive ends have not helped keeping the likes of Jeff Garcia look like Michael Vick. The team ranked 22nd in sacks with 28.
The addition of Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator will help produce a much more aggressive defense; the question is does he have the right players to execute his play calls?
The Saints upgraded last season by selecting DT Sedrick Ellis and the team has a bit of depth in the position. Where I think the team is still lacking is linebacker. There’s no question that ILB Jonathan Vilma was a major pick up. However, Scott Shanle seems to be the weak-link. And at the risk of being pelted with rotten vegetables by the Black and Gold faithful, I am not totally sold on the popular Scott Fujita.
As this is a weak draft for safeties (2010 is much more promising), the Saints have a temporary fix for the current season and barring another injury-massacre, the team should be okay at cornerback with the return of last-season’s second-round pick Tracy Porter and free-agent Jabari Greer.
If I were Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis, I would seek a trade-down to pick up a second round choice as there’s not much difference in the quality of players that suit the Saints’ needs between 14 and the mid-20s. A first-round swap with New England for their second-round selection (34th overall) would be most advantageous trade possible.
At the 23rd pick, there’s a decent chance USC linebacker Clay Matthews or Ole Miss defensive tackle Peria Jerry will be available with the Saints using the newly acquired high second rounder to scoop up Liberty University running back Rashad Jennings as Hamilton’s competition for the big back the Saints need to quit letting the close games, and their playoff hopes, slip away.
If in the event the Saints choose to use their 14th pick or can’t swing the deal with New England, then they should go with USC linebacker Brian Cushing or if Payton insists on an offensive player Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno and hope that unretired linebacker Dan Morgan makes it through training camp and had an impact.

Order of preferred draft options:

1) Trade with a team in the mid-twenties to get a decent second round pick and use the lower first round selection to land a) outside linebacker Clay Matthews or b) defensive tackle Peria Jerry and use the second round choice to draft running back Rashad Jennings.
2) Use 14th overall pick to select outside linebacker Brian Cushing.
3) Use 14th overall pick to select running back Knowshon Moreno.

What I Saw at the Revolt

Motivated by the federal financial give-aways of the past year, tens of thousands of citizens across the country spontaneously converged outside of shopping malls and in front of government buildings to declare their opposition to the bailouts and stimulus package and preemptively rallying against the large tax increases that will follow to finance the massive doling of public dollars.
In suburban New Orleans, on what locals call the “neutral ground” outside of the Lakeside Shopping Centre, thousands of people of all ages, some using walkers while others were pushing strollers, assembled and waved homemade signs expressing their angst about Washington’s war on capitalism.
Now the 3,000 or so that showed up is remarkable as the Crescent City has never been much of a protest town, even during the turbulent sixties as residents save their mass gatherings for Mardi Gras parades, Jazz Fest and church fairs.
Add to that Republicans are hardly protest-oriented folks, though it would be presumptuous to assume that those in attendance were Republican activists. For the most part, they weren’t.
After walking around the throng, I did not see many familiar faces on turf that would be occupied by no more than a few dozen people waving campaign placards on a major election day. And it was apparent that the hastily organized event drew far more people than its coordinators anticipated.
There was no stage and the modest sound-system was drowned out by the generator that supplied its power. With all due respect to the elected officials who attempted to preach to the choir, their speeches did not matter; what was significant was that so many people chose to be on hand on their own volition and not because they were bussed, recruited or paid to attend.
There weren’t right wing extremists; these were grandparents, college students and middle-class families that had the audacity to publicly express their disagreement with the direction America is going down.
Though mocked and disrespected by the media in the coarsest of terms, the networks were obliged to give the legions of non-professional protestors coverage, communicating to those who quietly harbor reservations about the wisdom of America erratically spending itself out of a situation that was caused by fiscal mismanagement that they are not alone and it is okay not to hand Obama & Co. a blank check.
There is a difference between wanting America to fail and wanting Obama to fail in transforming the America into a western European nanny-state.
So where do the TEA Party people go from here?
July 4th is slated to be the next national tax protest day though as it is a holiday when people vacation, a better rally day would be September 17th, Constitution Day. In addition to being a day when people would be in their own town, having a such an event on that day would reemphasize the importance of our nation’s governing document and how far the federal government has grown, sometimes by “extra-constitutional” means, at great expense to the taxpayers.
As for doing something beyond chanting and venting, TEA Party participants should make a point of getting involved by personally communicating to their congressional representatives their opposition to the Obama economic agenda and hold accountable those who shackled generations of unborn Americans with thirteen-figures of debt just in the past twelve months.
Something else they can do is become Republicans…not for the sake of expanding party registration rolls but by keeping…scratch that…MAKING the GOP honest.
Someone in state government who watched the Baton Rouge TEA Party from his office window wondered aloud where were all of these people in November 2008. I replied by asking where was the candidate who shared their feelings on the bailouts?
He wasn’t there so neither were they.
John McCain lost his only chance of winning the presidency by toeing the line with his Democratic opponent on the virtue of pumping billions of dollars in banks and industries that teetered on collapse not because of capitalism but due to government pressure to make bad investments in the former and past decisions by the domestic auto industry to avoid competing with foreign automakers in quality that doomed their future.
As the Democratic Party is beyond salvage, people who want to reduce spending and stop the inevitable taxing to follow must ensure the GOP leadership consists of people who genuinely sympathize with the aims of the TEA Party participants and are not simply latter-day converts of convenience.
Opposing the renomination of Republican US Senators that supported the stimulus package would be a good start to show we mean business.
Contrary to the wisdom of GOP Beltway operatives, the American people need their tax dollars protected more than the party needs a handful of unreliable caucus votes.
Though President Obama will in no way be deterred from implementing his big government program by the rallies, the gatherings should be considered a success.
If a reborn Republican Party emerges from the muck of 2008 and succeeds in bringing change for the better to Washington in 2012, that crusade’s roots could be traced not to any strategy conceived at the Republican National Committee headquarters but to the crowded public squares across the country on April 15, 2009 where the party got a little piece of its soul and some of its lost credibility back. The misguided federal policies that would make Thomas Jefferson weep in sorrow was met with the passionate protests of citizens that would make the author of the Declaration of Independence cry tears of joy.

Nagin's Bid for a 3rd Term; Lee Zurik for Mayor?

Nagin’s Bid for a 3rd Term; Zurik for Mayor?
By Mike Bayham

It was launched so inconspicuously.
At 3:45 PM on Tuesday, a fax came over at the Gentilly offices of the Louisiana Weekly, the state’s leading African-American publication. The heading was something most people haven’t laid their eyes on since the Spring of 2006: Ray Nagin’s campaign logo though with his name and slogan “Our Mayor” replaced with the words “Time 4 a 3rd Term”, which was also the website (add a dot com to the end).
Though not yet reported by the mainstream media, a source over at the weekly (who has since been allowed by the management to pass it on as I wouldn’t want to get a friend in trouble in the depths of the Obama Economy) passed it along Tuesday night via scan.
For those wondering why Nagin has devoted so much time raising money for an office that he is termed-out for, the answer was clear. C. Ray Nagin ain’t leaving City Hall without a fight.
The press release featured talking points advocating the reasons why the mayor was not only subjecting himself to this ordeal but also the voters.
Here’s a sample:
“I believe that while mistakes have been made, my heart has always been with the people of New Orleans. As I candidly stated on Irv Mayfield’s radio program the other day, our city has a race problem. As I look to the upcoming city elections, I do not feel the public can bear the heightened tensions that will come in yet another runoff between a white candidate and an African-American candidate.”
“While I hold myself responsible to some degree for some of the animosity through words and quips that have been taken out of context by practitioners of yellow journalism interested in selling newspapers and seeing their face on television, I believe that it is in the best interest of all parties that we stick together through this most important phase of the recovery effort for the time being.”
“And most importantly we finally have someone in the White House we can do business with. The Bush era has ended and a new period of hope and progress is upon us and I feel confident I can work with President Obama to return New Orleans to the world class status it had before the 2005 storm season.”
Nagin added a bit of a twist in the press release by declaring his intention to resign in two years and six months as he intends to bring before the voters in a special election this October is not just an extra term but a wholesale reconstruction of the city charter, moving the city elections away from the spring to the November presidential election in 2012.
Now one does not need to have a master’s degree in political science to understand the full implications of this move. By shifting city elections to coincide with the same date that Barack Obama will be seeking a second term himself, Nagin would freeze out white candidates for mayor while also eliminating any possibility of a white councilman-at-large. With the spike in city-wide black turnout, the current 4-3 white to black council composition would almost certainly become a 6-1 black to white ratio with District A being the lone white, Republican bailiwick.
Such a move by Mayor Nagin is not without precedent for success. The Long Machine pulled off a similar move after driving out T. Semmes Walmsley in the thirties and literally handing control of Gallier Hall to Robert Maestri, who didn’t appear before the voters for six years.
The third term move will no doubt by strongly opposed by business and community leaders, white and black alike, to say nothing of the local media. And the recent scuttlebutt is one member of the “fourth estate” has been dropping hints of succeeding the man he has been tormenting on camera for the past year.
WWL television reporter Lee Zurik is considering a bid for the city’s top office. Zurik, who according to his WWL biography blocked for Peyton Manning during their time on the Newman High School football squad, has supposedly floated to the news station’s management a request for unpaid leave for “personal reasons” starting the day after Christmas.
With 100% name recognition and a reputation as a crusading journalist, Zurik would have advantages that fellow local news figure Helena Moreno did not have during her unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for Congress against Bill Jefferson in November. The city fathers would likely generously fund a Zurik campaign and his deep connection with local athletics might give him the same broad appeal former Saints executive Arnie Fielkow enjoyed when he upset Jackie Clarkson in 2006.A confidential source at City Hall claims that the mayor is well aware of Zurik’s political aspirations and passed along the mayor’s reaction to the story: “This is a world class city and a second-class april fool’s joke,” said Nagin before pulling off with Assessor Tom Arnold to a defensive driving course.

Cutting Its Trunk to Spite Its Face: GOP Tells Independents to Keep Out

"I liken it to people in church when the Baptist church is electing a pastor, it doesn't have Presbyterians, Methodists and Roman Catholics join in to say who they'd like as pastor of the Baptist church."- Lloyd Harsch, Republican State Committeeman and Associate Professor of Church History at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

To quote one of the citizens of Rock Ridge from Blazing Saddles, “Who could argue with that?”.
One has to wonder if the reporter covering the Republican State Central Committee was on the verge of ecstasy while jotting that gem.
Unfortunately, this won’t be last time we hear that line or the Louisiana Republican Party’s decision to totally close the congressional primaries. And I can promise that the context that they will be brought up again won’t be positive.
Three years ago, the Louisiana legislature decided to complicate things for voters by reinstituting the closed primary only in congressional elections. The open (or “jungle” as it is often derisively termed by critics) primary, in which all candidates regardless of party would share the same ballot and would be voted on by the full electorate, would remain in place for all state and local contests.
For decades the Louisiana GOP was a phone booth operation in terms of registered voters and elected officials because of the political realities of the closed primary in which participation in the election that really mattered required one being a registered Democrat.
Then Governor Edwin Edwards decided to de-tusk the GOP of its one political advantage through the closed primary as Republican nominees would most of the time get a free pass to the general election while Democrats had to slug it out through an intensely competitive and expensive party primary.
The open primary forever retired the old Long versus anti-Long factions that served as Louisiana’s de facto two party system when the latter became registered Republicans. Instead of stymieing the Republican Party, Edwards christened and launched it, a move he has publicly regretted.
After enjoying the benefits of a non-partisan political environment that led to Republican legislators serving as committee chairmen and chamber leaders, the Republican Party officials have screamed the loudest about returning to the closed primary.
It is true that since its full implementation in 2008, the Republican Party has made substantial gains, now possessing an unprecedented 6-1 majority in the state’s US House of Representatives delegation, the result was largely crafted by unusual circumstances that are typically dismissed by party leaders, namely the election delay by Hurricane Gustav and the presence of a black candidate in the 6th district race as an independent.
New Second District Congressman Anh Cao had readily admitted that had his election against indicted incumbent had been held the same time Barack Obama was on the ballot, Jefferson, warts, frozen bills and all, would have been returned to Congress by a large margin. Cao also benefited from confusion amongst Jefferson’s base voters who were under the impression that the congressman had been returned to Washington after winning the runoff for the Democratic primary. And even with the scandals and misunderstanding, Jefferson lost by less than 3%.
Had black State Representative Michael Jackson, still disgruntled from losing his party nomination to Don Cazayoux earlier in 2008 in the special election for the 6th Congressional District, not played spoiler, Cazayoux would have been returned to Congress by a narrow margin as the white Democratic incumbent would have been assured of almost all of Jackson’s vote against a Republican.
And had the 4th District general election been held in November, Democrat Paul Carmouche would have benefited from the spike in black turnout in Shreveport but also not have faced a motivated Republican base determined not to give President-elect Obama an ally.
Without Gustav and Jackson acting as a spoiler, the closed primary produces a 4-3 Democratic majority.
Back to the closed primary and the GOP’s decision to restrict participation in it.
The bill bringing back the closed primary for congressional races had an interesting clause that would cause a great deal of complications as independents and voters not affiliated with a political party (those registered “no party”) would have the freedom to participate in either party primary unless the governing authorities of the parties chose to act against their participation.
The state GOP took the plunge first by passing a resolution barring anyone but Republicans; the state Democratic Party, logically enough, publicly welcomed independents and unaffiliated voters to their congressional primaries.
For Democrats, the move was a propaganda coup in contrast to the GOP’s position in addition to laying down the groundwork for an external moderating force within the party primary to temper the more extremist elements. Most importantly, it gave the Democrats a leg-up on pursuing independent voters in outreach and getting them to cast a vote for their candidates before the general election. Generally, when a voter supports someone in a primary, they are likely to vote for that candidate again in a runoff and/or general election.
It was a win-win-win for the Democrats yet the leadership of the state Republican Party was totally oblivious to what is obvious to many outside of that circle.
National Republican political operatives were dumbfounded by the Louisiana Republican Party’s move to post a “Keep Out” sign to Independents as were a number of in-state GOP elected officials. And there perhaps is the heart of the matter.
Individuals who have never won an election run the Louisiana Republican Party. By my count, the six elected officers of the party are a combined 0-8 in bids for statewide, congressional, regional, legislative and local elections.
I don’t say this to be insulting, as I personally respect and have a good working relationship with half of the leadership even when I have strong disagreements with them on party policy, but that not a single member of the party leadership has ever been elected to public office despite numerous tries does underscore the disconnect between what sounds good within the agreeable confines of a party committee meeting where rah-rah speeches are the norm and uncomfortable political reality.
I knew well in advance that the party that the attempt to lock into the party bylaws the ban on independent, which would require a 2/3s majority to adopt and a 2/3s majority to repeal, would easily pass in Shreveport, a bailiwick for the dominant faction and the furthest point away from the bloc of committee members less inclined to accept any proposal coming from the leadership as gospel. It should also be mentioned that the Louisiana GOP has a very generous proxy rule in which members could cast up to three votes in a meeting, with proxies counting towards quorum. The best chance for a true discussion on the matter of independents voting in the Republican congressional primary was for a “continuance” for another meeting closer to the population center of the state via failure to achieve a lack of quorum in Shreveport. And to the credit of the party leadership, they are talented at getting their loyalists (and proxies) lined up in advance.
Their arguments against letting independents vote in the congressional primaries are as follows: 1) the lock out will compel independents to register Republican, 2) it’ll drive down the cost of winning the GOP nomination by having to fight for fewer votes in the primary and 3) only Republicans should vote for a Republican nominee (see the “not letting Catholics vote for the Baptist minister” argument).
The counter-arguments to those points are as follows: 1) independents are part of the GOP’s “electoral” majority as no Republican can win statewide without them as the GOP is very much a minority party in terms of registration; furthermore, party registration does not improve ballot location or provide public funding; 2) if you don’t have the money to compete in a party primary then you don’t have the money to compete in a general election; keeping out independents removes the “reality check” of viability in terms of money and broader appeal; and just because independents won’t be voting in the GOP primary that doesn’t mean they won’t be participating in the other party’s, in other words, while Democrats are investing in winning registered independents months in advance of the general election, Republicans outreach to this critical bloc would not begin until 30 days or so before the general election; the party would be better off facing independent voters sooner than later 3) primaries should be about winning general elections; the “Baptist minister” analogy at the beginning is faulty because it assumes the candidate does not need to transcend the base; furthermore, Louisiana is not New Hampshire, registered independents here tend to be closer to Republicans than Democrats; most importantly they would likely move a Democrat more the right than move a Republican further to the left, thus producing a tougher Democrat for a Republican to run against.
In time the Louisiana Republican Party will come to regret the decision it made unless it thinks a 5% uptick in GOP statewide voter registration is preferable holding on to congressional seats that were largely won due to intra-party fighting on the Democratic side and mother nature. Party building and winning elections need not be separate enterprises, though with the “excommunication” of independents from the Republican congressional primary, it seems the state GOP has placed a greater importance on the former at the expense of the latter.