Friday, September 16, 2005

Louisiana Buses: It's All In the Incentive

This piece of irony, courtesy of Senator Mary Landrieu, is beyond words:

[Rush] got an e-mail from a subscriber at Rush 24/7 that there was a story in the Lafayette, Louisiana newspaper that Mary Landrieu had succeeded in getting a bunch of buses on the street to get people to the polls to vote for her in 1996....

[B]asically what happened there was that Mary Landrieu was trailing badly in her race with Woody Jenkins for the Senate, and they found out that the inner city of New Orleans had not voted something to the tune of 186,000 people. They pulled out all the stops. Clinton was making phone calls. Clinton, Landrieu, and Harry Connick, Sr., put this whole thing together. The work to get African-American voters to the polls started at the True Gospel of Jesus Christ church on North Broad Street before the polling places opened. A thousand workers would hit the streets that day, 500 in the morning, and 500 that afternoon. And they went all through town. They put together parades with New Orleans music to go through the housing projects. They gave away red beans and rice... and they found buses. They found countless buses to get people to the polls.

Now, the only reason I bring this up is to, once again, confirm that when they really want to move people, they can do it in New Orleans. When they really want to move them, they can do it. [emphasis added]

It's a shame Landrieu isn't up for re-election next year. This one story alone would be enough to crucify her.