Blakely: It ain't his fault

If he's going to go around crowing "It Ain't My Fault," Ed Blakely could at least pick up a snare drum.

Or maybe a tuba. That would put his hot air to some use.

Surely the former recovery mercenary knows the song. In 2007, his champion Mayor Ray Nagin quoted the popular Carnival time tune in his first post-Katrina "State of the City" address. Of course, Nagin's belief was that his suffering city was blameless. Blakely's belief is that our still suffering city is fatally flawed. He knows the city hasn't made as much progress as it should have. But the slow goings couldn't possibly reflect on such an eminence as Edward J. Blakely, Ph.D.

Oh no, it ain't his fault.

Even though Blakely promised development he didn't deliver, it ain't his fault.

Even though he was halfway 'round the world half the time, it ain't his fault.

Even though his heart wasn't in it -- "I had other things I wanted to do, and administering a recovery is not one of them" -- still, it ain't his fault.

And if you want his opinion, New Orleans -- on whose behalf he worked so lackadaisically -- won't be here 100 years from now. The prophet spoke these words from the terra firma of Northern California.

The now infamous interview Blakely gave to the University of California's CalTV last month reveals a man who sees New Orleans' ongoing struggle to recover as having nothing to do with its departed recovery know-it-all. For him, what's happening here is an intellectual curiosity.

He was interviewed by Yaou Dou, a Berkeley senior. Dou's connection to Blakely is not revealed in the published interview, but in the summer of 2008, he was an intern in Blakely's New Orleans office. So when Blakely defames us as pathetically looking outside for rescue, Dou knows otherwise.

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