Oliver M. Thomas, New Orleans City Council President, pleaded guilty to a federal
bribery charge on Monday.
Thomas admitted to taking $19,000 in bribes and kickbacks in 2002 from local businessman, Stanford Barré,
an intimate of former New Orleans Mayor Marc H. Morial.
New Orleans, still reeling from the horror of Hurricane Katrina, has been rocked by an incredible series of
corruption scandals involving: Congressman William J. Jefferson;
the former president of the school board;
a top aide to former Mayor Morial;
indictments of 30 school system employees;
and 16 City Hall corruption convictions.
Nobody in the mainstream media remembers this, of course, but in 2001,
Green Party candidate,
Malik Rahim,
ran against Oliver Thomas and others for New Orleans City Council.
In words that would prove prophetic Rahim declared:
"When I look at the economic and social conditions that exist in New Orleans,
and I see the failed policies of our elected officials, the dismal conditions of housing,
the low wages our people work for and the carcinogenic levels of toxicity in our air and water,
I see that the wealth, opportunity and resources in our community are controlled by the rich at the expense
of the many,"
The awful truth is that the catastrophic failure of the system in New Orleans is indeed a bipartisan failure.
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