I think Quin Hillyer is right!

Kathryn Jean Lopez shares some wisdom from a Quin Hillyer email:DON’T SEND RUDY DOWN

Word is now spreading on all the wire services that President Bush is likely to appoint a reconstruction “czar” for New Orleans…the czar is likely to be Giuliani, Colin Powell, Tommy Franks, or some such national figure. That is NOT a good idea.
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The fact is that New Orleans is unique. Its funkiness, its not-quite-America-ness, its crazy-quilt patchwork of neighborhoods, its easy relations between many blacks and whites (DESPITE the idiotic media rantings about the “hidden” racism of New Orleans), its music and food and joie de vivre, all argue against a well-known outsider coming in and trying a military approach or a purely business-like approach to the reconstruction effort. Nobody would send a John Breaux to New York to fix that city after 9/11; nobody should send Giuliani to New Orleans now. No, what THIS effort needs is either a local Louisianan/coastal Mississippian OR at least somebody with firm and longstanding connections with or interest in the city and region. And the czar also needs to be somebody both liked and respected across the political and racial spectrum in both New Orleans and on Capitol Hill.

At least two men (perhaps only two men, but certainly at least these two) have the local knowledge, the political clout, the respect, and the proven competence to get the job done, and done right — which means done in a way that preserves and restores the essential character of the place. Those two men are Breaux and Bob Livingston. Both are beloved in Louisiana (and in Livingston’s case, is well respected on the Mississippi Coast, and would be welcomed by his friend Trent Lott). Both love New Orleans. Both have great, bipartisan relationships on Capitol Hill. Both have a proven ability to bust chops to get things accomplished.

The White House makes a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE mistake if it tries to get a Powell or Franks to do a job that can’t properly be done by military discipline alone. Frankly, as a longtime Livingston guy, I prefer Bob to Breaux. But either, or both, could do the job right. And it is to one of them, or somebody with similar local knowledge but national respect, to whom the White House should turn.

I agree. And I think Breaux and Livingston, working together, would be a nice sort of “bi-partisan” project that might be constructive in these very divisive and polarized times.