Craig’s Big Easy slam draws fire

BOISE – One of Louisiana’s senators has lashed out at U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, for telling two Idaho newspapers Louisiana is rife with corruption.

“The good, hardworking and taxpaying people of the 9th Ward, New Orleans and all of Louisiana deserve better than old stereotypes and ignorant remarks,” Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., said in a statement issued Friday.

“The thought that the people and neighborhoods of the 9th Ward are any less deserving of our humanity is absolutely offensive.”

Craig made the remarks as he traveled Idaho holding town hall meetings and giving interviews.

Craig told the Lewiston Tribune on Wednesday that Iraq and Louisiana have cultures of fraud, so Congress must track the billions of dollars headed both for the Middle East war zone and the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast region.

“The great tragedy of Louisiana is that it is really the Big Easy,” said Craig, who also said he opposes rebuilding the 9th Ward of New Orleans.

“I’m not humorous when I suggest we should turn it back to what it was: a wetland,” he told the Tribune.

In McCall, Craig told a gathering: “Louisiana and New Orleans are the most corrupt governments in our country and they always have been,” the Star-News reported Thursday.

He then criticized police, saying: “A rookie cop on the ground in New Orleans, they pay him or her $17,000 starting pay and then wink and say, ‘You better make the rest of it on the street.’ “

Landrieu, who has worked with Craig on a congressional coalition on adoption, acknowledged a legacy of corruption in her state, but said now the state’s “sunshine laws and ethics codes are some of the most comprehensive in the country.”

Craig’s press secretary, Dan Whiting, responded that Craig was quoted accurately.

“Larry stands behind his comments,” Whiting said. “He certainly wants to help the folks in the Gulf Coast, but he wants accountability to make sure where the money’s spent.”