No, not THAT John Kennedy:

"After months of speculation about a party switch, state Treasurer John Kennedy announced Monday that he is running for re-election this fall as a Republican, after serving two terms as a Democrat.

"Kennedy's re-election campaign announced the switch in an email. In it, Kennedy said he spent more than a year grappling with the decision — though the expectation of a change was heightened this summer when Kennedy met with then-White House political strategist Karl Rove and state GOP leaders.

"I have concluded that the Republican Party is the party that best reflects my values today," Kennedy said.

"During Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration, Kennedy had grown at odds with his party, getting into disagreements with the governor and one of the party's power brokers, Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom.

"For the past several years, it has increasingly been the case that those public servants who have embraced my ideas and my philosophy of trying new approaches are primarily Republicans," Kennedy said in the e-mail."

Nola.com

Considering the utterly slip-shod infrastructure maintenance record of the wholly owned and operated subsidiary of the Democratic Party aka Louisiana, not to mention its well-deserved reputation for corruption, I’d say it’s high time to let a Republican John Kennedy have a crack at management.

And while I’m on the subject: It’s the second anniversary of the beginning of Hurricane Katrina’s attack upon the Mainland.  You remember that hurricane.  The one the Dems blamed on President Bush and FEMA.  No mention of levees left weakened by LOCAL administrators and committee members who spent levee-reinforcement moneys on such luxuries as parks and golf courses.  No mention of Governor Blanco refusing to call up the National Guard until she got her focus group inspired talking points in order.

Nicholas Lemann, in a comment posted on September 19, 2005 in The New Yorker's "The Talk of the Town," lamented the federal government's failure to appreciate Louisiana's incompetence BEFORE Hurricane Katrina:

The Bush Administration realized after the storm what it should have realized before it: that the state and local authorities in Louisiana were not going to be able to handle the hurricane's aftermath effectively. Apparently, the Administration tried to persuade the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, to issue an official request that the federal government take control of the Louisiana National Guard and the New Orleans police, but she refused, out of pride or mistrust or a desire to maintain some degree of control. Then the Administration considered sending active-duty federal troops to New Orleans to do what the National Guard and the police could not — make the streets and the evacuation centers safe and decent — and decided not to. Whatever its failings before the hurricane hit, the federal government could have greatly lessened the disaster if it had acted immediately afterward as a direct enforcer of the law. People suffered and died because it did not.

RenewAmerica.us

Newsbusters.org

"In the past four years, the Orleans Levee Board has built up its arsenal. The additional defenses are so critical that Levee Commissioners marched into Congress and brought back almost $60 million to help pay for protection," the pamphlet declared. "The most ambitious flood-fighting plan in generations was drafted. An unprecedented $140 million building campaign launched 41 projects."

The levee board promised Times-Picayune readers that the "few manageable gaps" in the walls protecting the city from Mother Nature's waters "will be sealed within four years (1999) completing our circle of protection."

But less than a year later, that same levee board was denied the authority to refinance its debts. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws," according to the Times-Picayune. The newspaper quoted Kyle as saying that the board was near bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds, or issue new ones, until it submitted an acceptable plan to achieve solvency.

Cnsnews.com

Oh, and how could we forget Schoolbus Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans, who refused to use hundreds of perfectly good school buses to evacuate desperate people?  As a result, the sick and the elderly were left to fend for themselves and the school buses were left there, parked neatly in rows, uselessly under floodwaters.

Newsmax.com

Read Senator Landrieu’s lame excuse for Nagin:

"Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out of the city in front of a hurricane," she said. "And it's because this administration and administrations before them do not understand the difficulties that mayors . . . face."

Landrieu then added: "In other words, this administration did not believe in mass transit. They won't even get people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out."

Newsmax.com

Ever hear of volunteer drivers, Mr. Nagin?  I’m betting if you put the word out, hundreds of ‘em would’ve showed up at the bus lot to volunteer their services.

Oh btw, FEMA was NOT asleep at the switch.  Here’s an outtake from their web site posted two years ago today:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency is warning residents along Gulf Coast states to take immediate action to prepare for dangerous Hurricane Katrina as it approaches land.

“There’s still time to take action now, but you must be prepared and take shelter and other emergency precautions immediately,” said Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response. “FEMA has pre-positioned many assets including ice, water, food and rescue teams to move into the stricken areas as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Landfall is currently expected late Sunday evening, with the eye of the storm arriving Monday morning.

FEMA.gov

And who could forget Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana, and his requisitioning of the time and effort of National Guardsman, rescuers and their equipment at his house in New Orleans, while his poverty-stricken and hurricane-stricken constituents languished in the Super Dome.

USAToday.com

In case you have forgotten, check some of these and other delightful stories of Democrat bungling and perfidy, and the tragic and inevitable results in the great state of Huey Long:

USAToday.com