Pervasive corruption continues in New Orleans

NY Times:

In a new blow to this city’s ethically troubled politics, the City Council’s senior member, Oliver M. Thomas Jr., pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge on Monday and immediately resigned, adding to a pervasive feeling that corruption infests public life here.

Mr. Thomas, who was considered a strong potential candidate for mayor and who until recently was widely respected as council president, admitted taking as much as $19,000 in bribes and kickbacks in 2002 from a well-connected local businessman and restaurateur who was trying to keep a city parking lot contract.

Mr. Thomas is the latest in a string of New Orleans public officials, past and present, who have been touched by federal corruption charges. In June, the former president of the school board admitted to taking bribes; Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana and this city’s congressman, was accused by federal authorities of being at the center of a multinational bribery scheme; and a top aide to the former Mayor Marc H. Morial was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for his role in a plot to skim $1 million from a city contract.

Some 30 school system employees have been indicted. And the United States attorney here, James B. Letten, said Monday that a long-running investigation into corruption at City Hall in the Morial administration, which has already yielded 16 convictions, would continue.

“It’s just brazen down here,” James Bernazzani, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s special agent in charge, said at a news conference after Mr. Thomas entered his plea.

“In Louisiana they skim the cream, steal the milk, hijack the bottle and look for the cow,” said Mr. Bernazzani, who noted that his district ranked second in the nation in public corruption convictions and indictments — despite its relatively small population.

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The case may have repercussions for Sen. Mary Landrieu. Thomas has been a big supporter for years as well as William "Cold Cash" Jefferson. With the departure of Democrats who provided her margin of victory in the last time she ran and the indictments and jailing of her supporters she has reason to be concerned.