No Soap Opera Watchers Needed

There's tough love coming to the Big Easy (h/t Political Diary):

Give Oliver Thomas an award for the most candid tough-love comments of any elected official in America. The president of the New Orleans City Council certainly got the public's attention Monday when he told evacuated residents that the post-Katrina city would be a different place. At a meeting of the council's housing committee, he bluntly declared that evacuees would be welcome back only if they wanted to work. Those who don't "roll up their sleeves" are better off staying away.

Mr. Thomas complained that for too long New Orleans governments have "pampered" many residents and allowed them to stagnate. "We don't need soap opera watchers right now," he said. "We're going to target the people who are going to work. It's not that I'm fed up, but at some point there has to be a whole new level of motivation, and people have got to stop blaming the government for something they ought to do."

Mr. Thomas, an African-American, later explained that he was directing his bombshell comments at able-bodied workers, not the elderly or disabled. "There's just been a lot of pampering, and at some point you have to say, 'No, no, no, no, no.'... If our legs don't hurt, you can walk somewhere," he said. "I'm saying these things to motivate my people."

Councilman Thomas, along with two others who have backed his views, are running for reelection in April. I wish them all well.