Grandstanding in the Big Easy posted Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 @ 8:29 pm  E-mail Story |  Print Story  U.S. Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Barak Hussein Obama of Illinois paid a visit to New Orleans Monday. The senators were there, along with a host of local, state and federal officials, at the behest of Louisiana's senior senator, Mary Landrieu. She called for the meeting in the Crescent City to shed light on the federal government's slow response in moving to help the New Orleans area and its residents during and after Hurricane Katrina struck the region in late summer 2005. They all assembled in the Big Easy to discuss how slow the feds have acted in working with local and state governments in rebuilding an area that quite possibly will never be the same as it was prior to Katrina. While it has become fashionable to throw stones at the Bush administration for the beleaguered rebuilding efforts in New Orleans and beyond, we would be remiss if we didn't remind Landrieu, Lieberman, Obama and anyone else who cares to hear the bitter truth that it has been the State of Louisiana and Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration that deserves most of the blame for the pitifully slow progress that exists today in picking up the pieces in what once was Louisiana's largest, most prosperous city. During that grandstanding affair Monday in New Orleans where Obama, the darling child of the Democratic Party, stole the show, we couldn't help but wonder if any of the promises pledged by the senators to expedite the rebuilding efforts in the Crescent City will amount to anything other than paying lip service to a captive audience. We also couldn't help but wonder if that whole dog and pony show wasn't conducted but to lend aid to Blanco's bid to seek re-election in this fall's gubernatorial campaign. Furthermore, we couldn't help but wonder if Obama, a junior senator, wasn't in attendance but to simply garner media exposure as he ramps up his campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 2008.