New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has inspired the blogosphere:

I’m Not Chocolate: Willy Nagin and the Chocolate Factory

Right Winged: Hershey’s – the official sponsor of Hurricane Katrina

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Meanwhile, reader J. M. notes that Nagin used the same description of New Orleans as a “chocolate city” in an interview with Tavis Smiley last week. Click here for audio. Here’s a transcript of the interview that begins at 3:36 of the audio file:

SMILEY: When Alphonso Jackson, President Bush’s HUD Secretary, suggested some weeks back, some months back now, he said and I’m not quoting here, but I’m paraphrasing pretty close to the quote, you may recall this–he said people should just get use to the fact–this was a press conference he was speaking at, in his native Houston–said that people should get used to the fact, hey, let’s face it, New Orleans is never gonna be as black as it was. Now, it’s one thing to hear the mayor saying what he was saying, and I’m glad to hear you say that. It’s another to hear a federal official close to the president say that. What am I to make of that statement then?

NAGIN: Well, you know, I have been kinda, almost flippant in my response to that. That seems to me like some Republican testosterone from the standpoint that, you know, he’s basically a public official that controls the public housing stock in the city of New Orleans. And Tavis, even if everyone who was in public housing did not return, this still would be a chocolate city.

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