Former New Orleans Mayor DEMOCRAT Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin has been indicted on 21 federal corruption charges including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering.

◼ Ex- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin indicted - USA Today

The charges are the outgrowth of a City Hall corruption investigation that already has resulted in guilty pleas by two former city officials and two businessmen.

The counts include wire fraud, bribery, money laundering, filing false tax returns and conspiracy.

Nagin, a former cable television executive, was a political novice before being elected to his first term as mayor in 2002, buoyed by strong support from white voters.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 elevated Nagin to the national stage, where he gained a reputation for colorful and sometimes cringe-inducing rhetoric.

During a radio interview broadcast in the storm's early aftermath, he angrily pleaded with federal officials to "get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

In January 2006, he apologized for a Martin Luther King Day speech in which he predicted New Orleans would be a "chocolate city" and asserted that "God was mad at America."

◼ ABC, CBS, and NBC all refuse to identify indicted Nagin as Democrat - Brent Baker/Newsbusters

All three broadcast network evening newscasts on Friday night ran short items on the federal corruption indictments against the bumbling former Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, but skipped his party affiliation, a fact Reuters considered newsworthy – if not until their sixth paragraph: “Nagin, 56, and a Democrat...”

ABC anchor Diane Sawyer generously described Nagin as “the face of Hurricane Katrina...then the Mayor of New Orleans fighting for his city.”

On CBS, anchor Scott Pelley conversationally relayed: “We heard today that Ray Nagin, the former Mayor of New Orleans, was indicted on federal corruption charges...”

The toughest line came from NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, but also he left out the identity of Nagin’s party: “Ray Nagin, who as Mayor of New Orleans gained notoriety for his erratic behavior during Hurricane Katrina when the city needed a steady hand, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 21 counts of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering, tax fraud and filing false tax returns...”

◼ “Chocolate City” Ray Nagin Indicted on on 21 Corruption Charges - Before It's News

With no George Bush to blame or a democrat party to shield him from being imprisoned for negligence in the death of hundreds of people, I want to see this low life shyster talk his way out of this one! Ray-Na faces many years in Federal Prison. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.