(2006-01-17) — In a further clarification of yesterday’s remarks that a rebuilt New Orleans would be a “chocolate” city, Mayor Ray Nagin today said he’s planning to recruit Hershey Foods to establish a candy manufacturing plant in the hurricane-ravaged region.

The Democrat mayor’s latest clarification builds on yesterday’s explanation that his remarks are not racist because chocolate is made with dark chocolate and white milk forming “a delicious drink.”

“We’re in the very, very early stages of discussions with Hershey,” Mr. Nagin said, “It’s still in the pre-meeting, pre-phone call stage. But that’s what this chocolate city concept is all about. It’s literally chocolate, rather than chocolate as a metaphor for something else. It’s edible chocolate. It really is.”

The mayor said he’s long been intrigued by the possibility of transitioning New Orleans’ economy from one “reliant upon fickle fads in human debauchery” to something more stable, like chocolate.

“Ever since I saw the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I’ve thought, ‘That’s New Orleans’,” Mayor Nagin said. “and I thought, ‘I’m Willy Wonka’. ”

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, who yesterday told a group of African-Americans that Republicans have run the House of Representatives like “a plantation”, said she would help Mayor Nagin secure federal funding to turn the Louisiana Gulf coast into “a chocolate version of Silicon Valley.”