Mayor Mitch Landrieu continues in his attempts to salvage a legacy as a grand racial healer.  Today, Viking Press announced that Landrieu has been working on a book that will come out next March.  Alas, the title alone will have you reaching for the Bromo:

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is working on a book about his views on race and his support for taking down four Confederate monuments earlier this year.

Viking told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Landrieu’s “In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History” will come out in March.

The publisher announced that the Democratic mayor will trace his personal history and look at the larger history of racism in the U.S. The publisher describes the book as “a passionate, personal, urgent book from the man who sparked a national debate.”

Landrieu says the country is at a “pivotal moment” and that he hopes to offer a path out of the current divisions of race, religion and politics.

[…]

Landrieu’s book will be “equal parts unblinking memoir, history, and prescription for finally confronting America’s most painful legacy,” Viking said in describing it.

Oh, please spare us.

Of course, it wasn’t Landrieu who thought of the idea of razing historic monuments — that distinction rests with local far-left extremists like Malcom Suber.  What Landrieu did was bring those radical ideas into the mainstream and thereby kicked off a national trend.

Although polls have shown that removing Confederate monuments is enormously unpopular, and is even opposed by a plurality of black Americans, Landrieu is still trying to pitch himself as some sort of civil rights hero for pushing the purely symbolic gesture of removing a handful of statues.

In the meantime, Landrieu has been an extremely poor steward of city government, so it’s natural that he would try to stake out a legacy elsewhere.  Likewise, Landrieu has to know that he has no political future in Louisiana.  As a result, he may be eyeing a position on the national stage, whether in a future presidential administration or with a private advocacy group.  Hyping the notion that he’s a racial guru would certainly boost any such aspirations he may possess.

Nevertheless, I don’t expect Landrieu’s mawkishly-titled screed to be on the best-seller list any time soon.