Revelers mix politics with Mardi Gras

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Fat Tuesday and Super Tuesday collided on the streets of the French Quarter, where revelers added a distinctly political flavor to the city’s annual raucous bash.

Among the men dressed in pink baby-doll pajamas or leather loincloths and the women flashing glimpses of flesh for beads were some whose costumes had political themes. Louisiana voters don’t head to the polls until Saturday, so many let their costumes make political statements on a day when 24 other states were holding presidential primaries and caucuses.

Kim Disselliss, 49, simply taped a sign to her back showing Sen. Clinton dressed as George Washington and reading, “Monica Lewinsky’s X-Boyfriend’s Wife for President. 2 for 1 Sale.”

Mardi Gras — also known as Fat Tuesday — is the end to the pre-Lenten Carnival season. The celebration characterized by family friendly parades uptown and in the suburbs — and by heavy drinking and lots of near-nudity in the French Quarter — ends 12 days of parades and parties.

Temperatures were expected to rise to about the record of 81 degrees in New Orleans, an indicator that flesh-flashing in the bawdy French Quarter was likely to be greater than usual. Crowds that had begun staking out spots on the parade routes as early as Friday night spent the day collecting beads and other trinkets thrown from floats.

The celebration appears to have bounced back strongly since Katrina flooded more than 80 percent of the city. Mardi Gras crowd estimates hovered around 1 million in the years before Katrina, and the crowd reached about 800,000 last year.