Let's parse this. Obviously, this was not a prepared comment, hence all the rapid back pedaling. But this off-the-cuff remark reveals what Hastert really thinks, his gut reaction. Notice the three cities he mentions as "stubborn": New Orleans, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. These cities share in common two things - they reliably vote Democratic, and they are icons of things Republicans dislike. San Francisco is associated with homosexuals, Los Angeles is an ethnic stew and home of the entertainment industry, and New Orleans embodies sin - sex, drinking, gambling, magic, and other assorted fun. Oh, and it just happens to be two-thirds black and the birthplace of some of the greatest fruits of African-American culture.
Notice he didn't point out how stubborn all those people in tornado prone Kansas are. Quite a many small towns in the Midwest are slowly fading away, and every single one of them will at some point be blasted flat by a tornado. But the citizens of those towns are mostly white and reliably Republican, so Hastert isn't ready to bulldoze them just yet.
Thomas Jefferson of course knew better:
Come to think of it, that's what Dennis thinks, too, but for very different reasons.