Just three years after his release from federal prison, former Gov. Edwin Edwards is throwing his hat into the open race for Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District. 
By Steve Sailer
03/19/2014
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Just three years after his release from federal prison, former Gov. Edwin Edwards is throwing his hat into the open race for Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District.
The 86-year-old Silver Fox, known for his memorable, often shocking quotes and the nearly nine years spent behind bars on extortion, fraud and racketeering charges, made the announcement at a meeting of the Press Club of Baton Rouge on Monday (March 17).
"I acknowledge there are good reasons I should not run. But there are better reasons why I should," said the Democrat, who served an unprecedented four terms as governor. He also put to rest questions over whether his status as an ex-con would keep him from being a qualified Congressional candidate: "Once and for all I’m positive I can run and I’m confident I can win." …
"I'd like to run for governor, but there seems to be some question about whether I could," Edwards added. Louisiana law bars convicted felons from running for statewide office for 15 years, unless they receive a pardon. Edwards would be 101 by that time.
And why not?
Some Edwards quotes from over the years:
"Dave Treen is so slow it takes him an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes." (During 1983 campaign versus incumbent Gov. David Treen)
"The only way I can lose this race is to be caught in bed with a live boy or dead girl." (During the same 1983 race)
"The only place where David Duke and I are alike is we are both wizards under the sheets." (During 1991 gubernatorial campaign versus former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke)"'Well, Marion … if she dies, she dies." (What Edwards reportedly told his brother when he warned the 86-year-old that sex with his new wife, 50 years his junior, could be dangerous)
"You sleep with 'em." (On the use he’s finally found for Republicans, during a 2012 press conference with his new wife, registered GOPer)
The point of Ron Shelton’s 1989 movie Blaze with Paul Newman as former governor Earl K. Long (the assassinated Huey’s younger brother) is that Louisianans like their politicians entertaining. Huey Long, the subject of All the King’s Men, was actually a very good governor for his first two years in office in the late 1920s, taxing Standard Oil to build roads, schools, and hospitals for his deeply backward constituents, but things fell apart into feuding after that before his mysterious death. But, a political culture conducive to good literature isn’t always conducive to good government.
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