(Gov.) Edwin Edwards (D-Louisiana) Will Live Forever

[KeepItReal]

Terrific story from New York Magazine.

Here are some snippets:

Edwards explained that pols like Jindal sell themselves as “good government” in that they’re the favorites of the rich and well-brought-up. They are supposed to be above corruption. But was that really true? Declaring himself an advocate of “pretty good government,” Edwards said, “I’m the shady politician, right? But what happens when Jindal turns down billions of federal money for Medicaid­ to help people in need, a program that could mean as much as 17,000 jobs!—just because he doesn’t want to be seen as taking anything from Obama which is going to hurt him with the right-wingers? Who’s the self-serving one then? Is that good government?

“I’m shocked by the level of hardheartedness I see now,” Edwards continued. “I grew up with Depression conditions. I remember the day the man in the government truck pulled up and brought electricity to our area. My father was a sharecropper. My mother was a midwife; she delivered babies by gas lamp. Now she had electricity. It changed our lives. That’s what brought me to public service, because I saw what government could do for people. The government is there to give people a leg up, to pay for the schools of the dispossessed, to get you through the dark nights.”

...

Back to his Congress days, when he was one of only a very few southern members to vote for extending the Voting Rights Act, Edwards always ran strongly with ­African- Americans, a crucial state voting block. As governor, he often appointed blacks to high positions. The David Duke victory really put him over the top. With Duke carrying the majority of the white vote, Edwards said, “Tonight Louisiana has won, but if the next merchant of bigotry is free of the apparent vulgar signs of the KKK and the swastika, will the people simply reject it as we have done? Or will our nation accept again the stereotype of the welfare queen? Does Willie Horton live on?”

http://nymag.com/news/features/edwin-edwards-2014-7/

[pansypoo53219]

1. go eddie go! bring back sanity.

[JackRiddler]

2. I like this.

[KamaAina]

3. "Vote for the crook. It's important."

From back when Edwin was running against David Dukkke.