[Theodore R.]

Blanco was an original Lafayette Parish supporter of J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., in his December 1971 Democratic primary runoff with Edwin Washington Edwards. Her ties, like those of Rep. Charles Melancon, go back to Johnston, not Edwards.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Thanks for the correction. I was living in Louisiana at the time of Edwards and again during the Blanco election. My post, which is 7 months old, said of the Edwin Edwards era rather than of the EE administration so I have some wiggle room. :-)

One of my favorite EE memories, other than the 'Vote for the Crook" bumper sticker, was when he was on trial for taking a million bucks to issue a state certificate to open a hospital and another mil for a nursing home. He said, "You have the wrong person on trial. It is against the law for them to give me the money but it is not against the law for me to take it." He was a charming rogue.

However, it is of that kind of politics to which I was connecting Blanco, her husband and his cronies.