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LA Ponders the Legacy of Prison-Bound Edwin Washington Edwards
The Alexandria (LA) Daily Town Talk | 10-20-02 | Hill, John,

Posted on 10/20/2002 12:24:26 PM PDT by Theodore R.

From powerhouse to prison Edwards leaves final legacy on state John Hill / Gannett Capital Bureau Posted on October 20, 2002

Jim Hudelson

Former Gov. Edwin Edwards and his wife, Candy, share a moment in his Baton Rouge home last Wednesday. Edwards is to report to federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday.

BATON ROUGE -- Edwin Edwards sits in an overstuffed chair before a marble fireplace, his feet resting on the Oriental rug, the muted colors of his brown-knit shirt matching the neutrals of the living room in his $600,000 stucco, old-brick French-styled home.

A baby grand piano is nearby. French doors open into a sunny walled courtyard, filled with flowers and fountains. The lake and manicured grounds of the Country Club of Louisiana, one of Baton Rouge's most affluent, gated communities, are in the distance.

Edwards, whose eyes have an unusual distance in them, is giving one of his last interviews as a free man, and he sits there, calm, cool and almost unemotional as he declares, "I will be a model prisoner."

Above the mantle over his left shoulder is one of those very large, very good oil portraits, the sort of thing one sees only in the homes of accomplished men, painted a couple of decades ago, back when there was fire in his eyes, a quick smile and a bon mot.

This is the last weekend before the former four-term Louisiana governor - who was a dominant force in Louisiana politics for four decades -- does what neither he nor most Louisianians thought would ever happen.

He will walk into the gates of the Fort Worth federal prison, the doors closing behind him. With a 10-year sentence, Edwards will have to serve a minimum of 8.5 years under federal law, absent a miracle decision from the U.S. Supreme Court or a presidential commutation.

At 75 and with various health problems, Edwards hopes to live long enough to serve his time, hanging on to the fact that his mother lived into her 90s and a grandfather past 100.

The promise and brightness captured by his portrait are ending in disgrace, though Edwards thinks of it as an injustice, his conviction due to friends he was trying to help turning against him and lying to a jury. He is going to prison unbowed, unrepentant, regretting only that he is convicted and nothing else.

If he could go back 50 years ago, when he decided to enter politics in a Crowley City Council race in 1954, and "knowing how it would end, I would do it all over again,"" Edwards said.

While he knows his conviction and the myriad investigations -- he claims 24 federal and state investigations, but most people can think of only about a dozen - will overshadow everything else, he hopes that it will not blot out what he did in office.

When Edwards, then a Southwest Louisiana congressman, burst on the statewide scene by announcing for governor in 1970, no one believed a French-speaking Cajun could get elected governor. Louisiana's governors had tended to come from North Louisiana, usually by beating out someone from New Orleans.

But with an Anglo name, an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible and enough savvy to build a base of Cajuns, labor and blacks, Edwards beat out more than a dozen opponents to edge past now-retired U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston in a razor-thin victory one week before Christmas 1971. One vote per precinct the other way and Edwards would have gone back to Congress.

There were accomplishments, most of them in the first two gubernatorial terms: a new Louisiana Constitution, streamlined government, leadership roles for blacks and women, funding for Interstate 49, vastly expanded health care, including community mental health, and vocational-technical training. All were made possible because Edwards and his commissioner of administration, Charles Roemer, always budgeted to conservative revenue estimates.

But some would say the money was spread too thin and there was not enough emphasis on promoting and supporting higher education as an economic development engine, as most other Southern states elected to do.

Even when archrivals Ed Steimel, the now-retired president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, and now-retired state AFL-CIO President Victor Bussie joined hands to recommend that a $600 million offshore oil windfall be put into higher education, Edwards did not listen, instead deciding to spread the money to all education.

Federal prosecutors say the significance of Edwards' going to prison is not that Louisiana is sending away the "Silver Zipper," the "Cajun King," the man who winked at us when he told us "the only thing I have to fear is jealous husbands."

Rather it is that any Louisiana politician can go to prison if they misstep.

"Edwin Edwards as a person is of no moment," said lead prosecutor Jim Letten, U.S. attorney for New Orleans.

"What is important is that Edwin Edwards and his co-defendants represent the legend of the Louisiana politician who is above the law, who is too smart, too good-looking, too quick, too clever to be caught by authorities, a legend that has cost us in Louisiana in terms of loss of investment, of jobs," Letten said.

"It tells the world that we can and will take care of business here at home and that we will have the will and the integrity to root out corruption."

John Hill: (225) 342-7333;


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: democrat; edwards; la; legacy; prison
One of the worst things EWE did was to (I think it was in 1984.) reject in public the divinity of Christ. Now 18 years later, God could be forcing EWE to come face to face with his sin before he ultimately faces the Creator that he belittled. Many in LA, however, still admire and laud EWE and his "legacy."
1 posted on 10/20/2002 12:24:26 PM PDT by Theodore R.
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To: Theodore R.
Edwards was a Clinton before being a Clinton was cool.
2 posted on 10/20/2002 1:12:26 PM PDT by plain talk
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To: Theodore R.
Even worse than this, he was a 'Rat.

(OK, just sarcasm for effect. It's a shame. Sounds like he was never saved.)
3 posted on 10/20/2002 1:17:26 PM PDT by The Red Zone
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To: Theodore R.
Louisiana, Illinois and Texas have a lotta great people - so the devil sends some of his best slicksters to hurt us.
4 posted on 10/20/2002 1:22:45 PM PDT by 185JHP
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To: Theodore R.
I once asked a friend in LA why she voted for Edwards. She said, "Politicians are all crooks. He's the smartest crook we have." I voted for him the year that his opponent was David Duke. My conscience still tells me I made the right choice.
5 posted on 10/20/2002 2:26:40 PM PDT by abclily
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To: plain talk
Edwards was a Clinton before being a Clinton was cool.

Yes, just what I thought when reading the following quote. . .and wondering why these Democrats; and all Democrats, did not respond in kind to Klinton; given his sacrifice of America for his own interests:. . .

["What is important is that Edwin Edwards and his co-defendants represent the legend of the Louisiana politician who is above the law, who is too smart, too good-looking, too quick, too clever to be caught by authorities, a legend that has cost us in Louisiana in terms of loss of investment, of jobs," Letten said. ]

Clinton just played on a bigger board. . .and with higher stakes.

6 posted on 10/21/2002 6:15:30 AM PDT by cricket
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