Corpus Christi Caller Times Editorials - Return of the prodigal Cajun

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Sunday, December 5, 1999

Return of the prodigal Cajun
Colorful, controversial Edwin Edwards is back in the spotlight.

Federal indictments against a former governor of Louisiana and a former mayor of Houston would be news under any circumstances. The fact that this represents the return to the spotlight of one of the most colorful characters in 20th-century Southern politics lends the affair a certain piquancy all its own.
   That ex-governor is the redoubtable Edwin Edwards, who along with Houstonian Fred Hofheinz may, or may not, be in the soup.
   Hofheinz faces two indictments in a Louisiana gambling corruption case; Hofheinz, meanwhile, is named in a single indictment charging he gave Edwards payoffs to win construction and trash disposal contracts.
   Edwards is fighting back. Already, he is claiming the two informants whose tales led the FBI to wiretap him are in fact corrupt themselves: "I think it's a disgrace that the federal prosecutors who are supposed to stand for law and order and truth would wallow in the gutter" with such dubious characters.
   It's one more hurrah - and not necessarily the last - for the silver-tongued Cajun. During his third term as governor, he was indicted, but not convicted, for mail fraud, obstruction of justice, and bribery. After the oil slump hit, Edwards' political fortunes plummeted - but he made a dramatic comeback in 1992, defeating former Klansman David Duke to win a fourth term as governor.
   Like that of another legendary, and controversial, Louisiana politico, Huey Long, Edwards' record includes solid achievements along with ethics-related imbrog-ios: the crafting of a new state constitution, appointment of blacks to important state posts, and imposition of a new severance tax that generated big bucks for the state.
   What next? Already, the feds' case shows signs of unraveling. Any observer of Louisiana politics would advise you not to bet against this cagey Cajun.

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