Louisiana Congressional Candidate Said Viagra Is Made From His Blood

Courtesy of <a href="http://www.aetv.com/the-governors-wife/pictures/trina-and-edwins-family/edwin-edwards">A&E</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


He’s back. On Wednesday, less than three years after being released from federal prison, Louisiana Democrat Edwin Edwards told Bloomberg‘s Al Hunt he intends to run for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Bill Cassidy, who is running for Senate. That roar you heard was the sound of political reporters packing their suitcases for extended stays in Baton Rouge. Other than the corruption charges that put him in the slammer, Edwards’ four terms in the governor’s mansion were defined by dramatic populist politics and brash public statements that drew constant comparisons to former Louisiana governor and senator Huey Long.

Prison hasn’t seemed to change Edwards. Here are some of his best (or worst) hits:

  • On his 1983 opponent, then Republican Gov. David Treen: “He’s so slow, it takes him an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes.”
  • On whether he fears his phone was being tapped by law enforcement: “No—except by jealous husbands.”
  • On his electoral prospects against Treen: “The only way I can lose this election is if I get caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.”
  • On similarities between he and his opponent, former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke: “We’re both wizards in the sheets.”
  • On his fate: “The Chinese have a saying that if you sit by the river long enough, the dead body of your enemy will come floating down the river. I suppose the feds sat by the river long enough, and here comes my body.”
  • On his womanizing, 1991: “Father Time has taken care of all that poppycock.”
  • On his sex drive, 2012: “I don’t need Viagra…Viagra needs me. Doesn’t the Times-Picayune know they use my blood to make that stuff?”
  • On his new wife, Trina, who is 51 years his junior: “I learned something good to use Republicans for: sleep with them.”
  • On whether it is fair to call him a womanizer: “I ride horses when I go to my ranch. That doesn’t make me a cowboy.”
  • On Trina (again): “I’m only as old as the woman I feel.”
  • On the role of women in his administration: “The motto from here on out is up with skirts and down with pants.”
  • On a claim he once slept with six women in one night: “No, it wasn’t that way. [The author] was gone when the last one came in.”
  • On kissing babies: “It’s more fun to kiss mothers.”
  • On U.S. Attorney John Volz, who was investigating him for corruption: “When my moods are over, and my time has come to pass, I hope they bury me upside down, so Volz can kiss my ass.”
  • On the most talented politician he’s ever seen: “Every time I shave and I look in the mirror, I see him.”
  • On his future—in 1991: “I don’t have any skeletons in my closet. They’re all out front. My closets have been raided so many times that there’s nothing new, different, bad, or worse that can be said about me.”

If Edwards does run, voters may be faced with a choice between Edwards, the convicted felon with a long, proud history of womanizing, and Tony Perkins, president of the social-conservative Family Research Council. Edwards hasn’t formally filed paperwork yet, though. He told Bloomberg he wants to set up a super-PAC first.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate