Four term former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, hereinafter EWE, is back in the news. Le Guv (one of his many media nicknames) has been publicly flirting with running for the seat in Congress about to be vacated by Bill Cassidy the empty suit who is challenging Mary Landrieu for the Senate. I have not taken the whole thing very seriously because EWE is basking in public affection right now, but that would change in heartbeat if he were to run for office again.

I’m not quite sure what happened but Bloomberg News bit on Fast Eddie’s bait, mostly because it gave them the chance to use this headline:Ex-Con Ex-Governor Running for Congress.

The story was later denied by EWE and his awful, reality teevee star wannabe third wife Trina to Gret Stet Media outlets including the Advocate:

Reached Wednesday afternoon, a slightly irritated-sounding Edwards said he would not launch a congressional campaign by calling up a wire service reporter. The 86-year-old lives large. His life is filled with splashy moments. Edwards said any announcement will come before a media-packed audience.

Fast Eddie is a pro. There is no way he would declare by leak. EWE is all about the show, y’all, and notoriously disinterested in the national media. He sounds offended that anyone would think he’d announce a candidacy in this fashion. He should be.

Will he run? I doubt it. I suspect the whole episode is a gynormous publicity stunt concocted by Trina Edwards to relaunch their dreadful reality show, The Governor’s Wife. It was deservedly cancelled by A&E for low ratings and overall dullness. I never thought EWE could be dull but in that show he was. His daughters Anna and Victoria were actually very entertaining but Trina is from hunger. She’s also a Republican and EWE is the epitome of an old school populist Democrat.

The whole thing was undignified but EWE never was very dignified. He was a helluva candidate in his day but even if he *is* eligible to run for federal office, he should skip it after messing with people’s minds for the last 6 weeks. He’s only lost 1 election in his life and I don’t see him running, but I’d like to thank him for spicing things up in the last throes of the dull Jindal era of Gret Stet politics. The whole episode is all tease and no strip.

Here’s the 1983 George Rodrigue work that my Krewe du Vieux krewe was parodying in the poster at the top of this post: