Edwin Edwards, Buddy Roemer and David Duke are forever linked by history
by Jonathan Tilove - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Each is the other's nemesis. In 1987, Roemer, out of nowhere, beat Edwards. Four years later, Edwards and Duke beat Roemer. And then, in the election that riveted the nation, Edwards beat Duke. As the bumper sticker put it: "Vote for the crook, it's important." "I had to vote for Edwards and I was proud to do it," Roemer said. "I hated to do it, I just didn't have a choice." "I lost that race," said Roemer. "But did I?" It is a variation on Edwards' own prescient musing to John Maginnis that year: "The best thing that could happen to me would be to win the election and die the next day." Instead, having spared Louisiana the ignominy of a Duke triumph, Edwards served his fourth term as governor, and two years after leaving the statehouse he was indicted and ultimately convicted on racketeering, extortion and fraud charges and sentenced to 10 years.