While The Gettin's Good

Louisiana's sly, four-term Governor says he won't run again. And for now he won't say why.

Chicago politics may look just as slippery. Virginia politics is certainly more fractious. But for sheer, lip-smacking fun, there's still nothing that can beat Louisiana's. For nearly a quarter-century, Edwin W. Edwards has been much of the reason why. In four terms as Governor, Edwards, who was tried twice for fraud and racketeering but never convicted, who ran up huge gambling debts while Governor and who squired so many young women while still in his first marriage that he was dubbed "the Silver Zipper," has made Baton Rouge the undisputed capital of rascally political folklore.

That the fast-talking Governor did it...

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