Rating: 
Summary: Let the Slime Times Roll
Review: You go to Louisiana for the food, Mardi Gras, or jazz; you do not look to Louisiana for political ethics. Edwin Edwards, a man of intelligence and wit, was elected four times as governor. He could have been the state's best governor (although that might be damning with faint praise), but he turned out to be at least among its worst. His tragedy was inextricably linked with personal and corporate gambling, and it is told with all the fascination of a mystery novel in _Bad Bet on the Bayou: The Rise of Gambling in Louisiana and the Fall of Governor Edwin Edwards_ (Farrar Straus and Giroux) by Tyler Bridges. It is a memorable account of the worst in politics.Louisiana had had sometimes scandalous connections to gambling long before it became a state, but overt gambling had been suppressed, especially in the seventies with the oil boom. When the boom went bust in the nineties, there was a scramble to boost state coffers, and especially those of New Orleans, and Edwards was determined that gambling would boost construction, increase employment, and bring money in from out of state. It looked unseemly for someone with an obvious love of gambling to get on the casino bandwagon, but Edwards was never regarded as a beacon of moral purity. When he ran against Klansman David Duke in 1991, bumper stickers read, "Vote for the Crook. It's Important," and Louisianans did so overwhelmingly. The first two-thirds of _Bad Bet_ tells in amazing detail the ins and outs of the corrupt means by which gambling was brought to the rivers of Louisiana and specifically to the French Quarter. But it is in the spellbinding final third that the book takes off, showing how the FBI brought Edwards down. The Harrah's casino went bust in 1995, when Edwards went into official retirement, but he kept busy with his usual money ploys and influence. The FBI started investigating the bribes that had been paid to get a juvenile prison built, and found that Edwards had gotten the money. Rather exciting descriptions ensue of FBI informants wearing wires to talk with Edwards, and of the difficulties of installing microphones and cameras in the former governor's office. Edwards was approaching seventy, he had a wife almost four decades younger, and he was for the first time in his life starting to take it easy. Unfortunately for him, he also let his guard down, allowing an informant to get him talking. The years of payoffs when he was promoting gambling were to come back on him, resulting in convictions on extortion and money-laundering, among other crimes, and probably federal prison for what remains of his life. The tragedy of Edwards is shown by his enormous political skill run amok. The book gives examples of deal making that he arranged that would have been excellent politics, if the deals had not been crooked. He had an ability to read people and meet their needs that could have well served his constituents. He knew how to make fun of himself, and the many funny jokes reported here were just the thing to delight reporters and voters. His talents instead went to enriching himself and his cronies, gambling, and stringing along a line of mistresses. What a waste.
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