Edwin Edwards, the crooked ex-governor, convicted felon and failed reality TV star, announced that he’ll be running for Bill Cassidy’s 6th District congressional seat earlier today.

(The video of the announcement)

He also suggested the reason why he’s running for Congress…

“I haven’t had this much attention since the trial.”

He didn’t offer a whole lot else to justify his candidacy…

“I acknowledge there are good reasons I should not run. But there are better reasons why I should,” Edwards said.

The 86-year-old Silver Fox, known for his memorable, often shocking quotes and the nearly nine years spent behind bars on extortion, fraud and racketeering charges, made the announcement at a meeting of the Press Club of Baton Rouge on Monday (March 17).

Edwards said the decision was not an easy one, but he ended up where he was “because I feel, I feel, that I can accomplish something if not immediately then in the long-run to help make my country a better country and properly address the needs of the 6th District.”

The Louisiana Republican Party’s executive director Jason Dore’ took a shot at Edwards…

After failing to recruit credible candidates for multiple election cycles, the Louisiana Democrat Party finally landed a notable candidate for public office. Unfortunately, Edwin Edwards is known for all the wrong reasons. His antics may be fit for a reality show, but not public office.

The Edwards Administration brought Louisiana higher taxes, increased gambling and a culture of corruption that has harmed our image and business climate for decades. The days of Huey Long and Edwards style politics are behind us. Gov. Edwards is the poster child for the ‘good ‘ole boy’ way of doing things.

Given the current state of the Louisiana Democrat Party, we shouldn’t be surprised by the Edwards candidacy. Edwin Edwards is the personification of the Louisiana Democrat Party.

As a state, we’ve moved beyond those days and we should not look back now. We’ll work tirelessly in the months to come to make sure that a conservative Republican is elected to serve the people of the Sixth Congressional District.

Among the other candidates in the race, Craig McCulloch might have been first out of the gate…

The Edwards Administration is a stain on our state’s history. We can’t get caught up in the hype and forget his political legacy. This is the same man who extorted money from companies wanting to do business in Louisiana so that he and his friends could pad their pockets and the same man who stiff-armed the legislature into passing $730 million in new personal taxes, $61 million in higher corporate income taxes and $190 million in additional gasoline taxes. He’s a career politician and a convicted felon.

Our district needs an honest, conservative business owner, who shares our values, who can go to Washington and be a part of the solution. That’s what separates me from Edwin Edwards. I will go to Washington and work tirelessly for you to balance our budget, create jobs and fix our broken healthcare system.

For our part, we offer this.

UPDATE: WAFB news anchor posted a link to Edwards’ announcement on Facebook, and the comment thread under the link was rather instructive as to the standards we can expect from Channel 9 in covering the race…

 

Jesus would vote for Edwin Edwards for Congress. There’s your six o’ clock news, Baton Rouge.

UPDATE #2: And then, this…

UPDATE #3: And more…

Unlike last time, don’t vote for the crook. It’s important.

— Dan Claitor (@DanClaitor) March 17, 2014

 

Plus, prospective candidate Shelley Hendrix:

“I think it’s great that he’s getting in…good for him.”

Garrett Graves gave a “classy” response…

“He certainly has a very distinguished career…There’s some accomplishments out there that I think he should be proud of.”

“Is there going to be an effort to make this a sideshow? Absolutely. Is there going to be an effort to embarrass Louisiana nationally? Absolutely. I’m going to be pulling back hard to keep us focused on the issues. You know, Washington has totally failed us, as far as I’m concerned. You have a whole room full of unconvicted felons up there, in terms of their inability to get anything done, inability to do their job. And rather than this becoming a circus or a sideshow, I’m going to stay focused on the issues, like ensuring that we have reasonable health care options without mandates, things like producing more domestic energy from Louisiana instead of importing a huge percentage of the oil and running up our trade deficit, things like transportation.”

“DC is a disaster and Congress and the White House are failing us and I know I can be part of the solution.”

But nobody was more “positive” than Paul Dietzel…

“I have a vision for the future not an interest in the politics of the past. I remain focused on a new generation of leadership for Louisiana and our country.”

UPDATE #4: We created a hashtag, #schmuckshaming, in order to catalogue some of the more idiotic expressions of support for Edwards’ candidacy. So far, this one beats the band…

We were in high school during Edwards’ third term as governor, and we can testify to the fact that there was no Golden Age going on in Louisiana at that point. To the contrary – the state was in complete free fall at that point. Edwards tried to run for re-election in 1987 and got all of 28 percent of the vote. He came in second to Buddy Roemer in the primary and withdrew from the race rather than be annihilated.

And in 1995, at the end of his fourth term in office, Edwards was in such poor odor with the voters that he chose to retire rather than face them again.

Those are objective facts which fly in the face of this cretinous narrative that somehow Edwards was a “good,” or “successful,” governor. He was not. He came along in the 1970’s amid an unprecedented oil boom and promptly squandered the benefits of that boom. When the boom went bust, it exposed precisely how disastrous a governor he was.

Stupid people in Louisiana don’t understand this, and choose to ignore it. So we’re going to undertake to educating them. If you’d like to help, take screenshots of some of the dumbest pro-Edwards social media posts and share them on Facebook or Twitter under the #schmuckshaming hashtag.

UPDATE #5: Bob Mann’s reaction is too delicious not to share…

He’s right. He’s the odds-on favorite for the runoff, a fact that clearly delights some of the Republicans who showed up for Monday’s announcement.

Edwards, however, must also know that whoever makes the runoff with him will win the congressional seat in a landslide.

My dog has a better chance of winning a seat in this very Republican district.

But, no matter, Monday’s show wasn’t about winning a congressional seat. It was, rather, about a corrupt and washed-up former governor who cannot bear the thought of two minutes out of the limelight. If you don’t believe me, just watch ten minutes, if you can bear it, of “The Governor’s Wife,” the now-cancelled reality cable show that starred Edwards and his family.

Bear in mind that Mann’s allegiances at this point lie with Mary Landrieu, as he used to work for her but never for Edwards, and the Landrieus and the Edwardses are not the best of friends.

But it’s more than that. Mann is at least intelligent enough to recognize the damage a Crook-For-Congress campaign is going to do to what’s left of the Louisiana Democrat Party, and he recognizes that while Edwards might help to turn out some vote for Landrieu among the black community (except there’s a rub; the black population of the 6th District is only 22 percent, so there’s only so much good he could actually do for her), having his name on the ballot with a “D” next to it is going to be one more item weighing her down. Guilt by association with Edwards and his glib statements about how old-time political corruption wasn’t so bad and how he was really innocent of shaking people down, dontchaknow, is the last thing she needs.

Mann’s a lot less concerned about Edwards’ faults than he is about what he’s going to do to the state Democrat Party. And when he runs and loses this fall it’s only going to give him a larger stage to weigh in on public policy all year in 2015, which will rob oxygen from Democrats who otherwise might actually get elected.

UPDATE #6: Comedian Stephen Kruiser, at PJ Media, under a headline “Prison Is Just A Resume’ Builder For Democrats“…

Well, shame might give someone pause about jumping back into that kind of media spotlight. But we’re talking about a Democrat here. This is kind of their thing, especially in Illinois.

Look for a Ray Nagin presidential run in 15-20 years, depending on the parole board.

Meanwhile, we have a few other things. First, the grumpy cats don’t think much of today’s announcement…

And then there was Edwards’ reference to Julius Caesar in his announcement speech. He actually compared himself to Caesar, which was a bit of narcissism he’s unlikely to live down before the end of the race. But that’s his problem – for the rest of us, it’s the source of fun…