There isn’t anything more pathetic than an ex-con who brags about the resignation of the guy who prosecuted him, is there?

Particularly when that ex-con is a former governor who disgraced himself and the people of Louisiana by going down on corruption charges.

Say hello to Edwin Edwards, attention whore. He thinks he’s somehow vindicated because current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana Jim Letten, who as an assistant U.S. Attorney secured a conviction of Edwards in 2000 for extorting riverboat gambling companies, resigned last week amid revelations that a pair of Letten’s employees had taken to the comment sections of Times-Picayune online articles to post disparaging remarks about targets of their investigations.

“In the end, it turned out as I thought it would,” Former Governor Edwin Edwards said.

Governor Edwards isn’t completely throwing the key prosecutor in the corruption trial under the bus. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten is resigning after an ongoing scandal in his office. This all stems from a slew of negative online postings from two of his top deputies.

“I don’t want to comment too much except my quotation, which is ‘you sit by the river long enough and I did. I outlasted him,” the former governor said.

Letten’s off to a six-figure job at one of New Orleans’ white shoe law firms. He’s not headed to a federal prison like Edwards was when his bill came due.

Not exactly the same thing, right?

Does Edwards think he’s to be congratulated for persisting in respiration long enough to see Letten’s stint as U.S. Attorney end? Letten was the longest-serving U.S. Attorney in America when he resigned; most believe that had Mitt Romney beaten Barack Obama in last month’s presidential election he would still be on the job. He opted for a golden parachute rather than get caught up in the politics of the Obama Justice Department and their preference for someone more akin to the Eric Holder model and be forced out.

Had Letten been indicted or convicted for corruption on the job, maybe Edwards might have a point.

Had Letten been fired rather than quitting after 11 years, maybe Edwards might have a point.

Had Letten dropped dead rather than moving on to a job paying him more money than he’s ever made in his life, maybe Edwards might have a point.

Except none of those things have happened. And Edwards can’t be congratulated for anything other than breathing. He seems to be pretty good at that, but then again it’s like the song says: only the good die young.

Here’s the problem, though. Edwards is in his mid-eighties. Rather than make his peace with people he has no reason to trash-talk, he continues to poke them with a stick.

And that means when he can’t brag about his longevity anymore, there will be lots of other people sitting by the riverside. And we’ll remember that he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

Good chance one of those people will be Jim Letten, though unlike Edwards Letten will have enough class not to make public comments about the corpses of his enemies floating past in the river.