We have a treat for you today -- some politics and history courtesy of NPR’s Morning Edition commentator (and Louisiana native daughter Cokie Roberts.
“You’re lucky in one way that Louisiana is such a ‘red’ state, because you’re not getting the onslaught of ads by the presidential candidates,” Roberts told the 600+ people in attendance at the WRKF Founders’ Luncheon Tuesday.
“Of course, you have a Senate race, and what fun that is!” she said with a grin. “For a while it was boring. I mean, all we had was David Duke. But now it’s great! I mean, there are prostitutes, there’s murder. It’s good!” she said, getting a big laugh from the crowd.
“And there’s a candidate that says, ‘Oh, all that talk about prostitutes and murder – about my opponent – that’s not true,’ he says, as he repeats it over and over again.”
The daughter of former U.S. Senators Hale and Lindy Boggs said the latest back-and-forth between Senate candidates John Kennedy and Charles Boustany reminds her of when her father ran for governor in the 1950s.
“Earl Long couldn’t succeed himself, and so he had a candidate in the race, and they combined to accuse Daddy of being a communist,” Roberts explained. “This was in the middle of the McCarthy period, of course, and you couldn’t run as a communist in Louisiana, you’ll be happy to know.”
When the chuckles died down, she continued.
“Throughout the campaign, Earl Long traveled, mainly in northern Louisiana, and he said, ‘You know what they’re saying down there in south Louisiana? They’re saying Hale Boggs is a communist. You know that Hale Boggs is no communist, because he’s a good Catholic boy!’’, she said, deepening her voice and imitating Long.
She said there’s a lesson to be learned, beyond the fact that history -- and campaign tactics – repeats itself.
“It’s a good story because it does remind us that when we look back with these kind of rose-colored glasses and say, ‘Why have things gotten so terrible of late?’ They weren’t beautiful then.”