re: Huey Long's influence on LSU football

I'll take a dozen Huey Long's over one Clinton.

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He offered state jobs to players and their families? Nice to know LSU was cheating that far back

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Huey didn't "cheat." He was, however, very famous for stretching the limits of the law. If something wasn't specifically expressed as "illegal," then he did it. In this case, conference rules forbid paying players directly, so he didn't do that--but he did the next best thing: offering jobs, etc. His entire legacy was like that. He wasn't truly "corrupt" like everyone is saying in this thread, but he definitely looked at every possible loophole to exploit and found his way around the few ethics laws existing at the time to achieve ends whenever he felt necessary. The story that someone mentioned earlier about taking money earmarked for building dormitories and channeling it to expand a football stadium at the same time was a pretty good example of this--not illegal but definitely thinking outside of the traditional box.

The king fish made the oil companies antiup for public schools here in LA,we had free pencil and papers and didn't have to pay for books ! The Republicans are still mad at the thought that huge corporations should pay taxes !

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He did a lot for LSU, but outside of that he was a terrible governor. He was just another radical socialist that gave people false hope with his "Every man a king and a chicken in every pot" slogan just to get votes.

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Yep, it's blasphemy among many Louisiana folks, but his views on the government's role are quite similar to our current president's. Sure, he had a cool nickname, spoke with a southern drawl, and was from the country, but a socialist is a socialist.

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Exactly, politicians had been stealing for years, but only shared amongst themselves. Huey opened the trough up to erybody.

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which is probably why he was killed.

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but a socialist is a socialist.

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Meh, he was more of a straight up fascist. It was kind of de rigueur at the time.

He didn't want the state to own the corporations, but he wanted to control them. He forced the railroads into building those bridges. It didn't seem to hurt the railroads any, and it sure helped the People.

back then there was a lot more tolerance for experimenting with our system of government. Now we're locked behind ideological walls.

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which is probably why he was killed.

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The theory is that he was mistakenly shot by his own over-eager body guard.

There are still bullet holes in the marble walls of the Capitol (that he had built) where he was shot.

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He restructured the excise tax to allow Louisiana to collect much more revenue on its oil than it would have otherwise. He used the extra money to build a huge amount of infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.), set up one of the best charity hospital systems in the nation (at the time). He found a way to supply school books to kids who went to Catholic schools without running afoul of the establishment clause separating church and state. In short, he took one of the most undeveloped, back-woods states in the country and transformed it with hospitals, roads, bridges, schools and other infrastructure all during a depression and without putting undue tax pressure on the citizens of the state (milking out of state oil companies instead). How in the hell was he a "terrible" governor? He was, without any possible shadow of a doubt, the greatest governor Louisiana has ever had. The only legitimate complaint about Huey was that he was corrupt. Yes, he probably stole money, and he definitely peddled his influence. Morally, it's certainly possible to fault him for that. But he did more and better things for the state than anyone else ever has or likely ever will. He might have been a crooked governor, but nobody with any sense at all would ever call him a terrible one.

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Incredibly false re-writing of history. During his tenure as government, he did increase state revenues through a change on the tax structure, that he was able to pass by continuing to make Standard Oil a villain in the State (even though they were the states biggest employer).

However, much of that increased revenue was stuck in the pockets of political cronies and their families. Long took quite a bit himself. Not much of it made its' way to the people who actually needed in. Except for some parts of Southern Louisiana and Northwest Louisiana (particularly Caddo, Desoto and Bossier Parish's) and Long's home of Winn Parish, the rest of the state suffered in misery, poverty and unemployment.

Also, any political opposition was snuffed out in a cruel and brutal way. Both sides of my family are from northern Louisiana. One of them had a last name of Morgan. If you know anything about the failed attempt to impeach, you probably know the name. My great grandfather lost re-election because his opponent had massive amounts of money to spend, most of it from Long and his subjects. He also had a road built right through the middle of his 120 acres of land, which he was forced to give up for pennies on the dollar. It just so happened that the road had to be built through the area were one of his barns and houses sat. Fortunately not the main house.

Long was an evil evil man whose lasting legacy is a corruption based government that the state still has a probably moving past, even almost 100 years later.

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Reading this makes me laugh a little. When I was doing steel inspections on the Huey P Long bridge in Jefferson Parish, during the widening, I must have written "Roll Tide Roll" hundreds of times using a paint marker. I even began marking approved connections using RTR instead of my initials.

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I cross the Huey P Long bridge a few times a month. I will have to look for your writing!

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The South, during the Great Depression when no one had a pot to piss in - it was a good thing when Huey provided a jobs for hundreds of men to build those roads, bridges, and buildings.

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He was grateful to have a job during those days and Huey Long was the one creating those jobs.

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That's a fine philosophy to have and I don't begrudge anyone believing in that form of economics. I just find it hypocritical when they support one politician doing it and then think a similar philosophy of governmental controlled economics is bad when a modern day democratic is doing it.

As long as you're philosophically consistent with who you like I've no bone to pick with you. I just know a lot of Huey Long lovers who attack Obama's economic policy as too liberal. That is absurd IMO.