Huey Long sinner or saint?

[gizmo1979]

In our UAW newsletter they call Huey the democratic party's savior of the 30's.They draw comparisons between late 20's early 30's and today.I don't know much about Huey except the bad things.Was he really the savior?

[Birthmark]

1. Huey? He was this guy, ya know?

[JackDragna]

2. Huey was a charlatan.

Look up information regarding Huey Long's relationship to Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky. Long pocketed millions letting the mob stick slot machines in Louisiana after Frank Valentine, the NYC police commissoner, launched war on the slots in the city. Long was a corrupt disgrace.

[gizmo1979]

8. This was the part

of Huey Long I had heard about.

[John Q. Citizen]

3. Much of his platform was hijacked by Roosevelt and became

the new deal.

He was a populist and was loved or hated depending on who you talked to.

[gizmo1979]

6. It said that

in my newsletter.All I ever knew about him was the bad stuff.

[zulchzulu]

4. Huey was good at first and then became a corrupt control freak

While he served the people of Louiisiana well when he became governor, it was when he decided to take things too far and was eventually assassinated.

He was one hell of an orator though.

[gizmo1979]

7. The old power corrupts

and absoulute power.....

[Pepperbelly]

5. both ...

at one time or the other, IMO.

[bluedonkey]

9. Huey Long

was exactly what we needed at the time.
He was a sinner and a saint, with a vision.

[Rowdyboy]

10. T Harry Williams wrote an exceptional biography in 1970 "Huey Long"

Here's the opening paragraphs...

"At the beginning of the day, the party boss who was to accompany Huey on the campaign trail said to him 'Now Huey, you've got to remember – you come from North Louisiana, and today we're campaigning in South Louisiana, and we've got a lot of Catholic voters down here'.

So Huey then began all his speeches throughout the rest of the day 'Every Sunday morning at 10am, I harness up our old horse to the buggy, and I take my Catholic grandparents round to Mass. And every Sunday morning at 11am, I harness up that old horse to the buggy again, and take my Baptist grandparents round to the chapel'.

After hearing this introduction repeatedly throughout the day, the party boss said to Huey on their way home, 'Why, Huey, you've been a-holding out on us. I didn't know you had any Catholic grandparents'. To which Huey replied 'Don't be a darn fool, we didn't even have a horse'."

for the rest of the first chapter, scroll down the page to "Inside this book" and click "read the first page"


http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0394747909/ref=sib_fs_bod/102-0032549-1449732?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00K&checkSum=kfXXLI0XGPCiqTrTeTvEe%2FOhTcf7v8MxQQqJIT7Kh1U%3D#reader-link

If you have any real interest, I highly recommend it!

[gizmo1979]

12. That was great!

[HawkerHurricane]

11. Yes.

Like most humans, he had things he did that were good and things he did that were bad.

There are no perfect humans. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

[IronLionZion]

13. The Kingfish did some good things for the state of Louisiana

But ol Huey sure wasn't a saint. He was a racist corrupt bastard. His corruption only grew as his power grew. He still controlled the state of Louisiana with dictatorial power after being elected to the US Senate. He made sure all of his people were appointed to offices. Huey Long's Louisiana was the closest thing to a banana republic we have seen in this country. He deserved what he got.

But he did invest a lot into public works and social programs for the poor with the most draconian taxation I've ever heard of. And plunged Louisiana into tremendous debt. Rich people HATED that guy with a capital H.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long

[gizmo1979]

14. Well if he pissed off the

rich then he had one thing going for him.

[IronLionZion]

15. A movie remake of that guy is coming out soon

"All the Kings Men" is obviously about Huey Long.