One of the Republican contenders for president appeared Wednesday on MSNBC, declaring his support for the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. The catch: The candidate in question is former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, a fringe candidate who to date has not been allowed into any of the debates.
Roemer, who has compared the protests to the Civil Rights marches of the 1960’s, was asked why the protests have resonated with him so much.
“I’m 68,” Roemer began. “I lived through the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South, where I was a proud native son in Louisiana. I went to college, and lived through the Vietnam protests. I know the power of young people, and the lesson that I learned is that when people get involved, you oughtta listen.
“And that’s all I’m asking my Republican colleagues to do: Go to Occupy Wall Street, and listen to them. Some of them are off in left field, some of them are misguided. But all of them are concerned about an America that they worry about their future in. Listen, Republicans.”
“Listen to Occupy Wall Street,” he also added. “You know what they’re saying? No one went to jail on Wall Street, after billions were fleeced; trillions were taken from the taxpayers; documents of mortgages were proven to be illegal; the rating agencies were paid off by the Wall Street banks; they got bailed out; they eliminated Glass-Steagall.
“Other than that, everything is copacetic.”
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Roemer was originally elected to Congress as a conservative Democrat in 1980. He was elected governor in 1987, defeating incumbent fellow Democrat Edwin Edwards under the state’s all-party primary system.
He 1991, he switched parties to the Republicans — which did not go well. In the gubernatorial election that year, Roemer came in third place in the all-party primary, with his former rival Edwards advancing to the runoff that he would win in a landslide against a different Republican candidate: Former Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazi leader David Duke, who had defeated Roemer for the second runoff slot.
Roemer attempted a comeback in 1995, when the scandal-plagued Edwards did not seek another term. (Edwards, who is arguably one of Louisiana’s greatest governors ever, later went to prison in 2002 on corruption charges, and was just released in January 2011.) However, Roemer came in fourth place in the 1995 all-party primary.
