Justice Victory hangs up judicial robe
Lindy Boggs, who passed away recently at the age of 97, was a lot like the legendary Will Rogers – She never met a person she didn’t like. And those she met reciprocated. One was hard-pressed to nd anyone who didn’t like Lindy, regardless of race, creed, color and political party.
When I arrived on the scene in Washington in 1966 to work for U.S. Rep. F. Edward Hebert, D-New Orleans, Lindy’s husband, Hale, was majority whip for the Democratic Party. In 1971, he became majority leader. Hale and Lindy were a very prominent part of the political scene. And they were always respectful of staff, and we eventually became friends. Not all members of Congress, unfortunately, treated staff in a like manner.
Tragedy struck on Oct. 16, 1972. While campaigning for U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, an Alaska Democrat who was in a tough ght for re-election, the twin-engine Cessna 310 carrying them on a ight from Anchorage to Juneau disappeared. That’s where my story begins. Needless to say, that shocking event was big national news and became the subject of much speculation, suspicion, and numerous conspiracy theories, not only with the Capitol Hill community but with some scholars.
Hale had been a member of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But Hale dissented from the Warren Commission’s majority determination that Lee Oswald acted alone. Some promoted the theory that Boggs was killed to keep him from further investigating Kennedy’s death.
Lindy, of course, was devastated, and she turned to her good friend Hebert, who, at the time, was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, for help. I sat in on the emotional meeting Hebert had with Lindy, who was desperately grasping for any sign of hope that Hale was still alive. Back then, the telephone had those push buttons on them, and one of them on Hebert’s phone was red. When he pushed the red button, the person who answered on the other end was the secretary of defense.
So Hebert pushed the red button and was immediately on the phone with Secretary of Defense Mel Laird, who was a good friend, asking him for help for Lindy. That call initiated a full-scale search for the missing plane by the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard. Hebert told me later that there was a plane that could detect metal on the ground the size of a quarter, and Laird promised to send that plane to Alaska to search for parts of the wreckage. Nothing was ever found, and Boggs was eventually declared dead. The whole episode remains a mystery to this day.
Lindy ran for her husband’s 2nd District seat in 1973 and won, becoming the rst female to be elected to Congress from Louisiana. She would be re-elected eight times and retired in 1991. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed her U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, a post she held until 2001.
Lindy was always a lady and a part of a bygone era in Congress when members were not so partisan and didn’t take everything so personally. Hale and Lindy had three children – Cokie Roberts, a nationally known journalist; Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., a prominent Washington, D.C. lobbyist, and Barbara Boggs Sigmund, who served as mayor of Princeton, N.J.
Hale was inducted into the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame in 1993; Lindy joined him the following year. She had to live with the fact that no evidence was ever found about what happened to her husband. But she persevered and provided exemplary service to her constituents and the entire state of Louisiana. God bless and keep them both.
Justice Victory Retires
Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jeff Victory has decided to hang up his judicial robe. He has represented District 2 on the state’s high court, which includes most of northwest Louisiana, for the past 20 years. He was rst elected a judge in 1981 to the Caddo District Court, serving there until 1990 when he was elected to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal. In 1994, he won a close race for the state Supreme Court. His judicial career spans 33 years. If anyone has ever earned his retirement, Victory certainly has and deserves our gratitude for his service.
Victory, if he had decided to seek another 10-year term on the Louisiana Supreme Court, was facing opposition from District Court Judge Scott Crichton, who earlier announced he was running and has been actively campaigning and raising money. Crichton’s challenge had local politicos wondering whether Victory would want to go through a grueling campaign at this stage of his judicial career. The election takes place in 2014.
So, for now, Crichton is the only candidate in the race for the vacant seat. But a seat on the high court is a judicial plum, so it is unlikely Crichton will go unopposed. In fact, the political rumor mill is already reporting that 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Jay Caraway of Bossier City is giving the race some consideration. So is Judge Stephen Beasley of the 11th Judicial District in Sabine Parish. He ran against Victory in 2004 and received 39 percent of the vote.
Lou Gehrig Burnett, an award-winning journalist, has been involved with politics for 44 years and was a congressional aide in Washington, D.C., for 27 years. He also served as executive assistant to former Shreveport Mayor Bo Williams. Burnett is the publisher of the weekly “FaxNet Update” and can be reached at 861-0552 or [email protected].
