This seems like an excellent time to buy the great A.J. Liebling's book The Earl of Louisiana. Says the press:

In the summer of 1959, A. J. Liebling, veteran writer for the New Yorker, came to Louisiana to cover a series of bizarre events that began when Governor Earl K. Long was committed to a mental institution. Captivated by his subject, Liebling remained to write the fascinating yet tragic story of "Uncle Earl's" final year in politics. First published in 1961, The Earl of Louisiana recreates a stormy era in Louisiana politics and captures the style and personality of one of the most colorful and paradoxical figures in the state’s history. This edition of the book includes a foreword by T. Harry Williams, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Huey Long: A Biography.

Turn to the opening sentences of A. J. Liebling's The Earl of Louisiana and three things happen. You are dazzled by the wit and acuity of Liebling's prose, you want to keep reading for as long as he keeps writing, and you are struck by how deeply the character of American politics has changed in the four-plus decades since The Earl of Louisiana was first published.... [It] is best read today as an evocation of Louisiana before it fell victim to the inevitable forces of homogenization, as a portrait of a distinctive and unexpectedly endearing man who scarcely deserves the ridicule that has become his lot and—this above all—as an opportunity to read a few words from the typewriter of the one and only A. J. Liebling.... One of the best books ever written about American politics.