NEWTON'S LAW: BACK TO THE WALL OF RIDICULE, LOUISIANA MIGHT TRY AUDACITY

Here is a jarring news report from Germany.

BERLIN (AP) The chief federal prosecutor is investigating Ku Klux Klan activity and a reported recruiting drive, seeking possible links to terrorism, an official said.

So much for the balance of trade. The wealthy of America put Mercedes-Benz automobiles in their garages, and Germans are now having to import white supremacy.

David Duke, you need a better agent.

Tell me this about American politics: If Gary Hart can be shamed out of a presidential race for going on a sea cruise with an attractive blonde, an activity most males would indulge if not outright endorse, how is it that a man with KKK leadership on his resume can be elected as one of America's 50 governors?

But that is what could happen this month. David "Man from the Klan with a Plan" Duke has a real shot on Nov. 16 of becoming the chief executive of Louisiana.

If it happens, you might as well change the name of the office from governor to the Imperial Wizard of Odds.

Gubernatorial campaigns conjure similar adjectives as commercials for Victor Borge videotapes: specifically, tedious and never-ending.

Yet here is the nation giving its attention to the Battle for Baton Rouge. Eliminated in the Oct. 19 primary was incumbent Gov. Buddy Roemer. One of the few people on the Harvard alumni register with his down-home given name, Roemer's aloof style and heavy medicine for the state's ills soured voters.

This cleared the political path for Duke, he of the "Adolph Hitler was misunderstood" philosophy, and Edwin Edwards, whose three former stints as Louisiana governor had more in common with the words "skirt chasing" and "racketeering" than they did with the words "state progress."

Louisiana has a history for bizarre politics, and corruption and philandering are not novel mannerisms at its capital. The state even seems to embrace its iconoclastic image.

This year's race, however, has gotten even too strange for people who have seen the Long boys come and go. Grand jury subpoenas delivered to the governor's front door have not been unusual in Louisiana, but looming in this election is some real weirdness.

New Orleans may be the city care forgot, but its civic leaders care dearly about their principal enterprise: tourism. Even before a single vote is cast, associations are balking at their commitments to hold conventions in New Orleans.

Businesses committed to minority advancement might hesitate to relocate their companies in a state with a chief executive whose energy policy once consisted of cross burning.

Image is everything. If Phoenix lost the Super Bowl for voting down a Martin Luther King state holiday, what fate can befall Louisiana for having a former imperial wizard in the governor's mansion?

Still, you have to question the value of the denunciations of national Republicans and others from outside the state who have stepped forward to tell the people of Louisiana what buffoons they are for getting into such a situation.

Voters of any state and particularly that state have little use for outsiders imposing their will on a provincial issue. Backed against the wall by national ridicule, people of Louisiana might decide that what is needed is an act of true audacity, something citizens there seem capable of delivering on.

Self-warned of such a backlash, I would still endorse Edwards. Even low standards must have a bottom; Duke is below the floor. Besides, if he loses, he can go global; Germany is a place to start.

And the question that must be asked by Louisiana voters resigned to this grim choice is sad but realistic: In four years, just how much can the Edwards steal?