WILL SENATOR MARY LANDRIEU (D-LA) OFFICIALLY JOIN THE GOP-- OR THE CONNECTICUT FOR LIEBERMAN PARTY?

Mary Landrieu up in Connecticut campaigning against the Democratic Party nominee

There is only one vulnerable Democratic senator up for re-election in 2008 who is considered vulnerable, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu. Landrieu's difficulties are three fold: her rubber stamp, Republican-like support for much of Bush's toxic agenda, her inability to fight effectively for Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (partially because of being stabbed in the back by her old ally Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee) and the loss of much of Louisiana's most loyal Democratic constituency, African-Americans who were displaced by the tragedy and abandoned.

Landrieu has the third most reactionary voting record of any Democrat in the Senate, worse than even Lieberman's. The only two Democrats who vote more frequently with the Republicans are Max Baucus and Ben Nelson. As a result, she more and more frequently finds herself in bed with Republican backers.

Yesterday's Times-Picayune says her donor list is getting redder (just as her voting record is).

When she first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996, Mary Landrieu enjoyed the financial backing of abortion rights groups, environmentalists and national liberal-leaning organizations eager to keep a Democratic foothold in what was quickly becoming the Republican South.

As she gears up to run for a third term next year, Landrieu has been financially abandoned by some of those early supporters as she has moved steadily and purposefully to the ideological center [they actually mean the extreme ideological right of the Democratic Party but they are victims of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch] as a means of political survival. She has found, however, that especially in a closely divided Senate, it can be quite profitable occupying the middle of the road.

She collects from all sides-- labor, corporations, trial lawyers and business executives, mostly because the unions and trial lawyers are too political lame to understand she's their enemy. Since the Democratic takeover of the Congress right-wing donors find reactionary Democrats like Landrieu the perfect investment. She has no scruples whatsoever and no loyalty to any Democratic or progressive values, so her ass is always for sale to the highest bidder. Her voting record reflects it.

The profile of Landrieu's donor list has shifted dramatically since her first campaign in 1996. Back then, EMILY's List, the San Francisco-based Democratic fundraising powerhouse that backs abortion-rights female Democrats, was her single biggest donor.

The group's political action committee gave Landrieu $10,000 and, through its national network of donors, steered $102,000 to her narrowly victorious campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Since then, EMILY's List hasn't given Landrieu a dime. In 2002, EMILY's List cut off Landrieu because of her vote to limit a controversial late-term abortion procedure.

Landrieu has likewise seen a slippage of financial support from other liberal-leaning donors such as the National Abortion Rights Action League, the National Organization for Women and the Sierra Club as she has moved rightward and established herself as a business-friendly, moderate senator who is consistently ranked among the most conservative Democrats in the chamber.

The Sierra Group and other environmentalists have been dismayed by her utterly Republican voting record on their issues and they have abandoned her. Her response? "Losing the support of liberals helps Landrieu politically as she woos conservative voters in Louisiana. Her pro-business stands have also paid financial dividends."

Unions are too slow to be effective political players and they still finance her despite her record of consistently voting against their interests. They are still huge donors to her campaign but she gets far more from corporate power players-- and she is far more responsive to their demands. Big Energy, Big Pharma, Big Finance, lobbyists representing communications, anti-health care, oil companies, are who keep her campaign humming and who she pays attention to when it's time to vote.