Republicans Have Nothing To Worry About In Louisiana Senate Race

Landrieu went to the mat for Holy Joe; he screwed her on Katrina reconstruction

Oh, it's not likely that conservative Democrat-turned Republican John Kennedy will be voting to make Mitch McConnell majority leader in January (if McConnell even survives his challenge from even more conservative quasi-Democrat Bruce Lunsford in Kentucky) but when I say "Republicans," I'm not talking about the party structure but whatever values and principles are left at the heart of it: basically an agenda of creating a national security state and of serving corporate and Big Business interests over those of consumers and working families. And by that definition, Republicans will do just fine in Louisiana (not to mention Kentucky-- which I'll try not to again today). The "news" is that Mary Landrieu, the conservative, Republican-voting, Democratic senator-- once considered the only vulnerable Democratic incumbent-- has significantly increased her lead over Rove's freshly baptized Kennedy. A new Rasmussen poll shows her ahead 53-37%, whereas last month she was only ahead 49-44%.

Landrieu's attack ads have been effective, even painting Kennedy as someone who supported... John Kerry. It's driven down his support among Republicans.

Only Tim Johnson (D-SD), Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) have voted more frequently with the GOP for the Bush agenda since 2006. Earlier today we were looking at what a tool McCain has been for Bush's drive to stuff the federal judiciary with extremist ideological hacks. Quite frequently Landrieu was undermining Democratic efforts to stop the onslaught. She voted again and again with the GOP to shut down debate on nominees. The very first vote the Senate took in 2006 would determine whether or not Bush would get to put corporate hack Sam Alito on the Supreme Court-- and Landrieu, along with others from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, were ready to make sure that would happen. On May 25, 2005 she voted against Bush's horrific nominee, Pricilla Owen-- but not before (in fact, the day before) she voted to cut off debate, guaranteeing that Owen would win confirmation. And speaking of late May, Landrieu also joined her GOP buddies to make sure dangerous Neocon warmonger John Bolton would be confirmed as UN Ambassador, the day after Pricilla Owen got her lifetime appointment on the court. The following month it was the same pattern: Landrieu voted for cloture on the Janice Brown nomination (June 7) and then, pointlessly, against confirmation on June 8; for cloture for William Pryor on June 8 and, again pointlessly, against confirmation on June 9.

Overall, Landrieu's voting record is hard to recognize as a Democrat's and when it comes to coddling Big Business and corporate interests, it's a Republican voting record-- as it is on the environment. She habitually votes with the Republicans to allow corporations to pollute the air and the water and, while not as extreme as James Inhofe (R-OK), her record shows she doesn't support steps to combat climate change.

As for the charges that Landrieu is a corporate hack, she is clearly in the pocket of Big Oil and Big Pharma. Not counting presidential candidates, Landrieu is the Democrat Big Oil gives the most money to ($189,350 this year and $616,744 since she took office). Big Pharma has "donated" $157,953,159 to federal candidates since 1990, 65% of it to Republicans-- but Mary Landrieu is right up there among their favorites along with corrupt senators who routinely sell out the interests of their constituents for the bottom line of the industry-- Max Baucus (D-MT), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Gordon Smith (R-OR), John Cornyn (R-TX), Pat Roberts (R-KS) and John Sununu (R-NH). Great company for our Mary, huh? They schmeared her a nice $84,150 so far this year and $201,096 since she took office. This cycle she's raised over $9,000,000 so far-- with lobbyists giving $295,490 and Big Oil & Gas $251,700.

And for those wondering how she's been on the war in Iraq... well, it's all a matter of perspective. If you're name is Dick Cheney, she's your gal. On October 10 and 11 she voted with Bush and Cheney and the Republicans all 6 times to authorize the use of force (and against all the amendments offered by Democrats to moderate Bush's rush to war). Those votes alone should make any self-respecting Democrat refuse to support her. She's moderated her attitude since then, but when it comes to actually ending the war, she's still there for Bush and Cheney. Just short of a year ago, for example, she opposed Russ Feingold's amendment to redeploy American troops from Iraq, the very same day she happily voted for John Cornyn's idiotic anti-MoveOn amendment. I bet you can already guess how she voted on the FISA bill: she voted with the Republicans to grant retroactive immunity to their criminal campaign donors and then again with the Republicans to give the president the right to wiretap Americans without a warrant. The telecoms have given her $15,750 so far this year and $114,508 in total.