Unless I am very, very wrong (and it does happen, but I doubt this is one of the times), Mary Landrieu\’s already-slim chance to win the December 6 runoff, thus retain the senate seat she has held for three terms, is in the process of vaporizing. And her own political party is doing the vaporizing.
Here is the beginning of a very optimistic – and, in my view, very wrong – article at politico.com:
TheSenate could vote this month on a measure to push through theKeystone XL pipeline – a move that would give Democratic Sen. MaryLandrieu a valuable chit ahead of her Dec. 6 runoff in Louisiana.
Theprospect of Keystone reaching the Senate floor, which became thesubject of speculation since Landrieu and GOP challenger Rep. BillCassidy advanced to the runoff a week ago, has now gone fromlong-shot to possible. Senate Democrats are signaling that there willbe an open amendment process that could allow Keystone approval to beattached to either an Internet sales tax bill next week or thedefense authorization bill after Thanksgiving.
“Itcould happen as soon as tomorrow or it could happen two weeks fromnow, but all signs are pointing to something will happen in the nearterm,” a Democratic Senate aide said.
This assumes that the voters of Louisiana are stupid.
Not stupid like Jonathan Gruber thinks they are, but much stupider than that. It assumes that they will see legislation that Democrats buried for years magically exhumed, and rush-voted on, for some reason other than putting on a dog and pony show for them.
How many Louisiana voters will look at this farce and, instead of saying “wow, isn\’t it great to have Mary Landrieu, without her there wouldn\’t be a keystone pipeline vote”, will say “these phony liars don\’t want it any more now than they did before, and they think this is going to make me think they do…which is to say they think I\’m a brainless, gold-plated sucker”.
Can you spell P-O-L-I-T-I-C-A-L- B-A-C-K-F-I-R-E? I can. And I have a feeling that a rueful Ms. Landrieu will be spelling it out very clearly on December 6th.
