VOTE WATCH: Keystone XL up for Senate approval on Tuesday
…but will it be enough to save Landrieu’s Senate career?
Embattled Senator Mary Landrieu is in trouble, and Tuesday’s vote on the Keystone XL pipeline approval might be her last chance to convince Louisiana voters that her representation in Washington is worth their vote.
Challenger Bill Cassidy is up 16 points and by all accounts headed for a landslide win over the incumbent Democrat, who has come under fire from all sides but her own for not representing the interests of her home state. Landrieu’s last-ditch effort to push for a vote on the pipeline looks more and more desperate, (at last count she had only 59 votes backing the project,) seeing as how the President would have to throw himself under the bus in order to stand behind Landrieu and green light the project.
Via Fox News:
Most political analysts think Landrieu’s effort to win a fourth term by trying to show voters in oil-rich Louisiana how much she supports Keystone is a lost cause, with reports of Washington Democrats pulling out and polls showing Cassidy ahead by double digits.
South Dakota GOP Sen. John Thune said on “Fox News Sunday” the vote will be a “cynical attempt to save a Senate seat in Louisiana,” considering Reid has blocked the vote for years.
President Obama appears to be giving every indication that he will veto the bill, repeatedly saying the only way the $8 billion pipeline can be approved is after the completion of a long-stalled State Department review. There is also the pending outcome of a legal challenge to the pipeline’s route through Nebraska.
And during his recent trip to Australia for an economic summit Obama said: “I have to constantly push back against this idea that somehow the Keystone pipeline is either this massive jobs bill for the United States or is somehow lowering gas prices.”
The media may be willing to run preliminary defense against a presidential veto, but members of her own party haven’t been willing to stand by and let the token vote gain meaning:
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told “Fox News Sunday” that he hopes Obama will veto the bill, considering the oil is “the filthiest fuel on the planet.”
Whitehouse said he thinks the new Senate Republican majority “has long despised and denigrated this president and if they can roll him I think they would like to.”
The only person who has anything to lose here is Landrieu, and it’s not looking like any of her colleagues seem particularly motivated to step up and let her “take the lead” on what would otherwise be a piece of legacy legislation.
Reid is allowing the vote, but there’s no way he’d be doing that unless he were confident in an eventual veto. Obama is a lame duck who just lost his Senate majority, so I doubt he cares either way; saving Landrieu won’t save his majority, so while he won’t work with Reid to stop the vote, he’s definitely not going to applaud politely while Landrieu attempts to bail herself out of a hopeless runoff situation.
On the other hand, this is win/win for Republicans, who now have a chance to rubber stamp an energy program and then watch Obama massacre his own caucus with his infamous pen.
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Comments
This is wonderful. It gives the GOP a definite “jobs creation” step that costs NO tax-payer funds, which Barracula is inclined to crush to play to his druid Collectivist religion.
Fine. Plus, it shows how UNscientific is the Collective. Again. Some more.
Love it…!!!
The WH talking Points have gone out.
40,000 construction jobs are insignificant and there will only be 50 permanent jobs when completed.
.
Even if true, that’s still 50 more permanent jobs than the trillion dollar $timulu$ provided and at no cost to the taxpayer.
LoL. Druid – what a word you found! And the mental image it evokes is so accurate it’s hard to believe this is the first time it’s been used this way.
You da man, Rags.
Thank you. Very kind.
(blushes…which on Rags is a big deal, given all the exposed skin on his head)
“…but will it be enough to save Landrieu’s Senate career?”
It better not be, even the coonasses are not THAT stupid….are they?
Dead ones are.
Perhaps this will be her finest hour, and then she can go home. Permanently.
“…but will it be enough to save Landrieu’s Senate career?”
No.
In fact, if it passes, it likely becomes even MORE damaging to her career, as then Cassidy can come back with “well, why didn’t you push your Democrat Cohorts for this with so much vigor MONTHS ago?” Followed up with “This is a cynical, last dying gasp attempt to fool you voters. Don’t let Landrieu get away with it. She is AGAINST energy development, jobs and she is for higher taxes and more expensive gasoline.”
The final campaign ad almost writes itself.
The tow major roadblocks to her reelection are:
She will be in less of a position to bring pork back to her state as a minority member of the senate and
The top two Republicans received almost 54% of the vote compared to her 42%
Don’t you just love it when they start to eat their own?
I’m a huge fan of progressive self-immolation. -a
So what do LI readers think of Rush Limbaugh calling her Mary “baby fat” Landrieu? I’m fine with it and consider it a perfect application of Saul Alinsky’s Rule #5 (“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”)
Some of my conservative friends say that shows a lack of class and “makes us no better than the liberals”.
I think it’s counterproductive, but there’s no point in calling him out for it.
“So what do LI readers think of Rush Limbaugh calling her Mary “baby fat” Landrieu?”
Very accurate and descriptive terminology. She is acting like a baby and she is fat. What’s not to like?
“…my conservative friends…”
You don’t have any conservative friends. You just make shit up.
I’m his friend and I’m conservative!
As for Rush, this is right up his alley. He’s always saying stuff with the sole intent of winding up liberals, especially feminists, for whom he seems to hold a special detestation. So, it doesn’t bother me a bit. I wouldn’t make it a widespread tactic among the GOP, though. It is highly productive for Rush, but for a political party, Ms. Miller is correct, it’s counterproductive.
This is one time Rush takes second place. First place goes to Mark Levin who calls her Mary Landfill. I cannot type that without smiling.
This is a test of Louisiana voters sophistication.
The Democrats assume they are stupid.
This vote is merely a political stunt to aid Landrieu’s re-election.
Obama will simply wait until after the election and then veto.
He’s already openly proclaimed he will do exactly that.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure there is a ten day limit for bills to sit on his desk waiting for sign or veto. After 10 days, they become law without his signature IIRC.
Unlike Dingy Harry. This is obviously a good subject for discussion at an Article 5 convention.