Posted on 02/17/2014 7:40:23 AM PST by Shout Bits
Sen. Mary Landrieu has problems. Years of Reid/Pelosi/Obama far-left politics have come home to roost in her center-right Louisiana. Obamacare, regulation, and an anti-energy dictatorship have turned many LA voters against their Democrat tradition. Barring a masterful performance on her part, or an equally pitiful performance by the GOP (recall Todd Akin from next door), Landrieu will lose November's race. Landrieu comes from Louisiana political royalty, but that dynasty is old-school Southern Democrat. Since the Senator has nothing to lose, her fellow Dems are using her for scientific purposes in their effort to hold the Senate.
While Landrieu has voted with Obama about 96% of the time, when Sen. Max Baucus retired to avoid the ignominy of being forced out of office, she tacked right. Baucus, off to China, gave his Finance Committee Chairmanship to Sen. Wyden, who opened his Energy Chairmanship to Landrieu.
Wyden is too far left to simply toe the Democrat line. He is Left by Oregon standards, and distances himself from Obama – to the left. This is the politician Democrats have until recently placed in charge of energy policy in the Senate – a global warming true believer. Landrieu comes from an oil and gas state that favors exploration, despite the BP spill. Landrieu signaled her new found interest in energy by endorsing the Keystone XL project just before the Baucus switch.
True, Senate chairmanships are largely based on seniority, but Landrieu could have received another job. After eight years of hard-left anti energy policy from the Democrats, they turned 180 degrees in the form of a LA Senator who pre-signaled her distance from Obama.
Democrats want to know if throwing Obama under their bus will save any votes from people disaffected by Obamacare and his energy policies. If Landrieu can make her campaign competitive by pretending she never voted for Obamacare and was always in favor of more drilling and pipelines, expect more of the same. No doubt Obama would dump his Hollywood leftie friends and approve Keystone XL if he thought it would save the Senate.
The wheels of Democrat political thought are on display here. If Obama approves Keystone XL, then Democrats believe the Landrieu strategy is operative and want to give her more room to maneuver away from the Left. If Obama cans Keystone XL again, Democrats have decided her seat and many like it are a lost cause and that Hollywood money is of more long-term worth. Like coal miners looking at a canary to see if they are in danger, Democrats have made Sen. Landrieu an existential test case.
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IIRC, the ‘canary’ is supposed to prevent disaster by signaling its impending arrival by DYING (in this case a figurative electoral death).
They won’t actually be able to confirm her succumbing to discontent until November, by which time they’ll have asphyxiated themselves.
The GOP is on the verge of an epic sweep this year, if they can restrain themselves from exhibiting their usual stupidity.
I’ll believe it when I see it. She has been the inevitable loser of every Senate campaign she’s run in, only to stay in office. Never underestimate the GOPs ability to lose this thing. If there’s a way, they’ll find it....
Missouri next door to Louisiana? Who Knew?
Buh bye Mary
Generally, I’d say that is likely. However, I won’t be a voter who will sweep ANY RINO back into office along with those conservatives who should gain tremendously.
They are screwed.
You said it, the magic word, “if”. The Republicans need to get their collective heads out of their asses. Stop trying to please the left, socialists that don’t give a crap about them. Reagan swept this nation by telling the truth about liberalism and their social agendas. Instead we have lip service to the left from the “so called” Republican establishment.
“The GOP is on the verge of an epic sweep this year, if they can restrain themselves from exhibiting their usual stupidity.”
Don’t you believe it. This is what everyone said about 2012. Axelrod is a genius (an evil one) for pulling off the impossible.
You can’t beat Santa Claus. Free government cheese beats pulling yourself up by the bootstraps.
ROTFLOL----man, that's a good one.
Like McCain, McConnell and many others, Landrieu talks like a big-time conservative at home and especially before each election and then goes off to Washington to vote with the Marxists and against her state.
So yeah, Republicans screw up A LOT, but Landrieu has until now successfully bamboozled her constituents back home.
Facing a tough reelection this year, Udall was nailed on tape echoing the "keep your plan" Big Lie, b/c some 330,000 Coloradans received cancelation notices....cancellations sap-happy Udall promised they wouldn’t.
Udall’s crazed response was to lean on state insurance regulators to change their numbers by changing their vocabulary. He argued plans shouldn’t be counted as canceled if a person was eligible to buy a pricier ACA compliant plan.
The insurance regulator resisted Udall’s psychotic arguments.
Then things got interesting. CompleteColorado.com obtained and reported on internal state emails of insurance official, Jo Donlin, stating the deranged Udall wanted to “trash” the state’s numbers....
Fearing he'd lose his seat, vote-crazed Udall contacted her repeatedly, and when she refused to bend, she received a “very hostile” call from Udall’s chief of staff (maybe more like a "threat"?).
Udall’s obsessed interference prompted demands for more information and for an investigation into his twisted conduct.
Almost instantly, Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Affairs, which oversees the Division of Insurance, issued a statement claiming a "neutral and objective panel" investigated the matter and determined "Udall’s office did nothing improper and there was no intimidation."
(waiting for hysterical laughter to die down)
NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS Absolving deranged Senator Udall of culpability is the exact same MO used right before NJ Sen Torricell was forced out of office.
It is good to read things like this even if socialism wins elections.
Isn’t it funny how for progressives to win, they feel they need to ‘sound’ conservative in order to win elections. At the same time, GOP(e) types feel the need to sound more liberal, which sadly they usually ARE. Then, both sides go to DC, and vote on the more liberal side of most all issues.
Now I’ve got that darn Police song stuck in my head.
BACKSTORY As far back as 2008, at the presidential debate in Nashville, Democrat candidate Obama smilingly campaigned on the glories of his signature healthcare plan---ultimately enacted, by an historic straight Democrat party-line vote, into the "Affordable Care Act"
QUOTING 2008 OBAMA: "No. 1, let me just repeat, if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it. All I’m going to do is help you to lower the premiums on it. You’ll still have choice of doctor.” Repeated over and over / ---- with the promise that every American family would be saving $2500.00 on healthcare costs.
Significantly, Obamba NEVER corrected lock-stepping Democrats, all reading from the same Democrat talking points, all of them repeating the same Democrat promises---over and over again.
LOCK-STEPPING PARTY LOYALTY NOT SEEN SINCE 1930- 40's ERA EUROPE Obama And The Dems marched in lockstep. The persistent Dumbocrat drumbeat ---- in obeisance to Obama ---- kept ringing reassuringly in our ears: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
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Ominous cogs in the Obamacare meat grinder----the inexorable forcing of Grandma/pa onto Medicaid--(like cattle herded single-file onto the narrow ramp---knowing the bolt is coming---but not able to do a thing about it). Medicaid conveniently groups together the sick and elderly---as Obama's IPAB board of radicals sit in judgment. Boobamba's Orwellian-speak---the progressive way of saying "Obamacare keeps costs down."
The infamous "Death Panels---are alive and well----but they're not called death panels......for obvious reasons. The treacherous Obama euphemistically calls his death panel "I-PAB----Individual Payment Advisory Board." I-PAB decides what to pay and who to pay---thus rationing medical care to sick oldsters. Obamacare "allows" states to expand their Medicaid recipients pool. Under Obamacare, Washington now covers about 1/2 the cost of Medicaid enrollees.
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What is I-PAB?.... just what we need, a brand new government agency. IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) is the first agency of the “fifth branch” of Obama's govt nightmare.
1) It will make all important health care decisions by authorizing payment or not.
2) It is not funded by Congress and cannot have its budget reviewed or changed.
3) Its membership cannot be changed by future Presidents,
4) It cannot be repealed by Congress, except for a six month window in 2017.
5) Its decisions are not subject to judicial review.
6) It is not authorized by the Constitution, and is therefore immune to Constitutional processes.
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Why is Obamacre herding seniors WITH ASSETS onto Medicaid---a program structured for the poor? Can you say redistribution of wealth? Herding the elderly with assets into Medicaid has ominous consequences that are intriguing to the left. B/c assets, perhaps a home owned free and clear, securities, annuities, investment property, can be seized to pay for govt treatment.
Thus intergenerational transfers of wealth (a longtime progressive bugaboo)----are decimated (grandma/pa's holdings go to the govt---not to you).
BACKSTORY White House chief of staff Denis McDonough held an unpublicized meeting with Sen. Michael Bennet (DIM-Colo), chairman of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, amid anger and anxiety that ObamaCare’s botched rollout could cost the party its majority next year.
In the meeting, requested by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), McDonough and Bennet discussed what the White House could do to help vulnerable Senate Democrats and “talked about developing a stronger relationship with the White House.”
Democratic senators fear the White House is not sympathetic enough to their plight. After the Repub-led government shutdown, they were confident they would retain the Senate, but optimism vanished as problems with the healthcare law mounted.
Denis valiantly tried to calm ballistic Senators: “I know these guys are nervous as hell. I mean, all of their jobs are on the line because (Obamacare) is the thing making the biggest waves lately. It’s a nightmare.”
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Just recently, Obama announced the White House's 2014 Senate strategy: Keep Obama away: The extensive midterm campaign strategy is built around one unavoidable fact: Hardly any candidates in the most competitive states want President Barack Obama anywhere near them on the campaign trail.
" I promised the DNC I will not go anywhere near
Democrat candidates.........well, maybe Colorado."
I can't speak for LA, but in Kentucky, McConnell has permanently alienated the conservative base. Deliberately. Trouble is the GOPe has made it clear they will do whatever is necessary to get him the nomination. And he WILL lose the general if he gets it. We are NOT voting for him
If KY is any indication, I think there is a damn good chance the GOP is going to pi$$ away another election.
Then we will be in for 2 years that will make the last 6 look like a party.
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