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Liberal Senator Landrieu
Witness for the Right ^ | 10/13/02 | Bill Kelly

Posted on 10/13/2002 9:24:18 PM PDT by WFTR



Liberal Senator Landrieu


Mary, Mary, quite contrary
how do our taxes grow
to Hillary and the DNC
you just won't learn to say "No!"


With less than a month to go before election day, Mary Landrieu is pretending to be a "conservative Democrat." She is touting a voting record that is "74% in agreement with President Bush" and trying to pretend that the agenda she's advancing isn't out of step with the voters of a state that supported President Bush in 2000. In all honesty, her record isn't the worst in the Senate, but she is being a hypocrite when she pretends to support conservative values.

74% is Meaningless

The "74% agreement" statistic is meaningless for two reasons. First, President Bush hasn't challenged the liberals during his almost two years in office. He didn't campaign for big changes, and he didn't try to implement them. After the terrorist attacks, everyone tried to present a unified front, and President Bush went even further to avoid confrontation. Unfortunately, he signed some bills that were absolutely wrong. The worst of these was campaign finance reform, and his signing that bill marked one of the few times he has broken a campaign promise. Building a 74% agreement record in this atmosphere is nothing for Mary Landrieu to be proud of.

NPAT on Vote Smart

A website called Project Vote Smart offers a survey questionnaire to every candidate for federal office. This survey is called the NPAT, and Mary Landrieu has failed to answer the questions in the survey so far in this election cycle. (See Issue Positions Data for Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana.) Dr. John Cooksey, one of her opponents, hasn't answered the survey either, but he isn't trying to define himself as a "conservative" in a liberal party. What is a "conservative Democrat?" Mary Landrieu could help define what she means with that label, but she refuses to answer the questions.

Some Issues

I've done some quick research at Project Vote Smart to get a sense of who Mary Landrieu is as a "conservative Democrat." I've looked at some individual votes on specific legislation, and I've looked at interest group ratings. Project Vote Smart gives some good disclaimers about these interest group ratings, and I agree that one must use them carefully. At the same time, comparing legislators with similar ratings often paints a good picture of who those people really are when they are in Washington, D.C.. (See Interest Ratings by Groups.)

Abortion: Mary Landrieu is not pro-life. While she voted for the ban on partial-birth abortion, her other votes have been consistently supporting legalized abortion. She voted for a resolution affirming Roe versus Wade as a good decision. (Roe v. Wade Decision) She regularly votes to allow our military hospitals to perform abortions. (2001 - Military Base Abortions, 2000 - Abortions at Military Hospitals) She votes to spend our tax dollars on abortions for teens here in the United States (Abortion and Children's Health Insurance Program) and for "family planning" around the world (International Family Planning - Passage). Groups supporting and opposing legalized abortion rate her among the more liberal members of the Senate.

Abortion-related issues include the use of fetal tissue for research and the entire cloning debate. While her commercials claim that she is a leader in the fight against cloning, her votes on fetal tissue research show her to favor the use of aborted embryos for this kind of research. (Fetal Tissue Research)

Second Amendment: Mary Landrieu is not pro-gun. She is a fairly consistent vote against the Second Amendment. She is in favor of burdening us with more government harassment at gun shows and wants to let the federal government keep records on gun owners. She has very low ratings from the Gun Owners of America and high ratings from gun-control groups. (Mandatory Gun Show Checks, Background Checks, Lautenberg Amendment, Mandatory Gun Locks)

Family: Mary Landrieu is not a true friend of the traditional family. She receives low ratings from conservative family groups and some of the highest ratings from pro-homosexual groups. One group saying it was the only one with the courage to stand up for gay issues gives her an 80%. (Gay Rights Info) This rating is one of the highest in Congress. The Human Rights Campaign which is really just another homosexual advocacy group gives her a 100% rating. (Human Rights Campaign)

Business: Mary Landrieu receives pretty good ratings from some business groups but does not do well with groups that advocate free enterprise, freedom from regulation, and less government spending. Maybe she is a friend of businesses that want favors from Congress. I guess some nominal "conservatives" even support this kind of action, but small-government conservatives like myself aren't interested in a senator who wants more corporate welfare to go with the regular welfare.

General: Mary Landrieu is not a conservative. Her voting has been slightly more conservative since the 2000 elections, but that trend is also a sign that she is an ideological liberal. Many liberals will change their voting after a more conservative presidential candidate wins their state. She is clearly trying to use this tactic, and liberals who win with this tactic go back to their liberal voting patterns once they've fooled the voters. Another strong indication of her liberalism is her 100% rating from the National Education Association (NEA). The NEA hasn't stood for strong education for a long time, but its ratings are an excellent barometer of a politician's liberal tendencies. Mary Landrieu's 100% speaks volumes for her real agenda.

Summary

Mary Landrieu is not a conservative of any kind. On a good day, she's a moderate, and I'll admit that she has a few good days. Unfortunately, these good days don't change the fact that her presence in the U.S. Senate is advancing the agenda of people like Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, and Ted Kennedy. Her presence doesn't advance what is best for Louisiana or our country.

The Best Candidates

Dr. John Cooksey Tony Perkins Suzanne Haik Terrell

Recent Updates:
A Great American Chickenhawk
A Year Later
Louisiana US Senate Candidate Forum
Adventures in West Nile Virus Country


TOPICS: Louisiana; Campaign News; Issues; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: abortion; business; cooksey; family; guns; landrieu; louisiana; perkins; secondamendment; senate; terrell
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To: millco88
You've made two interesting points, and I'll respond to each.

President Bush will probably try to help the eventual Republican candidate, but three things could interfere. They are:

First, no matter how much time President Bush tries to spend here in November and December, the Democrats will send every idiot they can to muddy the water. The more the runoff election becomes a circus atmosphere, the more it will benefit the Democrats.
Secondly, if we are much closer to a war with Iraq, President Bush may not be able to leave D.C. without appearing to have abandoned national security for the sake of political gain. When I said he'd practically live here to support Suzanne Haik Terrell, I hadn't figured on the Iraq situation.
Thirdly, he may not feel very comfortable supporting the eventual Republican candidate too obviously. Dr. Cooksey has an excellent chance of being in the runoff, and his "diaperhead" remark will be played and replayed if he is. I think enough Louisiana voters agree with the way he felt that he might still win, but President Bush will be afraid to associate with him too closely. Tony Perkins is the underdog candidate, but he still has a strong chance. He is endorsed by Dr. James Dobson and many prominent religious conservatives. While President Bush has enjoyed the support of these people, he hasn't associated with them too closely because he is afraid of the negative feelings that they stir in soccer moms. He would help Mr. Perkins, but he might not help as much as you would think.

I hadn't thought about how campaign finance reform would affect the runoff, and it is a good point to raise. My initial thought is that it may not have a big effect. Most people will just give directly to the candidates in the runoff, and that money would be "hard money." Undoubtedly, a huge amount of hard money would flow into the state on both sides. The best news would be for this election to be the test case where campaign finance reform is overturned.

WFTR
Bill

21 posted on 10/15/2002 4:42:32 PM PDT by WFTR
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To: WFTR
Sorry I am late with this response..but if I am not mistaken former Gov Edwards is the one who came up with this current system. He was supposedly tired of fighting a furious battle to win the Democratic nomination, which was the real prize, while the GOP could wait with their nominee and have money and energy for the General election. Louisiana was big time democratic, so they usually won, but Edwards came up with this to get the election over with quicker. Yes it did produce a sorry runoff between Duke and Edwards himself, but you are right about spoilers not being a problem aka Perot. Also, Jesse Ventura might not have been elected here. Jesse only got about 37 percent of the vote..and they called it quits after that.

As for lying landrieu, I hope she at least has to make a runoff appearance. Louisiana has a sad record of re-electing incumbents. Except for Governors, rarely has a senator or congressman been voted out of office..they have to die, quit or be arrested. And seeing the fact that she stole the last election, I was hoping she would have been in trouble..but I don't think so..let's hope I am wrong..

22 posted on 10/18/2002 2:08:46 PM PDT by BerniesFriend
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To: All
I'm a lifelong resident of La. The original post is correct. Mary is running very hard to the right of her real ideology. Of particular note is her taking credit for being pro-military. We have a SAC base here in La. at Barksdale in Shreveport. She uses the print media (very liberal) to brainwash the idiots of this state (about 90% of the population) into believing that Barksdale would close down if it were not for her efforts. She is a female version of Bill Clinton.
She has the New Orleans (Haiti North) vote locked up and they use a lot of bang-an-haulem on voting day. But the rest of the state is conservative and might elect a Republican if one can get into the run-off.
23 posted on 10/18/2002 3:04:56 PM PDT by Deb8
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To: BerniesFriend
Thanks for the correction and clarification on how we arrived at the system we have now. I also hope you are wrong about Landrieu's strength in November. We need this seat for the GOP.

WFTR
Bill

24 posted on 10/18/2002 3:33:10 PM PDT by WFTR
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To: Deb8
Thanks for the words of support. I hope we can mobilize our people both in November and December.
25 posted on 10/18/2002 3:36:13 PM PDT by WFTR
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To: WFTR
Actually I think the GOP should be running ads against lying landrieu about her vote against ashcroft..i mean she broke senate tradition to vote for the president's nominee..a former colleague..under orders from hillary and kennedy..and john breaux CAN NOT come to her defense because at least he showed some back bone and voted for him..my two cents..what do u think?
26 posted on 10/18/2002 7:57:54 PM PDT by BerniesFriend
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To: BerniesFriend
I think that's an excellent idea. The best part is being able to draw distinctions between her and Breaux. I wish that the NRSC had the intelligence to use that idea.
27 posted on 10/18/2002 10:15:11 PM PDT by WFTR
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