Quin Hillyer: Mary Landrieu should cut her losses (Should withdraw from runoff)

The (Baton Rouge, LA) Advocate ^ | November 9, 2014 | Quinn Hillyer

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When your main campaign sales pitch is based on your “clout,” and you lose the basis of that clout, then your campaign is probably a goner. For that and other reasons, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu has almost no remaining path to re-election.

Landrieu’s self-proclaimed clout as chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Energy always was rather illusory. Now, with Republicans running the Senate and a Democratic president wholly antagonistic to Louisiana economic interests, Democratic loyalist Landrieu will be doubly blocked from influence on behalf of the state.

Landrieu will keep trying to “localize” the election by ginning up irrelevant issues on subjects she’ll have little power to influence anyway. (Hint: If she couldn’t get President Barack Obama to lift the offshore “permitorium” when Democrats controlled the Senate, she surely won’t be able to get a lame-duck Obama’s ear now.) The truth, however, is that the U.S. Senate deals mostly with national issues. On those, Landrieu is out of step with a state she said is both too bigoted to give a black president a chance and too “conservative” to support strong women, herself presumably included.

Landrieu always claims to be a centrist ­— but the National Journal, the respected, neutral magazine that covers American government in depth, reported this year that the very existence of centrists in the Senate is “all but gone.” Even for that nearly nonexistent center, Landrieu wouldn’t qualify: In a decidedly liberal Democratic Senate caucus, reports National Journal, 10 other Democrats are less liberal than she.

Here’s one example. Through what a judge called “grotesque” misconduct, the Civil Rights Division of the Obama Justice Department already royally bungled the prosecution of the Danziger Bridge police officers; Landrieu voted to make that division even more radically leftist by supporting a nominee to head the office, Debo Adegbile, who went out of his way to wave the race card while arguing to overthrow the conviction of notorious cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. Fortunately, the nomination failed anyway, with seven Democrats (but not Landrieu) helping block Obama’s awful selection.

(Landrieu wouldn’t give the same consideration to manifestly qualified Bush judicial nominee Miguel Estrada, even after pledging to local Latinos that she would support him.)

Louisianans chafing over the loss of free checking accounts, meanwhile, can blame Landrieu for casting a crucial vote in favor of the Dodd-Frank regulatory scheme which is leading banks to wipe out such accounts and otherwise hurting low-income customers.

Perhaps Landrieu’s most appalling vote came when she refused to join Republicans and 32 other Senate Democrats to repeal “Obamacare’s” horrendous tax on medical devices such as pacemakers, insulin pumps, vascular stents, MRI machines, cardiac defibrillators and even dentures ­— a tax not only hampering development of life-saving products, but also already eliminating thousands of jobs nationwide. Frankly, this vote — cravenly following Obama’s line, even when large Senate majorities of both parties were willing to buck the president — was unconscionable.

Granted, no fair-minded person would argue that Landrieu hasn’t “delivered” some good things for Louisiana, or that she hasn’t worked hard for 35 long years in public office. But, other than trading her key vote for “Obamacare” in return for the so-called “Louisiana Purchase,” she hasn’t been able to do much for the state, legislatively, since Obama took office.

As it is, Landrieu now faces arithmetically huge odds to win re-election. She and Rep. Bill Cassidy finished in a near dead-heat in the open primary with just over 600,000 votes each, with conservative Republican Rob Maness taking another 200,000 votes. Even if some of Maness’ voters stay home in December, and even if Landrieu somehow inspires more Louisianans to turn out for her than did last Tuesday, it’s still hard to figure how she can make up Tuesday’s overall Republican margin of 180,000 votes.

Pundits on both the right and left even say Landrieu should drop out, rather than trying a scorched-earth campaign that still would fall short, while damaging the Landrieu political brand. It worked in 1987-91 for Edwin Edwards, who regained the governor’s mansion just four years after not declining to contest a runoff. Landrieu has far more to offer than Edwards did — as long as she doesn’t poison the well through a nasty, probably hopeless campaign.

New Orleans native Quin Hillyer is a contributing editor for National Review. You can follow him on Twitter, @QuinHillyer. His email address is qhillyer@theadvocate.com, and he blogs at blogs.theadvocate.com/quin-essential.

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This just in.

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http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/10768211-123/james-gill-looks-like-landrieu

James Gill: Looks like Landrieu is toast in Senate race

[trebb]

Just basic math says she is toast - of course, the Left knows that run-offs give them a greater opportunity to commit fraud due to a bit less coverage than what we saw in the recent nation-wide elections. I can’t see how they can pull it off w/o a lot of very obvious voter fraud felonies being perpetrated and am confident she is done.

[SkyPilot]

This pear shaped, abortion loving, corrupt witch is a disgrace.

Remember this?

Senator Mary Landrieu (2010) O'Keefe and colleagues were arrested in New Orleans in January 2010 during an attempt to make recordings at the office of United States Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat. His three fellow activists, who were dressed as telephone repairmen when apprehended, included Robert Flanagan, the son of William Flanagan, acting U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Louisiana.[20][21] The four men were charged with malicious intent to damage the phone system.[22] O'Keefe said he entered Landrieu's office to investigate complaints that she was ignoring phone calls from constituents during the debate over President Barack Obama's health care bill.[23] The charges in the case were reduced from a felony to a single misdemeanor count of entering a federal building under false pretenses.[24][25] O'Keefe and the others pleaded guilty on May 26. O'Keefe was sentenced to three years' probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,500 fine. The other three men received lesser sentences.[26] In August 2013, O'Keefe revisited the incident by releasing a video entitled: a confrontation with former U.S. Attorney Jim Letten on the Tulane University campus. Jim Letten was a Republican US Attorney General in 2010 who recused himself from the Landrieu incident because he knew the father of one of the men involved. The video shows an agitated Letten accusing O'Keefe of "terrorizing" Letten's wife at their home, of harassing him and trespassing on the Tulane campus. He called O'Keefe a "coward" and a "spud" and referred to O'Keefe and his companions as "hobbits" and "scum."[60]

@Project_Veritas detained while meeting former US Attorney Jim Letten - "Truth To Power"

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http://lincolnparishnewsonline.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/landrieu-should-concede-today/
Landrieu Should Concede – Today

To Mary Landrieu, Edwin Edwards And Jamie Mayo: Don’t Waste Our Time
http://thehayride.com/2014/11/to-mary-landrieu-edwin-edwards-and-jamie-mayo-dont-waste-our-time/

[Gaffer]

Why would she do that? She still has some campaign cash she has to convert over to her private retirement fund.

Look for her reelection campaign to be in red when she loses. That’s because she will have spirited the funds off in some manner hidden under “campaign expenses”.

Count on it. It is the Democrat Way.

[oblomov]

Has Maness endorsed Cassidy?

[alloysteel]

Recall the days of the Long dynasty in Louisiana, and especially of Earl Long. Earl Kemp Long just kept on coming back, and coming back, and coming back.

The colorful “Uncle Earl” (so-named because of his relatives, including nephew and U.S. Senator Russell Long) once joked that one day the people of Louisiana would elect “good government, and they won’t like it!”

In his last term in office his wife, Blanche Revere Long (1902–1998), and others attempted to remove him on the grounds of mental instability. For a time, Long was confined to the Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville, but his legal adviser, Joseph A. Sims, was said to have “rescued” Long from the institution. Long was never formally diagnosed with any mental illness. Commentators have speculated that political opposition may have led the effort to prove him mentally incompetent, including his wife, who resented his connection with Blaze Starr.

If nothing else, Earl was well known for his entertainment value.

So far, the current crop of voters has not yet descended to the level of accepting just about anything, so long as they were entertained.

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http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/rand_paul_rob_maness_to_endors.html

Rand Paul, Rob Maness among Republicans to rally for Bill Cassidy on Monday

Rob Maness, left, will endorse Rep. Bill Cassidy, center, at a unity rally Monday. Maness finished third behind Sen. Mary Landrieu and Cassidy in Tuesday’s primary. (Photo by Brianna Paciorka, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Cole Avery, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Cole Avery, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on November 08, 2014 at 11:21 AM, updated November 09, 2014 at 12:55 AM

Retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness is joining forces with Rep. Bill Cassidy in an effort to seal a win for Republicans over Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


James Gill has been at the Baton Rouge Advocate for a very long time ...

He knows his Louisiana politics ...


.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

After the voters of Louisiana kick Ms. Landrieu to the curb, I expect to see her doing commercials for Waist-Watchers: “Hi! I’m Mary. I used Waist-Watchers for all the years I was in the Senate and I only put on 60 pounds! But it’s really all about how you feel. I feel great because for all those years no one in Louisiana belonged to Waste Watchers!”

[abb]

I remember the Earl Long hospitalization crisis. I was nine years old then, and that was the very first time I became politically aware.

And I’ve heard Earl’s admonition about “good government” all my life. Great laugh line, but totally off base.

I always tell people that we don’t know if we would like honest government in Louisiana, because we’ve never had it.

[ZULU]

Landrieu shouldn’t worry, if she can’t get enough votes in Louisiana, Begich can send her several thousand from Alaska and Warner has a lot of spares from Virginia he can provide.

[Iron Munro]

Never underestimate the power of Obama's Silent Majority

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http://www.insidenorthside.com/oct_nov03/art11.htm

Uncle Earl—Crazy ‘bout the Northshore

[GOPJ]

Yeah, she’s toast... but this is a great way to get democrats to waste money...

[catnipman]

I vote for scorched earth: poison the well through a nasty, probably hopeless campaign while damaging the Landrieu political brand. Not to mention that the above makes for some damn fine popcorn-eating entertainment!

[InABunkerUnderSF]

No!!! Run Mary run! Think of your political... future.

Pull in big bucks from really major donors. (I mean what else are they going to use the money for - backing anti-2A ballot measures or something?) Above all, show them what to expect if they pour tons of money into the 2016 races in Louisiana. Run Mary run!

You have a chance. Just bring in the big hitters like President 0bama and the beloved Hillary. Louisiana voters love them and will rally to your support. (And they'll be distracted from keeping an eye on what the lame ducks are doing and in Hillary's case, fund raising for 2016.). Run Mary run!

The country needs you! Your party needs you! (Truth be told the Republicans need you to distract the dems for a couple of months while we get dug in good for 2016.) Run Mary run!!!

[Ouchthatonehurt]

Every time I see her picture all I can think of is Kathy Bates in Misery.

The State of Louisiana then being played by James Caan.

[Chewbarkah]

Landrieu will hang on to the bitter end, hoping that her opponent will crash on a scandal or maccaca moment, or die.