Free Republic

<p>BATON ROUGE - Gov. Kathleen Blanco is "no shrinking violet" when it comes to bending George W. Bush's ear about Louisiana's want-list, the president said Thursday.</p> <p>Blanco seized a 15-minute limousine ride with Bush as an opportunity to lobby him for 14,000 acres of federal land in Minden, money to help with coastal restoration and help with Louisiana's sugar, space and shrimp industries.</p>

<p>BATON ROUGE - Bobby Jindal publicly congratulated Gov.-elect Kathleen Blanco on Sunday in a press conference where he offered to assist in her transition but not to work in her administration.</p> <p>Jindal, who lost the governor's race Saturday by 54,567 votes in unofficial returns, said he called Blanco twice Saturday night, the second time to congratulate her and her husband, Raymond "Coach" Blanco.</p>

<p>Take an intimate look at Kathleen Blanco Kathleen Blanco: ''She is always the calm at the center of the storm''</p> <p>NEW ORLEANS - Kathleen Blanco is the quiet eye in the storm around her.</p> <p>Dressed in her trademark blue suit, the jacket open to the two-string costume pearl necklace she has used this year because it's large enough not to misplace or leave behind, Blanco is serene, seeming to ignore the undulating semi-circle of television cameras and still photographers whirling about her, some walking backward, others dropping back and swooping back around in front like birds fighting to be in front of a flock. Behind her is a mass of supporters.</p>

<p>BATON ROUGE - Spouses can become an issue in politics.</p> <p>Just look at Hillary Rodham Clinton.</p> <p>"Rarely does a spouse make a difference," said LSU political scientist Wayne Parent. "But if an issue is made of the spouse, it can."</p>

<p>BATON ROUGE - Supriya Jolly Jindal and Raymond "Coach" Blanco play different, but important, roles in their spouses' runoff campaigns for governor.</p> <p>Supriya Jindal makes speeches, such as one to the Acadiana Republican Women's Club this week, and appears in parades as a surrogate for her husband, her corporate employer generous about the time away from her job.</p>

<p>BATON ROUGE - The two candidates in the runoff for governor Nov. 15 broke no new ground Monday when they faced off before the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce in a breakfast debate labeled "Grits with the Governor."</p> <p>But each lobbed some shots in individual press conferences after the event. Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco took aim at opponent Bobby Jindal, who lobbed a shot back not at her, but rather at his old boss, outgoing governor and fellow Republican Mike Foster.</p>

<p>BATON ROUGE - Gov. Mike Foster charges on the radio that if Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco is elected governor, her husband "would be the most powerful man in Louisiana."</p> <p>Vernon Parish voter Neil Nash calls a news office to say he's voting for "that woman Blanco because we don't need this 32-year-old foreigner in the mansion."</p>