Here is the fact: I will vote a straight party ticket. Even the worst Democrat is better than the most stellar Republican. But if I lived in Louisiana, I’d have had to hold my nose to vote for Sen. Mary Landrieu.
A solid member of the New Orleans political dynastry, Landrieu has held her seat in the U.S. Senate since 1996. This year, in the now infamous brutal 2014 midterms, Landrieu was forced into a runoff when she received only 42 percent of the vote. 50.1 percent is required to be re-elected.
At first, we all wanted to desperately hold onto that seat. On election night, Rachel Maddow said (this isn’t a direct quote) that?Dems would have to work really hard to make this happen. Then something happened: Mary Landrieu turned traitor.
We Democrats are fiercely loyal to our own. We don’t bicker much about little disagreements. But our hearts turned cold to Mary Landrieu when she suddenly threw her support behind the Keystone XL pipeline. It enraged us. It showed that she was never really completely on our side and that holding onto her Senate seat and the cushy perks that go along with it was more important to her than the causes that we hold dear.
She KNEW, she had to know, that all of the “benefits” of this pipeline are lies. It adds very few permanent jobs and its potential negative impacts are huge.
Let’s not forget that she was one of the Democratic senators who buckled under Republican pressure on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). From an article we wrote last year:
Landrieu has offered an enrollment deadline delay proposal as well as a proposal, which allows people to keep junk insurance policies. Hagan of North Carolina supports a two-month delay. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one-time Tea Party golden boy and probable 2016 Republican presidential nominee, offered the?Delay Until Fully Functional Act’s individual mandate until six months after the government could certify ?that the exchange website is fully functional.?
Really? One of “our” senators was on the same side as Marco Rubio?
From Politico:
Sen. Mary Landrieu said Wednesday she would propose legislation to ensure all Americans could keep their existing insurance coverage under Obamacare, a fresh sign of the political problems the law’s rollout has created for congressional Democrats.
Landrieu, a Democrat who faces a tough reelection in Louisiana in 2014, said she would either offer her own bill or formally sign onto another measure that would ensure that the law would not force anyone off of their existing health policies.
Mary Landrieu has always been only concerned?about Mary Landrieu.
?The promise was made, and it should be kept,? Landrieu said in the Capitol Wednesday. ?And it was our understanding when we voted for that bill that people when they have insurance could keep with what they had. So I’m going to be working on that fix.?
I’m not happy that we lost that seat. It will be hard to get it back. But I have no sympathy for Mary Landrieu. Zero. Zip. Zilch. She betrayed the progressive movement and we will never forget that. Don’t let the door hit you, Sen. Landrieu.
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Tiffany Willis is a fifth-generation Texan and the founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America. An unapologetic member of the Christian Left, she has spent most of her career actively working with ?the least of these? and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. She’s passionate about their struggles. To stay on top of topics she discusses,?like her?Facebook page,?follow her on Twitter, or?connect with her via LinkedIn. She also has?a?grossly neglected personal blog?and a?literary quotes blog that is a labor of love. Find her somewhere and join the discussion.
