The Democrat has survived now 18
years in the Senate, despite having strung together a far
left voting record while representing a conservative electorate. In order
to distract from this, a number of tactics are used, such as claims of her indispensability
from serving many years, emphasizing non-ideological issues, and trumpeting the
rare non-liberal vote as a form of prophylactic protecting her from being seen
as what she really is by getting the public to buy that the exception is the
rule. These have been adequate enough to date to have enough voters perceive
her as she wishes to be seen rather than by what her behavior verifies that she
is.
As information about politics
becomes more plentiful and the public increasingly cognitively able to think
for itself, the internal contradiction of her image vs. fact has become clear
to more voters. Still, for a voting public the vast majority of members of which
pay minimal attention to politics, getting them to expend cognitive resources
in making the logical connection that concludes she is a fraud is not an easy
task – especially when the least informed among conservatives are the most
likely to vote for her (joining their poorly-informed liberal brethren who
almost uniformly vote her without any knowledge of her issue preferences).
However, opening their eyes to
the fact that she votes against their interests becomes much easier when the concept
of her fraudulence on issues can be extended to the idea of fraudulence on
other visceral behavioral items. And, as it turns out, Landrieu has had a bad
streak of publicity recently concerning her personal conduct as an elected
official which points to her claiming to be one thing when actions demonstrate something
else.
The latest concerns her residency
in Louisiana, now subject to a lawsuit with really no chance to succeed. The Constitution sets very relaxed requirements regarding the
stricture that senators must be inhabitants of the state from which they are
elected, in that the residency requirement for being an elector qualifies one.
That’s 30 days, and Landrieu has
been registered at her parents’ home (now owned by her and her mother and siblings) since
1997. Even as she spends next to no time there, she legally qualifies as a
Louisiana resident.
But the following the letter and
spirit of law are separate matters, where the judicial system adjudicates the
former but voters the latter. Landrieu since her initial election has spent
almost all of her time in and around Washington, D.C., living in a mansion of
over 5,000 square feet costing $2.5 million to build with her two daughters in
private school nearby and her husband raking in huge bucks by being a real
estate agent to the area’s political stars (some
of whom have connections to Landrieu’s political decision-making). When
second-tier Republican candidate retired military/corporate functionary Rob Maness clumsily tries to challenge her
legal residency, complemented by the suit by former candidate state Rep. Paul Hollis, it only serves to remind the electorate that she is about as
far removed from living amongst them both physically and socially as she can be
and still qualify legally.
This compounds the recent
controversy she encountered when it was discovered she illegally had charged
the federal government for campaign travel expenses, made all the worse by her
giving exculpatory excuses that are highly implausible to say the least.
Forced politically into a self-audit as other
questionable travel expensing arose with those results forthcoming soon,
this will remain fodder for the remainder of the election cycle.
These only add to other ways in
which Landrieu’s choices scream that she is a phony. Archbishops of New Orleans
past
and present
have criticized her for actions that betray her stated Catholic faith. For a
campaign advertisement she staged
a committee hearing without disclosure. She claims to support oil industry
while her political action committee donates
to politicians who almost always vote to hamstring the industry and
American energy independence sensibly done in order to pursue a radical
environmentalist agenda. The constant drip into a balloon over time makes it
burst.
But you wouldn’t know it from the
typical boilerplate you get from Louisiana’s leftist scribes. A representative
of the Angry Left dismisses
the effect of the residency questioning. Another who has made her mark with
puerile analysis counsels
that Landrieu probably only made an absolutely honest mistake (even if repeatedly)
with the travel controversies and so that’s not really going to matter.
Which tells us either they don’t
understand Louisiana politics, which seems unlikely, or that they are
telegraphing that they have realized that the volume of such issues threatens
to create enough of a critical mass around the idea that Landrieu is a fraud as
to bring her down finally, and wish to deflect away from the issue to forestall
that. (It’s also possible there’s some self-deceptive, hope-against-hope,
whistling into the wind going on as well.)
Yet it’s not going to go away,
for even if the media embargoes it, Maness and top-tier GOP challenger Rep. Bill Cassidy as well as other groups
independent of them will bring it up with regularity, because it promises to be
the campaign strategy that bridges the gap. With credible evidence showing that
Landrieu is trying to hide the fact that she’s not a typical Louisianan but
only wants to live off their taxes, emphasizing that will lead some to wonder
whether they can believe she votes in their interests rather than in the interests
of others. And once these new skeptics are guided to investigate that, this
will deliver the coup de grace to her
political career.
3 comments:
Well, never mind the typical conservative boilerplate while you're at it.
The Baton Rouge DA has announced today that this is a non-issue and will not pursue any residency claims against Landrieu. Read it and weep. That's the break kids. On to your next manufactured non-scandal.
Not what the DA said but I will leave that discussion to the typical leftist response to any questioning of one their gods.
Bottom line.....Mary must become a "has-been"....a "resident of D.C."....a lobby for those that are ill informed that she is truly a 'Paper Tiger'....AND.... For all you liberals, one less thorn in the side of the good people of Louisiana that are glad to see another dynasty dead in this state....i.e. Longs, Edwards, Breauxs....etc.
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