Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
The scramble to make a congressional Keystone pipeline vote help one of the candidates in the Louisiana Senate runoff is racing along. But
which candidate? With her chances lagging badly, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is pushing action in the Senate ... but has agreed that the Senate can take up a House bill that will have her Republican challenger, Rep. Bill Cassidy, as lead sponsor. If both candidates go into the runoff with the same level of responsibility for passing a bill, how does that shake up the dynamics of a race in which Cassidy is currently favored? Especially given that
it's not clear what President Obama would do with a Keystone bill passed under these conditions:
While the White House stopped short of directly threatening a veto, spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama takes a “dim view” of legislative efforts to force action on the project. Earnest reiterated Obama’s preference for evaluating the pipeline through a long-stalled State Department review.
Even distancing herself from the president yet again is not likely to get Landrieu the votes she needs—
and lacks—among white voters, and it won't exactly goose black voter turnout.
The Louisiana runoff scramble continues in other ways, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Dick Durbin trying to raise money for Landrieu, after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee cut her off, leaving her massively outspent and out-advertised. On Cassidy's side, Sarah Palin and Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson will appear to whip up the GOP base vote at a unity rally for supporters of Cassidy and his former Republican opponent, Rob Maness.