Simply Politics & News

[Long2Retire]

A desperate Mary Landrieu smears the state she represents: James Varney

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2014/10/a_desperate_mary_landrieu_smea.html

Things must be going even worse for the Democrats than the polls suggest. The campaign of incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., for example, has hit rock bottom.

How else to explain her lame attempt to blame her electoral peril on racism and sexism? Modern illiberals are incapable of thinking their record or their ideas could lead to misfortune.

Landrieu has trailed in the polls for weeks now. Indeed, it seems increasingly unlikely she could beat either of her two top Republican challengers head-to-head, although she will almost certainly get the chance against one in a runoff.

Desperate, Landrieu went on NBC News. She allowed that sustained attempts to undermine energy production and thus make things much more expensive for us contributes to President Obama's unpopularity, which, in turn, dampens her own re-election prospects.

But then that's the uphill battle she must fight, Landrieu sighed, because in the South blacks and women have had it hard. She declined to explain how she has been elected three times as a senator by such a collection of unwashed knuckle draggers.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., appropriately called her out.

"Senator Landrieu's comments are remarkably divisive," Jindal tweeted. "She appears to be living in a different century."

Jindal is exactly right. Landrieu's comments, if uttered 50 years or more ago when Democratic stalwarts like Orval Faubus and Bull Connor roamed the landscape, would have been accurate. Landrieu's late Democratic colleague in the Senate and noted Klansman Robert Byrd would have had vivid memories of those times.

But those times are not these times. Landrieu was a bit closer to the mark a few days back when she blamed herself rather than Obama for her bleak position.

It would be nice to say Landrieu's slandering of her constituents marked a low point but she isn't the only Democrat smearing their political opposition in these final, frantic days before the 2014 midterm elections. Democratic state party officials in Maryland and Georgia, along with shadowy groups in North Carolina have done the same. The tax cheat Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., delved even deeper into the past and his dotage claiming some Republicans think slavery still exists.

Politico got in the game and tried to help their Democratic favorites with a truly despicable cartoon likening Republicans to Nazis, another treasured trope among modern illiberals.

It's hard to say if Landrieu's desperate and deplorable tactics will be enough to win her another unexpected victory in Louisiana.

Landrieu's opponents properly lambasted her shallow and mean spirited rhetoric. U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who holds a narrow lead in the race, urged Landrieu to spend less time insulting her home state.

Cassidy and retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness stressed there are very good reasons Landrieu's bid for a fourth term is in jeopardy, and they have nothing to do with racism or sexism.

"Maybe if Sen. Landrieu actually lived in Louisiana, she would know that the reason why she and President Obama are so unpopular is because of the policies they support and the big government agenda they have imposed on Louisiana's working families," Maness wrote in a statement. "Quite frankly, Sen. Landrieu owes the people of Louisiana an apology for relegating them to nothing but racists and sexists."

Correct. But don't hold your breath on that apology.

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She blames her electoral peril on racism and sexism. Gee Mary, was it racism and sexism the put you in office? Are your constituents that much different now, than in the last election?