Even after Harry Reid FINALLY allowed a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline in an attempt to save Mary Landrieu’s Senate seat, the vote failed. Landrieu constantly brags about her “clout” she uses to help Louisiana, but she doesn’t seem to have any. Here’s a recap of 10 other times it turned out Landrieu’s clout doesn’t work.
1) Landrieu claimed, as Chair of the Energy Committee, that voters “sit at the head of the table with the gavel.”
Well, if that were true, Keystone would have passed long ago. Despite her claims of clout, Landrieu couldn’t get a vote on Keystone from Harry Reid when Americans needed it. Reid blocked a Keystone vote in May and LAUGHED a month later at the suggestion the bill would come up again. Only now that she’s fighting for her political life is she scrambling to get the pipeline passed.
2) She touted her ability to compromise and find common ground.
But voted with Obama 97% of the time…
3) And clout doesn’t matter if you just vote with Obama 97% of the time anyway.
4) Landrieu claimed being Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, “gave her the clout required to fight the ‘overreach’ of federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.”
But she didn’t have the “clout” to stop Obama’s EPA regulations that required Louisiana to reduce its carbon emissions 39.7% and drove up electricity prices (note that 18% of Louisiana’s electricity comes from coal).
Meanwhile, her PAC gave nearly $300,000 to 31 Senate Democrats who voted for cap and trade.
5) And a bill that would have helped increase revenue sharing in Louisiana passed the House earlier this year, but it failed in the Senate, despite Landrieu’s “clout.”
6) Landrieu’s clout disappeared when she pushed through the nomination of an important anti-energy Obama nominee who could have blocked large swaths of land from energy development.
7) After 18 years in the Senate, she has been the original sponsor of only 9 bills that were signed into law.
8) She even admitted her power to help Louisiana is limited.
9) What Landrieu’s “clout” on the energy committee has really done for Louisiana:
10) Tonight’s Keystone Vote
