It’s awfully big of Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington to ask people to support Sen. Mary Landrieu in her runoff election when Landrieu is using Cantwell’s positions on energy issues as one of the main reasons why Louisiana voters should send her back to D.C. for another six-year term.
“If I don’t get back there as a senior member of the [Energy] committee, we’re gonna have a woman who I like very much (but) I’m not sure Louisiana is going to think very much of a senator from Washington state who’s all for windmills and alternative energy, and doesn’t support the oil and gas industry.”
To begin with, the importance here is exaggerated because the Democrats have already lost control of the Senate. Neither Landrieu nor Cantwell will actually chair the Energy Committee, and as Ranking Members their influence won’t be all that great. The biggest impact is more theoretical. Should Cantwell become the Ranking Member then she would be in position to chair the committee in two years if the Democrats win back control of the upper chamber.
Personally, I’d much rather see Cantwell setting energy policy in the Senate than Landrieu, but I guess most people in Louisiana probably see things differently. And, while I don’t like to cede six-year seats to the Republicans, the way Landrieu attacks any threats to the oil and gas industry makes it very hard for me to regret her political defeat.
I understand that this is pretty much how any Louisiana politician would behave and that Landrieu is better than the Republicans on almost every other issue. I know that Cantwell understands this, too, which is why she’s shrugging off the disrespect and working to get Landrieu reelected.
I just don’t think we can play this game anymore on climate change. We need to get politicians like Landrieu and Joe Manchin from West Virginia to start thinking about how they can protect the economies of their states without standing in the way of addressing the problem with carbon emissions. I remember when nothing could be done about tobacco because of the impact on local and state economies. But we got through that and Virginia and Kentucky and North Carolina survived. We can do this if we can just get the right kind of leadership.
Unfortunately, Landrieu has shown absolutely no signs of getting that.
