The News Star - Landrieu Stays Centered

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The News Star - Landrieu Stays Centered

By Mike Hasten

Just because her political party will be in control of the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, it doesn't necessarily make U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's job easier.

"It hasn't been this way for a while," said Landrieu, still basking in her Nov. 4 re-election by the largest margin of victory in her three Senate campaigns.

"More recently, it's been all-Republican. Regardless of whether it's a Republican majority or Democratic majority, it's still a challenge for those of us in the center," she said.

Landrieu and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, co-chair the Common Ground Coalition, which has joined with the Bipartisan Policy Center, another group of senators seeking nonpartisan solutions to problem issues.

"I'm receptive to the suggestions of the Democratic Party, but I don't agree with them all the time — all the time with the Republicans, either," she said.

Working with the Obama administration to solve the nation's problems will be wonderful, she said. "We have a long list to solve." With the vast majority of Louisiana's congressmen being Republican, the delegation's success with a Democrat-controlled Congress and administration is up to them, Landrieu said.

"It all depends on how they position themselves," she said. "If they take the position of radical partisans, they won't get very far. If they're willing to work with others, they can be successful. I most certainly will help them as much as I can.

Landrieu said that even with a majority, Democrats are not likely to get everything they want because, like her, not everyone with a D behind his or her name agrees with every party position.

Also, "the minority is still very powerful in the Senate."

Landrieu said she and U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, and former Reps. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, and Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport, worked together on issues important to the state. Also, "Rep. (Charles) Boustany (R-Lafayette) and I work well together."

Her willingness to reach beyond her base of Democratic support was reflected in the election results, which show she did well in some traditionally Republican strongholds.

She credits that to "a very independent, very Louisiana-based campaign. I ran the way I serve." Landrieu said that as soon as she returns to Washington for the Nov. 17 "lame-duck" session, she will again push her bill to aid Louisiana farmers whose crops were devastated by hurricanes Gustav and Ike. U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., invoked a "hold" on the bill before adjournment in August.

Landrieu said, come January, she expects to find an Obama administration and Congress more receptive to Louisiana's needs for coastal restoration and hurricane protection projects.

She also will seek to accelerate state revenue sharing payments from offshore production. Under the bill she successfully co-authored in 2006, which for the first time gives the state a portion of revenue from Outer Continental Shelf drilling, major state income doesn't arrive until 2016.

Landrieu says the state should be "an energy leader," both in oil and gas production and in the development and production of alternative fuels using agricultural products.

T. Bradley Keith, Landrieu's state director, said Landrieu also is pushing to secure for Barksdale Air Force Base "as much of the cyber command as the Air Force is willing to allow." Barksdale appeared to be the chosen site for a Cyber Command Center until the military applied the brakes in October. But that hasn't slowed development of cyber operations at Barksdale.

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