In the past month I’ve published a number of pieces, big and small, on the runoff in the Louisiana Senate race. The most comprehensive was here, in a 1,600-word feature for The Weekly Standard, capturing the colorful essence of Louisiana politics. It may be a dying practice, this politics-as-entertainment thing, but it’s worth celebrating for its spirit if not for the corruption that used to go along with it. It received major play for a full day on Drudge….
Right after the November election, I had suggested to Louisiana readers that Mary Landrieu might want to “cut her losses.”
And although I’ve been rather nice to Sen. Landrieu for years, she hasn’t fared very well in my blog posts in the past month. For example, I fact-checked one of her press releases. And here, I remarked on her astonishing defeat on the bill approving the Keystone Pipeline — although I did note this:
Even if it’s clear that her efforts for home-state interests are unavailing (as they have been on multiple issues since Obama became president), and that therefore it makes little sense to keep her in the Senate, it’s also clear that her unabashedly up-front doggedness is an admirable trait. As President Lincoln said about Ulysses Grant (except that the gender is obviously different), “I like this man: he fights.”
Moving on, I also wrote a hodgepodge of other things for Louisiana readers. Like: Why their state is special. Why a lawsuit against their charter schools is so harmful. About the pitfalls of good-ol-boy (or bad-ol-boy) politics. And about why it’s silly to take umbrage at a get-out-the-vote post-card.
MEANWHILE, IN ALABAMA, I supported a measure against foreign laws, looked ahead to some tough sledding on the state budget, and revisited the tragic death of Angel Downs, mistress of country commissioner Stephen Nodine.
NATIONALLY, I wrote on media bias, the president’s misguided response to Ferguson, the folly of Republicans promising legislative action on immigration and of talk of a rescission package related thereto — and on how the Republicans in Congress SHOULD take advantage of their new majority, quite constructively. I explained why the Supreme Court should decide to hear a case related to the BP oil spill, lamented the loss of great conservative champion Phil Crane while celebrating some rising conservative stars, and warned the newly Republican Senate not to mess with that which has already been nuked (filibusters of judicial nominees).
I’ll update this site far more frequently going forward, so as not to bombard readers with so many items at once. But at least this way you get to pick and choose topics that might interest you. I hope you enjoy at least some of these articles.
