Oops, that's my number (Senator Vitter)[MULTI-MERGED]

>>Steve, where you and I disagree is the relative importance of Mary Landrieu being re-elected. The window is closing on how much Washington is going to send to Louisiana.

But it's mega important. Because in the US House and the US Senate, the only way you move up the ranks is via seniority. I posted a link to an explanation of Seniority in the US Senate in a thread about 3 weeks ago. It's critical even. The posh assignments, seats and your rank in certain committees goes a long way to what you can do for the state. Look at our last 3 who had a shot to make it big (4 if you want to count William Jefferson who I think sat on House Appropriations) - Senator John Breaux, Representative Billy Tauzin and Representative Bob Livingston. Livingston couldn't keep his zipper up, and Tauzin and Breaux sold out for posh lobbyist jobs. Livingston was in line to be speaker of the house due to his tenure. Mary sits on Approprations and Armed Services (gets super high marks for her work with them as well - as an aside, one part of her amendment would have mandated = time homeside for time served in Iraq as it's supposed to be).

The only way you gain power is through attrition. And she'll be in her 3rd term which generally puts you on the cusp of bigger things. Once you get to be the ranking member (or even 2nd) in your respective party, you start chairing subcommittees and possibly even the committee itself. You get to steer legislation that directly affects your constitutents. It's one of the reasons that the citizens of Ohio lost out when they threw the Republican out in favor of Sherrod Brown and why the citizens of South Dakota lost out when they threw out Senator Daschle. It's just the way it works.

Unfortunately, Representative Jefferson and his scandals (if convicted) will cost us major clout in the House. Representative Melancon is only in his 2nd term as is (I think) Boustany. Baker is in a multiple term, but he's not really become the player that other senior house/senate members were for whatever reason. So we're left with one Freshman Senator who has had a completely undistinguished first term both as a majority and minority senator, a bunch of first and second termers in the house and Mary who's got a shot at a 3rd term in the Senate which could be valuable for the state depending on assignments. If you want me to dig up that other thread with the link explaining why seniority is so important and how it affects assignments and power, I'll dig it up.

:9:

TPS