In the Right

Erickson's decision to highlight the Landrieu vote -- using rhetoric originally suggested by the communications shop at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which put out a release on Saturday afternoon in which it labeled the Reid-Landrieu swap "The Louisiana Purchase" -- is good news for the NRSC's high command, as it demonstrates that just because Erickson and his cohorts at RedState are feuding with the NRSC over the Florida U.S. Senate primary, they are still willing to work together when their perceived interests converge.

The only problem here, of course, is that Louisianans have already proven themselves to hold what might be called a somewhat less rigid approach to what might be called the "moral" side of the work done on their behalf by their representatives in Washington than either Erickson or the NRSC might like.

Not for Louisianans, the curse of the straight-up moralizers, no sirree.

Why, all one must do to find evidence of this is look at John Breaux, Landrieu's former colleague representing Louisiana in the Senate, who famously defended his own trough-swilling in 1981 -- when he crossed party lines to cast the decisive vote for Ronald Reagan's tax-cutting budget, in exchange for some piece of federal pork offered by the Reagan White House -- by declaring that his vote was not available for sale, "but it is available for rent."

Or look at the 1991 Governor's race in Louisiana, where a the fall runoff campaign pitted shady former Gov. Edwin Edwards against scary former Klansman David Duke, and Edwards won the race using the slogan, "Vote for the crook. It's important."

Louisianans are a far more tolerant lot than most. There seems to be an implicit understanding between Louisiana voters and Louisiana's elected officials: Louisiana's voters don't mind it when their representatives are crooks, as long as their crooked representatives bring home the bacon.

So RedState and the NRSC can dudgeon away -- but Mary Landrieu, who's not even up for reelection again until 2014, isn't about to be swayed. Especially not when she can rent her vote for $300 million a pop.

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