Mary Landrieu Bows To The Inevitable, Becomes DC Lobbyist
Former US Senator Mary Landrieu, who spent a long and undistinguished political career shilling for the energy industry, has joined DC lobbying firm Van Ness Feldman and will focus on serving the firm’s energy clients. Though Landrieu is banned from lobbying her former colleagues in Congress until 2017, she is free to lobby the executive branch and tell her paymasters the best way to work the Senate for maximum profit.
Though politicians becoming lobbyists has become commonplace, Landrieu’s move to Van Ness is particularly odious given her conduct in the Senate – something Landrieu actually celebrated in a press release announcing her sell-out move saying “I am proud to join Van Ness Feldman. I have always respected the firm and worked closely with them during my 18 years in the Senate.”
In exchange for then-Senator Landrieu “working closely” with them, Van Ness gave Landrieu a good deal of money:
In the 2014 election cycle, Van Ness gave more money to Landrieu in both total donations ($14,350) and from its PAC ($7,500) than to any other member of Congress; the former senator, who lost her seat in a December runoff, collected about 17 percent of the $129,800 the firm’s PAC and employees gave out…
In 2013, the firm also represented TransCanada Corp, the company in charge of building the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline if it gets final approval. Landrieu supported the construction of the pipeline while in the Senate, and even brought her Republican opponent’s (then-Rep. Bill Cassidy) bill to the Senate floor in what was viewed as a last ditch effort to potentially prevent her defeat (though the proposed route doesn’t run through Louisiana).
But to be fair, Landrieu shilled for numerous donors in the energy industry while serving in public office including Exxon Mobil, NextEra Energy, Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips. Landrieu was an equal opportunity miscreant, she took money from the high and higher alike.
Then again, might there be a larger point worth pondering when one looks at the crooked trajectory of Mary Landrieu? Perhaps this is an opportune time to consider whether or not having career politicians necessitates a corrupt revolving door between industry and government. After all, what marketable skills does former Senator Landrieu have besides selling out the public interest?
Image via US Senate under public domain.
12 Comments
Pigs at the trough. Politicians should be citizens that have jobs and serve a term and then go back to their job. House of Cards is not brain surgery it is just greed and avarice legitimatized by tradition and the frailty of human nature. Naive is thinking these rich wannabe power brokers from elite schools care about good government.
I have to wonder what she really has to offer. The democratic party in the deep south is all but out of business. So what is she selling?
It’s also part payoff for services rendered when in the Senate. She had allot of visual aids during KXL debate. If libel attached to Senators in the Senate we could all sue her many times over for the bullpucky she spewed about jobs from KXL alone.
She always reminded me of Miss Piggy. A perfect fit for our industrial Animal Farm 2.0.
The Pols work cheap. Tenths of pennies on the dollar.
I’m always amazed at how cheaply these hacks sell their souls. For a lousy few thousand bucks she was at the beck and call of (next to the armaments industry) the most corrupt, dangerous and destructive bunch of corporate hooligans around.
I’d respect her more if she spanked Sen Vitter while he wore diapers. Lobbyist is lower than Prostitute sell yourself fine sell out the people who trusted you to represent their interests to advance your own….
Any bets a last minute approval of the Keystone pipeline by Obama as he leaves office otherwise why hire Mary at all she is an oil whore only.
The only thing that will kill KXL is the energy economy IMO.
I thought I had something snarky to say….Y’all have soooo outdone me…;)
Mary Landrieu is the very definition of an honest politician: Once bought, she stays bought.
And she had in fact quite a distinguished career in the Senate. I can’t remember a time when CREW didn’t have her listed, usually at or near the top, in the Top Ten Most Corrupt members of Congress. She along with the Nelsons was also the perfect foil for the Democrats. Her footdragging and refusal to support any even modestly progressive legislation gave them the perfect out, that they could say, Gosh, darn it, we wanted to do this, but we just didn’t have the votes. If she hadn’t existed, Harry Reid would have had to invent her.
She’s been little more than an oil company lobbyist during her congressional terms, so why should anything change today.