There are long shots, and then there are sad acts of desperation. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s bid to secure approval for the Keystone XL pipeline is the latter.
With hopes of holding her seat in the Senate looking bleak, Landrieu is scrambling to prove her worth to Louisiana voters. This is consistent with the pattern her campaign set during the primaries, which continuously berated anyone who would listen with talking points about her ‘clout’ in the Senate.
Her solution was simple: Get Keystone XL approved, which makes sense, given that almost every candidate in this state has campaigned on the same message. 
After getting the nod from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to move forward with the vote, Landrieu and other oil-friendly Senate Democrats started scrambling to collect the 60 votes needed for the plan’s passage. As I am writing, they are sitting at 59 confirmed yes votes and a vote could come as early as Tuesday evening.
Ironically, on Friday, the House of Representatives has already voted on and approved the Senate’s plan, spearheaded by none other than Congressman Bill Cassidy.
Even if the pipeline is approved and construction begins before the runoff, it is unlikely that it would help the senator’s chances in the general election runoff on Dec. 6.
As it stands, Cassidy is leading Landrieu in his internal polls by a commanding 16 points. While that number may be skewed to the high end, unless the margin of error is around 7 percent, a laughable prospect, then Cassidy is still leading the senator by double digits.
To make matters even worse for Landrieu, Col. Rob Maness, formerly the Louisiana Tea Party and Sarah Palin-backed candidate, is now campaigning for Cassidy. Maness represents the right wing of the right wing, and he managed to garner roughly 14 percent of the vote in the primary, proving that this state has the potential to be just as crimson as Alabama.
Even if less than half of his supporters turn out for Cassidy, the congressman will still win by a comfortable margin.
I think what said it best is when the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee dumped the $1.8 million it had reserved for pro-Landrieu advertising during the runoff. When your own party doesn’t think it a wise investment to advertise for your campaign, that’s probably a sign to throw in the towel.
Not to say that it’s entirely impossible for her to eke out a victory. However, the only way I see that happening is if Cassidy is caught in bed with “a live boy or a dead girl,” to quote our esteemed former governor Edwin Edwards, who also is running in the runoffs.
If anything, the senator’s attempt to ram the proposal through may be met with scorn by Louisiana voters. They, along with the rest of the thinking world, will see it’s simply a self-interested attempt by the Democrats to save one of their Senate seats. If it were really about the country and Louisiana’s best interests, it would have been approved months ago.
I suppose the silver lining to all of this is that Landrieu’s desperation will facilitate the final approval and construction of the project, which has sat in senatorial purgatory for far too long.
It still won’t be enough to save Landrieu. As far as the voters of Louisiana are concerned, her career as our senator is done.
Ryan McGehee is a 21-year-old international studies, political science and history senior from Zachary, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @JRyanMcGehee.