After Boustany’s selfish ass-saving stunt on redistricting, he deserves no such promotion. Landry is exactly the kind of person we need in the Senate.
I agree that Congressman Landry is exactly the kind of person that we need in the Senate. But do you know who also were the kinds of person we needed in the Senate? Woody Jenkins and Suzie Terrell (not so sure that John N. Kennedy would have been that great). Jeff Landry’s political career consists of a defeat in a 2007 state representative race, a victory in the 2010 LA-03 race, and a defeat in the run-off against a fellow incumbent Republican after getting screwed in redistricting in 2012. We need someone with the profile and political skills to defeat Landrieu, who always seems to slip away despite being eminently beatable. She wins by cleaning up in Cajun Country when we run a Protestant, or by doing better than expected in the Protestant north when we run a Catholic. And we have yet tried running someone with several congressional terms under his belt (well, Cook faced her in 2002, but after his stupid “diaper-on-the-head” comment his campaign imploded and he didn’t make the run-off). I think that a Protestant from Cajun Country with 10 years of experience in Congress would finally slay the dragon, and while I’m by no means happy that Boustany outmanouvered Landry by getting LA Republican legislators to keep the Lake Charles area in his district, I’d rather make sure we beat Landrieu than exact revenge. And having Landry return to Congress isn’t exactly a bad result for him—he’s still a young man and affter a few terms could run statewide if that’s his true aspiration.
But if Gov. Jindal wants the Senate seat, I’d defer to him, since he’d win for sure and would make a better senator than either Boustany or Landry.