Lindy Boggs, Mother of Cokie Roberts, Endorses Senator Landrieu

The Shreveport (LA) Times ^ | 12-4-02 | Staff report

[Theodore R.]

Mary Landrieu touts Boggs endorsement Posted on December 4, 2002

NEW ORLEANS - Senate re-election candidate Mary Landrieu spent midday Tuesday eating red beans and rice with dockworkers at the same time her opponent and President George W. Bush were raising $1.3 million at a GOP fund-raiser luncheon.

In tow for much of the day was fellow Democrat, Louisiana's senior senator, John Breaux.

"We don't have fine china. We have plastic forks, not fancy silverware ... because many people we're talking to can't afford $20 for lunch let alone $2,000 a couple," Breaux said after eating a small plate of red beans and rice.

Landrieu and Breaux began the day at the Port of Iberia in New Iberia before heading to lunch at the dockworkers' labor hall in New Orleans. The day ended at an upscale venue at the Ritz-Carlton penthouse - a reception organized by Mayor Ray Nagin.

Landrieu also touted an endorsement from former Vatican ambassador and Louisiana Congresswoman Lindy Boggs.

Breaux and Landrieu stressed their value to Louisiana as a team and said Louisiana needs to keep Landrieu's seats on three Senate committees: Appropriations, Armed Services and Energy and Natural Resources. They also sought to portray GOP opponent Suzanne Haik Terrell as a pawn for the national Republican Party.

"Why would we want to trade down. This is not a time to give up seats we have on these committees," Landrieu said. "We have people all over the country asking Louisiana to give up this seniority - these seats of power - and for what? So we can have rubber stamp for policies that put Louisiana people out of work?"

Landrieu's campaign released a translation of an article that appeared in Reforma, a Mexcio City newspaper that said American-Mexican trade negotiators have agreed to double sugar imports from this year's 148,000 tons to 300,000 tons. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said he knew nothing about the report.

While she supports the president on many issues, Landrieu said the sugar import quota increase "is a prime example of how some, but not all, of the president's policies are harmful to the state of Louisiana. Not only am I not going to vote with him on this, but I am going to fight him every step of the way.

"The next time the president is here, I hope he will spend time with our sugar farmers, who are already hurting, and with our dockworkers, who have been harmed by the tariff on imported steel."

Donaldsonville sugar cane grower Waren Harrang, who farms 1,750 acres of cane, said the two hurricanes and heavy rains in South Louisiana caused serious damage to Louisiana agriculture. "We have been devastated. Hopefully, I will survive."

Landrieu and Breaux begin today in New Orleans, then travel to Monroe and Shreveport.

[Theodore R.]

Liberal Lindy Boggs was elected to Congress in the spring of 1973, after the death of her husband T. Hale Boggs, then a House Democrat leader, in a plane crash over Alaska. When she retired, her seat went to the black liberal Democrat William Jefferson, who now wishes to head the House Democrat Reelection Committee. Mrs. Boggs is the mother of D.C. lobbyist Thomas "Tommy" Boggs, former ABC "This Week" co-host Cokie Boggs Roberts, and the late Barbara Sigmund, who was a Democrat mayor in NJ prior to her death from cancer. She is the LA Democrat equivalent to TX's Lady Bird Johnson.

[alwaysconservative]

And with the Democrats' view on abortion, SHE was the ambassador to the Vatican? Sheesh! What a slap in the face to the Catholics. (Yet another group that seems to be stuck on the Dem plantation. . .)

[Savage Beast]

Looks like these people are long-time supporters of the Party of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, the poll tax, and The Democratic WHITE Primary.

[Sgt_Schultze]

I must win, such is the will of Landru.

:-)

[Theodore R.]

I am unsure if LA had a white primary (declared unconstitutional in 1944), but I know that SC and TX did. LA kept many illiterate and semiliterates from even being able to register: hence LBJ's Voting Rights Act of 1965. When the mass of blacks began registering and voting, they chose the party of LBJ, which they associated with the fulfillment of JFK's civil rights promises. Until 1915, LA exempted illiterate and semiliterate whites from the requirements of its voter literacy test: under the "grandfather clause."

[Theodore R.]

Yes, LA Catholics have been a mainstay of the modern LA Democrat party. They voted overwhelmingly, for instance, for JFK in 1960. EWE was a nominal Catholic as well. So are Breaux and Landrieu. For many LA Catholics, the church, the party, and the family are merely part of their cultural and religious heritage.

[goldstategop]

How can you have a pro-choice Catholic?? I'd love to see if Louisianans consent so readily to be Here's Mary's sucker.

[Theodore R.]

To be honest, I do not know Lindy Boggs' position on abortion. I ASSUME that she is for the woman's "right to choose," but I don't specifically recall how she stands. I believe she lives in New Orleans but may be in good enough health to travel a great deal. I know that she is a close friend of David Brinkley, Cokie's former partner on ABC. And David Brinkley is a close friend of Bob Dole. So with E. Dole coming into LA for Terrell, and David Brinkley close to Boggs-Roberts, I would imagine that David is also for Landrieu. Brinkley and Mrs. Dole are native North Carolinians. Bob Dole was also a close friend of the former LA Democrat Sen. Russell B. Long, whose second wife is (was) also a North Carolinian. In fact, Bob Dole did a TV commercial for Long in 1980, when he was then being challenged by Woody Jenkins, a Democrat at the time. In 1996, however, then presidential candidate Bob Dole was for Jenkins, because he had since switched parties. Landrieu beat Jenkins by less than 6,000 votes. Fraud was alleged in the LA outcome. Recall that after B. Dole lost the presidential race, David Brinkley began attacking AR Bill on the air, when he thought the microphone was off.

[MHT]

Like this is a surprise? I wonder how many have been holding their breaths with anticipation awaiting this unexpected endorsement....and how many current voters even know who this woman is.

[RooRoobird14]

Is it just me, or is Mary Landrieu really dumber than a bag of hammers? Every time I see or hear this woman, it's simply embarassing---how in the world did such an unpolished, inarticulate BOZO end up in the Senate?

Hmmmmmmmmmm: Lindy Boggs endorse Mary Landrieu-does that actually mean anything?

[Slyfox]

I don't know if this is connected but it is sorta interesting.

"House majority leader T. Hale Boggs (journalist Cokie Roberts’ father—did you know that? we didn’t) went so far as to accuse the FBI of Gestapo-like tactics and publicly expressed doubts about the Warren Commission’s findings. He disappeared in a plane flight over Alaska—which is what he gets for expressing doubts about anything done by a committee. And how about this for a weird detail: the person who drove Boggs to the airport for that fatal flight was a young Bill Clinton (Belzer, pp. 31-32). What are the odds of that?"

[RooRoobird14]

Yes, I knew about the Hale Boggs connection. Interesting about the Bill Clinton as driver link. LOL

[JohnnyZ]

"How can you have a pro-choice Catholic?? "

Congress is crawling with pro-abortion Catholics. Heck, I think Tom Daschle is Catholic!!!!!

Suzie Terrell is Catholic, too, which would be an incalculable blessing, since she'd be the 2nd pro-life woman senator along with Liddy Dole.

[dtrab]

Lindy Boggs was pro-life; if she were in Congress today, many members of the media and the Democratic Party would be denouncing her as a right-wing extremist. She proved that you can support non-discrimination based on race and gender while supporting life.

[wardaddy]

“And whole really killed Hale Boggs?”

.....Winter in America by Gil Scot Heron

[wardaddy]

Don’t make disparaging comments about people of color please

Mary Landrieu was Dinah Shore’s love child

/s