Landrieu for senate

"It is a misfortune incident to republican Government," as James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers, "that those who administer it may forget their obligations to their constituents." Sometimes it feels like politicians never knew those obligations in the first place. Texas' vast borders encapsulate too many interests to count. Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison compared representing Texas to raising a teenager - there's always another issue you have to deal with. Still, a list of any Texas senator's obligations should start with three words: oil and gas.

Petroleum is the single most important industry in Texas, and yet it feels like our politicians treat it with an attitude of benign neglect. Rhetoric is limited to lip service and the hard policy issues are offloaded onto representatives from other states.

It is a shame that neither of Texas' senators sits on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. In fact, meeting with representatives from the American Petroleum Institute during CERA Week, the editorial board asked who the API looks to as a leader for oil and gas in the Senate. Their answer can be found a drive east on Interstate 10: U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

For Texas' sake, Louisiana voters should reelect Landrieu to office.

Whether you're a tough-as-steel rig worker or an environmental activist, the entire Gulf Coast benefits from Landrieu's ceaseless advocacy. The conservative Democrat has served as senator for three terms, and in that time she has demonstrated bipartisan knack at actually getting things done. This is a rare skill in a time when politicians are rewarded more for grabbing headlines than solid accomplishments. Landrieu governs as if serving her constituents is her highest ambition, and Texas benefits from our shared interests.

Louisiana's senior senator has been a leader in pushing for more natural gas exports and breaks with her party leadership to support the Keystone XL pipeline. Landrieu balances this oil and gas advocacy with a dedication to preserving the priceless ecology of the Gulf Coast. When BP paid billions to undo the damage of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, she worked to ensure that the money would be spent on repairing and protecting coastal wetlands, rather than hidden away in the general treasury. Yet when the federal government froze deepwater drilling after the BP oil spill, it was Landrieu who stepped up and put a hold on an Obama appointee until the administration not only ended the moratorium, but started issuing permits for deep and shallow water drilling. Beltway media chided Landrieu for that maneuver, and voters should reward it with reelection.

When Madison laid out his idea for selecting senators, he warned against being "deceived by those brilliant appearances of genius and patriotism, which, like transient meteors, sometimes mislead as well as dazzle."

Crowds may cheer the show horses, but Landrieu is a work horse. Texas is lucky that she's hitched to our oil and gas wagon.