Mary Landrieu: Public Enemy Number One

Since Katrina, Senator Mary Landrieu has become a national figure, thanks to her daffy comments.

WASHINGTON - (KRT) -- As the water began to rise in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina's roaring arrival, Sen. Mary Landrieu said it didn't take her long to realize the city's levees had been breached and a disaster was at hand.

"As a person who had worked on the levee system for 25 years, I knew what that meant," the Louisiana Democrat said Thursday. "It was just the most sinking feeling to know what was happening, even though television wasn't saying it."

Katrina devastated the city where her father had once been mayor and where she had been elected as the youngest woman member of the legislature before becoming a U.S. senator in 1996. It also vaulted this diminutive, plainspoken, assertive woman into the national spotlight as a critic of President Bush and the sluggish federal response to the hurricane.

...In the first week after the storm hit, Landrieu even had the audacity to say on national television that she would punch anyone, including the president of the United States, who criticized local sheriffs, police officers and firefighters trying to keep order in a chaotic city.

Though threatening the president is a crime, the Secret Service took it as a joke and the White House brushed off her remarks. In the Capitol on Thursday, she said these local officials were heroes, some had lost family members, and she meant every word.

"I do not take it back, I don't apologize for it. I said I would punch anybody, including the president," she said in her slight Cajun accent.

Mary Landrieu is dangerous--to herself.

In addition to disgracing Louisiana and the U.S. Senate, she has gone down a path that should destroy her political career.

Yesterday, she clarified her "punch the President" remark.

On ABC's This Week, September 4, Landrieu said, "If one person criticizes [our sheriffs], or says one more thing, including the president of the United States, he will hear from me - one more word about it after this show airs and I - I might likely have to punch him - literally."

When given the chance to apologize or at least back off a bit from her words, she refused.

Obviously, the Secret Service does not consider Landrieu to be a threat to the President's safety and rightly so.

Nonetheless, her refusal to rescind the remark shows that she has a tremendous amount of disrespect for President Bush and for the office of the U.S. Presidency and for the American people.

Shouldn't the press demand that the Democratic Party answer for Landrieu? Shouldn't the Dems be forced to distance themselves from her silly, but violent, threats?

After all, the Bush administration was held responsible for Pat Robertson's assassination recommendations, and he holds no elected office or position in the administration.

If Landrieu is looking for publicity, instead of hanging on to her verbal threats of physical violence, she should take action. She should camp out in a ditch in Crawford and wait for the President to go back to his ranch so she can punch him out.

Better yet, she could cut a deal with Don King and schedule a pay-per-view event.