Mary Landrieu: 'I Am Not A Handmaiden To The Oil Industry'

In the middle of the disastrous Gulf coast oil spill, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) sought to put distance between herself and the oil industry on Wednesday.

In an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Landrieu, who has been at the receiving end of large contributions from oil companies, declared: "I am not a hand maiden to the oil industry."

She added that she had received campaign donations from both oil companies and from environmental groups: "I'm very proud to actually receive money from both sides of this debate because they, I believe, understand that I'm as honest a broker as I can be here."

Landrieu said on Tuesday that she did not intend to return the contributions from oil companies she had already received. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, "individuals and employees" associated with BP gave Landrieu's campaign almost $17,000 during the 2008 election cycle.

"Senator Landrieu has no plans to return donations from BP's PAC or BP employees" Landrieu's communications director Aaron Saunders said, according to the Open Secrets blog.

Watch video of Landrieu's appearance:

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Comments

[madisonhack]

08:35 AM on 05/19/2010

This whole thread is sounding a bit sexist.

[freethinking moderate]

10:55 AM on 05/06/2010

Would "prostitute" not be a more appropriate term then?

[WOODSTOCKER51]

10:36 AM on 05/06/2010

Main Entry: handmaiden !han(d)-!mA-d/un
Pronunciation: \ -ˌmā-dən \
Function: noun
Date: 13th century
1. 1a personal maid or female servant

Main Entry: prostitute !pr@s-tu-+tUt
Pronunciation: \ ˈpräs-tə-ˌtüt, -ˌtyüt \
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): pros·ti·tut·ed, pros·ti·tut·ing,
Etymology: Latin prostitutus, past participle of prostituere, from pro- before + statuere to station - More at - pro-, statute
Date: 1530
1. to devote to corrupt or unworthy purposes : debase - ∼ one's talents

??????????????????????????????

[Fleurdamour]

10:12 AM on 05/06/2010

If it were me, I'd donate that money AND the environmental groups' money to the cleanup effort, just to avoid the appearance of impropriety and to do the right thing by my state. But I have ethics, I'm not a politician. She's so dumb she probably wouldn't understand that making a move like that would be more likely later to get her reelected than digging in her heels over a measly 17 grand and shrugging off accountability.

[Grant Morrison]

09:59 AM on 05/06/2010

..

Nope, not a "hand maiden".

Maiden-of-honor, more like.

.

[WOODSTOCKER51]

10:37 AM on 05/06/2010

SHOULD BE PUT IN AN "IRON MAIDEN"...

[uglygnome]

09:58 AM on 05/06/2010

No, you are their succubus.

[Carlos Manuel]

09:40 AM on 05/06/2010

If not hand maiden then certainly the facilitator

[Iyalashegelede]

09:28 AM on 05/06/2010

She is the oil industries concubine.

[razorblade]

09:02 AM on 05/06/2010

Hand maid?

I think they meant hand j0b.

[suzc]

08:59 AM on 05/06/2010

Dear Mary, Of course you are!

[Manhattanite]

07:45 AM on 05/06/2010

Indeed, Mary! You're worse than that and I won't write the word because the censors will scrub my comment.

[afgail]

06:42 AM on 05/06/2010

Yes, handmaiden is not an accurate description. Oil industry champion - defender - apologist are closer to the truth

[valhalladad]

07:04 AM on 05/06/2010

Of course there are more accurate terms describing what our politicians are doing for money.

[Blknight96]

03:27 AM on 05/06/2010

Shame on Bill Clinton and President Obama for propping this "DOOR" up with ads supporting her re-election bid. She does NOT deserve to go back into the Senate as a Democrat, she will make a fine Republican and can go live at the infamous C Street address.

[Blknight96]

03:23 AM on 05/06/2010

No she's not, she has long since graduated way past that. Big Oil seen her ad on craigslist's Adult section right next to Sarah Palin's ad. Donations are always welcomed, after a fun night together..

[AirViceMarshalPark]

03:13 AM on 05/06/2010

Right you are Gov. Why mess around with silly little oil companies when there is Family business in town?