Kingpin

Here are some sunny quotations from this morning's Advocate.

While Vitter didn’t directly note his own role in ousting longtime adversary Landrieu, others have clearly noticed.

“He’s become the kingpin in Louisiana politics,” (Charlie) Cook said. “I think that he will dominate state politics for a good while.”

Ooof.  Well, maybe. We were just throwing this around on Twitter and noticed that this bit..

Word among most political observers is that Vitter was key to clearing the Republican field for the state’s 6th District congressman and in orchestrating Cassidy’s campaign. One of Vitter’s top aides, Joel DiGrado, served as Cassidy’s campaign manager after Cassidy parted ways with a consultant to Gov. Bobby Jindal. 

Isn't all that impressive given this.

@skooks he has all the money, but notable that field wasn't cleared for Cassidy to walk in without defeating Republicans in primary.
— Karl's in Charge (@karlschott) December 9, 2014

Rob Maness existed.  We're pretty sure that happened.  Also, Vitter didn't do anything to get Garret Graves elected so he doesn't control everything, apparently.

On the other hand, neither do any Democrats.

Samuels, the political science professor, said the gubernatorial run won’t be a slam dunk for Vitter, though he is currently seen as the front-runner in the race.

“Republicans will have a fight among themselves,” he said. “I don’t think the Republicans are going to concede the Governor’s Mansion to David Vitter.”

He said under Louisiana’s unusual “jungle primary” setup that pits all candidates, regardless of party, against each other from the start, it’s possible that two Republicans could face each other in a runoff — splitting the state’s GOP base in an unpredictable scenario.

“The Democrats may not have a candidate to make the runoff,” Samuels said. “The real question is what do the Democrats do.”

Also, if the answer to "what do you do?" is we sit around and wait for the indictments, then that's how you know you've already lost.