On her Wednesday evening MSNBC Program, host Rachel Maddow condemned fellow progressive Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) call for an immediate vote on the Keystone Pipeline as a political ploy doomed to fail. Maddow intoned, "It will not help Mary Landrieu now anyway, but it will kind of screw the environment, give the Republicans what they want, upset the Democratic base, set the President up for a painful Presidential veto and split the Democratic Party in Congress and depress Democratic donors." 

Maddow opened her program with the anti-Landrieu rant, saying the Louisiana senator's move will help her runoff opponent Bill Cassidy and will split the Democratic party:

That leaves the only outstanding Senate seat from this year's elections, the seat that is held by Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in Louisiana. She's in a runoff that will happen December 6. Mary Landrieu had won a couple of Senate runoffs in Louisiana in the past, but the odds are thought to be against her in this one, so much so that the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee pulled all of their ad support for her that they were planning for the runoff.

But today in Washington, the first day of the lame duck session, Senator Landrieu took to the floor of the Senate, apparently with support from her Democratic colleagues in the Senate, to talk about what she wants to try to do to try to save her Senate seat. She announced today that she wants a vote immediately to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline. And when I say immediately, I mean immediately. She literally wants the vote to happen tomorrow.

Will that save Mary Landrieu's Senate seat? Well, let's look at one specific thing about what it is she wants to vote on. It's the bill that has already passed the House, to force construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. One name on that bill, sponsor of that bill is Mary Landrieu's opponent in that December 6th runoff for the Senate seat. It's a Republican bill. Bill Cassidy, who she's running against, Congressman Bill Cassidy sponsored that Keystone bill. So if Mary Landrieu bravely defies the Democratic Party and President Obama to get that Keystone passed, what she will be passing is her opponent's bill!

So yay! Slam dunk, now she beats him? That's a way to get him. Get his bill passed. Voters in Louisiana on December 6 are going to have a choice between a Republican guy that supports Keystone or the Democratic senator who supports Keystone. If they're going to vote on Keystone, that says nothing about whether or not she can win. There’s no choice on that subject in that Senate runoff.

And so the Democrats in the Senate, in their infinite wisdom, have apparently now lined up behind the Mary Landrieu strategy that they’re going to defy the wishes of the President, defy the Democrat Party's base, defy the richest, honestly, of the Democratic donor class, who are not all that psyched about throwing good money after bad at them, and they're going to go for Keystone because it will not help Mary Landrieu now anyway, but it will kind of screw the environment, give the Republicans what they want, upset the Democratic base, set the President up for a painful Presidential veto and split the Democratic Party in Congress and depress Democratic donors. Why wouldn't we do it? Honestly, it will win Democrats nothing, at great cost. So the big news out of Washington today is that they're going for it.