"Moderate" Heidi Heitkamp Wants To Hold Keystone Hostage For Minimum Wage Hike

Senator Heidi Heitkamp barely won the 2012 election which put her in office. This lack of a meaningful mandate from voters means the Senator has to work very hard to cultivate an image as a moderate.

That’s certainly how she’s been positioning herself since most of her political allies were rejected by voters in 2014. As an important, middle-of-the-road Democrat swing vote.

But does that much up with her positions on the issues? Despite campaigning against him in 2012, Heitkamp voted with President Barack Obama’s state opinions on the issues 97 percent of the time during her first year in office. She even supported President Obama’s move to hike the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, and now is suggesting that Republicans ought to trade approval of the Keystone pipeline – the approval of a single energy project (albeit an important one) only necessitated by Obama’s road blocking – for a minimum wage hike.

Because that’s just the sort of thing moderates do:

WASHINGTON — At a recent conference meeting, Senate Democrats eager to see the federal minimum wage increased from $7.25 an hour were presented with a proposal. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) suggested that Democrats could offer a trade to their Republican colleagues: In exchange for agreeing to legislation authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, Heitkamp said, Democrats could demand that Republicans consent to raising the wage floor.

Several Democratic aides, who confirmed that Heitkamp made the proposal, say she mentioned a minimum wage increase as one of several items the party could extract from Republicans in exchange for backing the pipeline.

“Her pitch was basically we should use Keystone as a chit to trade for other things,” said one aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Congress shouldn’t have to be involving itself in the Keystone pipeline process. Again, Congress’ action is being necessitated by Barack Obama’s use of regulation for partisan political purposes.

Now Heitkamp wants to hold the Keystone pipeline approval hostage for a minimum wage hike?

That’s, uh, moderate?

Heitkamp isn’t the aw-shucks, middle-of-the-road Democrat she pretends to be. She’s a ruthless, calculating, liberal politician.

The pitch for North Dakota voters on Heitkamp is that even though she’s a Democrat she’ll govern like a Republican. That was basically her campaign platform in 2012 (so much so that the NDGOP jokingly offered her a membership).

But it’s just a facade. A Potemkin village.

People often ask me why I dislike Heidi Heitkamp. I can tell you, it’s not because I disagree with her liberal politics. It’s that she’s a phony.

In somewhat related news, here’s Senator Heitkamp on Twitter yesterday claiming that “women in this country are property.” Because that’s a moderate point of view.

Human trafficking is a serious issue, sure, but the vast majority of women in America aren’t treated like property. That Heitkamp would quote herself saying such a thing is something I can’t quite figure out.