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Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is vulnerable; she needs help. Instead, liberals are shamelessly turning their backs on the three-term senator.

Landrieu gets it and they don't like it. Hollywood and simpatico leftist political writers have long loved Robert Redford asking, "what do we do now?" at the end of "The Candidate." It suits them to think they must perpetually guide elected officials.

But this November, voters answered that question emphatically. "Not that," they said of Washington's liberal tack the past six years.

Surveying the wreckage, some Democrats have gotten the message. Landrieu is one of them. Yes, her steps like voting against Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., as Senate Minority Leader and her newfound enthusiasm for a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline smack of desperation. It's obvious these are moves Landrieu feels compelled to make with her political back against the wall.

On the other hand, they are the right things to do. They are things most of her constituents or the country want her to do. And they are therefore things any reasonable official reading the post-midterm political tealeaves would do.

Do others on the left see it that way? They do not. The good liberals at Talking Points Memo survey Landrieu's collapsing support among Democratic moneymen and throw up the headline"Dead Woman Walking." Outside groups that provide critical financial support are also sitting out the Louisiana runoff.

The left-wing writer Richard Yeselson smugly tweets, "pretty much everything politically and substantively lame about Democratic party encapsulated 'vote Keystone; save Landrieu' brain freeze."

Yeselson has it exactly backwards. The Pew Foundation has dug into the roughly2-to-1 support the pipeline enjoys and found only one subset of people - hardcore liberals - against it.

In other words, more Democrats favor it than oppose it. Landrieu, who has long said she backs it and is now moving aggressively for a vote on it, is thus in line with America. What's more, to listen to her campaign line, these steps don't even mark a detour for her; they are, in fact, in line with her thinking all along.

To sum up: Louisiana voters said they want a turnaround, and perhaps did so in such a way that the shift won't include Landrieu. Nevertheless, in response she makes these very reasonable and, again according to her storyline, consistent moves.

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Liberals turn their backs on Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.: James Varney