Washington Watch for Nov. 22, 2009

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Nov 22, 2009 - Page: 7B

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A few years back, a popular movie was “Charlie Wilson’s War,” which chronicled successful efforts by a Texas congressman to help rebels in Afghanistan defeat Russian troops.

Well, Louisiana, welcome to U.S. Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon’s War:

Melancon, a Napoleonville Democrat, is getting help in his fight to unseat U.S. Sen. David Vitter from “snipers”: the Louisiana Democratic Party and the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Some of their attacks on Vitter, a Republican, allowed Melancon to steer clear of directly criticizing Vitter.

Last week, all the Melancon sides were busy. Both Melancon and the party took aim at Vitter for missing a banking subcommittee hearing addressing homelessness among veterans.

The party fired a missive quoting a veteran criticizing Vitter for missing the vote. Melancon’s campaign released a  news release a day later with the candidate  weighing-in himself on the subject.

“It’s all about the right priorities and a senator’s first priority should be making sure our veterans get the unwavering support they’ve earned,” Melancon said in the statement.

Vitter missed the hearing because he was meeting with U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials over a proposed ban on Louisiana oysters that shellfish producers in Louisiana said would ruin their industry. Melancon also attended the meeting, which included a representative of Louisiana’s oyster industry.

Also last week, the party criticized Vitter when he missed two amendment votes on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Related Agencies Appropriations Act. One failed amendment would have extended support for caregivers of veterans prior to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

“Vitter AWOL on vets again,” blared the headline on the news release.

The Democratic senatorial committee last week blasted Vitter over his request to have the National Academy of Sciences do a study on formaldehyde. The Democrats claim that the Academy will rely heavily on industry-backed re-search.

Vitter said his efforts to find out the hazards of the material are sincere, adding that his request does not impede the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from doing its own studies.

The Louisiana Democratic Party also has blasted Vitter for opposing an amendment that called for cutting federal funding from companies that require employee disputes to be handled by arbitration.