Bayh Bye

[citizen k]

When and how did the jobs bill die?

[KRonn]

Too bad about Bayh leaving. He seemed to be one of the good Congress members, more centrist, reasonable. He has good poll ratings too, so it would seem that he was a good bet to win the next election to remain in office. He seems to have gotten fed up with how things are going in Congress, and with his own party's direction.

[derspiess]

Always bittersweet when one of the good Dems retire.  Yeah, there's an opportunity for the GOP to pick up a seat, but it's like having one of your best friends move away when you're a kid.  Bayh was always right up there with Sam Nunn on the list of Dems I really liked.

[DGuller]

In the long term, I'm not totally sure this is a bad thing.  The Republicans aren't ready to return to national power yet; give them some actual power, and they'll just look like the douchebags they still are, and the Democrats are as likely now as ever to change.

Except, perhaps, for Security.  The idea that we could have idiots like Hans in the Senate arguing on all channels on Sunday about how the Inquisition got a lot of things right will not be pretty.

Should we at some point try to get things done, rather than putting the other party in power so they could fuck up the country more and discredit themselves?

[Sheilbh]

Too bad about Bayh leaving. He seemed to be one of the good Congress members, more centrist, reasonable. He has good poll ratings too, so it would seem that he was a good bet to win the next election to remain in office. He seems to have gotten fed up with how things are going in Congress, and with his own party's direction.

I disagree, I remember reading how he suddenly became a terribly liberal Senator in 2006/07 when he was thinking about running for President or being a VP nominee.  He was the ultimate weather-vane politician.  I agree with Ross Douthat's assessment:

The Emptiness of Evan Bayh

Before he decided not to run for re-election, Evan Bayh was an unpopular figure in the liberal blogosphere. Now he's  straightforwardly reviled. Normally, this would incline me to find something positive to say about him, but after meditating on the Bayh record, such as it was, I find myself basically agreeing with Michael Tomasky:

    It doesn't bother me that he was a moderate. The party needs moderates.

    But even on his own terms as a moderate, he didn't lead on anything that I'm aware of. He talked a lot about the deficit, but I'm unaware of any genuine policy impact he might have had.

    Last year he formed a moderate coalition of some sort in the Senate that he led. It seems to have done nothing. I'm sure it did some things. But it strikes me that if it had done anything important, anything that actually shaped the debate, I'd know about it, and I don't.

    And yet: the Washington media always hyped the guy. Moderate, midwestern, handsome in an anodyne way, well-spoken if you consider the ability to articulate obvious conventional wisdom a virtue.

    But there was less there than met the eye. And now perhaps we see, in the way he handled this decision, one reason why.

This is harsh but ultimately fair. America needs politicians who stake out interesting, politically-courageous positions on important policy questions. What it doesn't need is politicians who occupy the safest possible ground on the great issues of the day, shift slightly left or slightly right depending on the state of public opinion, and then get congratulated by the press for being so independent-minded.

Bayh wasn't as bad, in this regard, as someone like Arlen Specter, but he wasn't much good, either. His big issue was supposed to be deficit reduction, but you wouldn't catch him dead proposing anything remotely like Paul Ryan's fiscal roadmap, with its detailed list of programs to be reshaped and reduced.  (Bayh preferred the "bravery" of punting the issue to a commission.) On foreign policy, he was a liberal hawk on every vote except the hard ones: He backed the Iraq invasion in 2003 and takes a hard line on Iran today, but in the debate over the surge, when being hawkish was suddenly costly, he sided with the doves. Wherever the Beltway conventional wisdom settled, there was Evan Bayh — and he was rewarded for it with endless presidential and vice-presidential chatter, which has followed him, absurdly, even now that he's announced his retirement.

In his farewell statement, Bayh complained that in today's Washington, there's "too much partisanship and not enough progress — too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving." He's right, up to a point, but his own record suggests that centrists as well as ideologues can be part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

[Jaron]

In the long term, I'm not totally sure this is a bad thing.  The Republicans aren't ready to return to national power yet; give them some actual power, and they'll just look like the douchebags they still are, and the Democrats are as likely now as ever to change.

Except, perhaps, for Security.  The idea that we could have idiots like Hans in the Senate arguing on all channels on Sunday about how the Inquisition got a lot of things right will not be pretty.

Should we at some point try to get things done, rather than putting the other party in power so they could fuck up the country more and discredit themselves?

Amen to that brother.

[KRonn]

In the long term, I'm not totally sure this is a bad thing.  The Republicans aren't ready to return to national power yet; give them some actual power, and they'll just look like the douchebags they still are, and the Democrats are as likely now as ever to change.

Except, perhaps, for Security.  The idea that we could have idiots like Hans in the Senate arguing on all channels on Sunday about how the Inquisition got a lot of things right will not be pretty.

Should we at some point try to get things done, rather than putting the other party in power so they could fuck up the country more and discredit themselves?

Things have not been progressing so well with the Dems in full power. And the voters are so "pleased" that the Dem party is running scared of consequences.

[KRonn]

Too bad about Bayh leaving. He seemed to be one of the good Congress members, more centrist, reasonable. He has good poll ratings too, so it would seem that he was a good bet to win the next election to remain in office. He seems to have gotten fed up with how things are going in Congress, and with his own party's direction.

I disagree, I remember reading how he suddenly became a terribly liberal Senator in 2006/07 when he was thinking about running for President or being a VP nominee.  He was the ultimate weather-vane politician.  I agree with Ross Douthat's assessment:

The Emptiness of Evan Bayh

Before he decided not to run for re-election, Evan Bayh was an unpopular figure in the liberal blogosphere. Now he's  straightforwardly reviled. Normally, this would incline me to find something positive to say about him, but after meditating on the Bayh record, such as it was, I find myself basically agreeing with Michael Tomasky:

    It doesn't bother me that he was a moderate. The party needs moderates.

    But even on his own terms as a moderate, he didn't lead on anything that I'm aware of. He talked a lot about the deficit, but I'm unaware of any genuine policy impact he might have had.

    Last year he formed a moderate coalition of some sort in the Senate that he led. It seems to have done nothing. I'm sure it did some things. But it strikes me that if it had done anything important, anything that actually shaped the debate, I'd know about it, and I don't.

    And yet: the Washington media always hyped the guy. Moderate, midwestern, handsome in an anodyne way, well-spoken if you consider the ability to articulate obvious conventional wisdom a virtue.

    But there was less there than met the eye. And now perhaps we see, in the way he handled this decision, one reason why.

This is harsh but ultimately fair. America needs politicians who stake out interesting, politically-courageous positions on important policy questions. What it doesn't need is politicians who occupy the safest possible ground on the great issues of the day, shift slightly left or slightly right depending on the state of public opinion, and then get congratulated by the press for being so independent-minded.

Bayh wasn't as bad, in this regard, as someone like Arlen Specter, but he wasn't much good, either. His big issue was supposed to be deficit reduction, but you wouldn't catch him dead proposing anything remotely like Paul Ryan's fiscal roadmap, with its detailed list of programs to be reshaped and reduced.  (Bayh preferred the "bravery" of punting the issue to a commission.) On foreign policy, he was a liberal hawk on every vote except the hard ones: He backed the Iraq invasion in 2003 and takes a hard line on Iran today, but in the debate over the surge, when being hawkish was suddenly costly, he sided with the doves. Wherever the Beltway conventional wisdom settled, there was Evan Bayh — and he was rewarded for it with endless presidential and vice-presidential chatter, which has followed him, absurdly, even now that he's announced his retirement.

In his farewell statement, Bayh complained that in today's Washington, there's "too much partisanship and not enough progress — too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving." He's right, up to a point, but his own record suggests that centrists as well as ideologues can be part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

This may be Bayh's way, don't know. The writer could be someone with an adverse point of view, but I'm inclined to give the writer some credit on this. I don't know Bayh well; it just seemed that he seemed to speak to a sensible middle ground on some of the issues of late, and that's what I tended to pick up on. He appeared to be a centrist in a Congress that seems to be hardening left/right wing more. If however, he's about as the article states then he's likely part of the problem in Congressional politics.

[Caliga]

Will his campaign platform be: LITTLE PINK HOUSES FOR YOU AND ME.

Rumors: John Mellencamp May Run for Bayh's Senate Seat
Updated: Thursday, 18 Feb 2010, 7:37 AM CST
Published : Thursday, 18 Feb 2010, 7:36 AM CST

By Jennifer Fermino

(New York Post) - Now that Indiana Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) is officially ceding his seat, some Democrats hoped to boost another prominent Hoosier to the Senate, singer John Cougar Mellencamp, the New York Post reported Thursday.

Speculation swirled around Mellencamp, an outspoken liberal rocker who once backed John Edwards for president, as a natural choice to replace Bayh after he decided not to run for re-election.

Although Mellencamp's representatives had yet to comment on a possible run, almost 1,000 people joined "Draft John Mellencamp for Senate" on Facebook, and many liberal bloggers also called on him to jump in.

Mellencamp, an Indiana native whose hits include Jack and Diane, never before held public office but remains extremely popular in the state because of his role as a co-founder of Farm Aid, a 25-year-old festival that raises money for struggling farmers.

The 58-year-old musician was also an outspoken critic of the Iraq War.

He performed at the White House last week in the "Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement."

[garbon]

So Sheilbh hates on mostly inoffensive Bayh and then supports Pelosi?

[Ed Anger]

Will his campaign platform be: LITTLE PINK HOUSES FOR YOU AND ME.

Rumors: John Mellencamp May Run for Bayh's Senate Seat
Updated: Thursday, 18 Feb 2010, 7:37 AM CST
Published : Thursday, 18 Feb 2010, 7:36 AM CST

By Jennifer Fermino

(New York Post) - Now that Indiana Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) is officially ceding his seat, some Democrats hoped to boost another prominent Hoosier to the Senate, singer John Cougar Mellencamp, the New York Post reported Thursday.

Speculation swirled around Mellencamp, an outspoken liberal rocker who once backed John Edwards for president, as a natural choice to replace Bayh after he decided not to run for re-election.

Although Mellencamp's representatives had yet to comment on a possible run, almost 1,000 people joined "Draft John Mellencamp for Senate" on Facebook, and many liberal bloggers also called on him to jump in.

Mellencamp, an Indiana native whose hits include Jack and Diane, never before held public office but remains extremely popular in the state because of his role as a co-founder of Farm Aid, a 25-year-old festival that raises money for struggling farmers.

The 58-year-old musician was also an outspoken critic of the Iraq War.

He performed at the White House last week in the "Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement."

[Eddie Teach]

Will his campaign platform be: LITTLE PINK HOUSES FOR YOU AND ME.

First Franken and now Mellencamp. You probably want Arnie to run for President too. 

[Caliga]

Arnie is above petty things like Presidents.  Arnie for Emperor.

[MadImmortalMan]

I'm thinking Sydney Pollack should run for it. Or David Letterman. What other celebrities are from Indiana... Let's see, Brendan Fraser, I think.

[Caliga]

I actually wouldn't support Mellencamp at all since he is a known liberal loony who IIRC campaigned hard for John "the Douche" Edwards... I just think it'd be a fun campaign to watch.