The filing deadline for Senate in Indiana is Feb. 19th. 16th.
So where is he heading? Eli Lilly? Wellpoint? PHRMA? My worst fear is he will join a wingnut welfare “thinktank” and he will be on tv spewing his bullshit nonstop. At least as a lobbyist he will be doing the same damage to the country he did as a Senator because let’s face it- it isn’t much of a role change from what he and his wife are doing now.
TR
What an asshole.
Kryptik
John, it’s not the 19th.
It’s the 16th. He’s an even bigger dick than you realize.
suzanne
Bye, Evan. Don’t let the door hit’cha where tha Good Lord split’cha.
What a douche.
kid bitzer
if he had been a republican mole all along, would he have acted any differently?
stevie314159
Anyone spot Harold Ford in Indianapolis yet?
jeffreyw
Needing to spend more time with his wife, she’s been covered up lately.
Zifnab
I’m sure he’s got a replacement all lined up. Or, at least, his lobbying friends have already named his successor. Really, I think the best thing that could happen would be for the seat to fall to a really shitty Republican (is Coats still in the running, or did Bayh finish mopping the floor with that guy on his way out?)
wvng
Benen is reporting that the Dems will be able to simply pick a candidate and not have a primary. I hope he is right.
Laura W
I’m putting this here because what are you gonna do? Yell at me?
In an effort to do some QC on the CafePress store quality, I ordered three Tunch totes.
I was very pleased with the color saturation and the sharpness of the images. Even on a buff-colored canvas they look great. They are quite roomy as well. You can see Bianca for scale in there, about to yak up her 9-Lives Crap. I pulled her off in time.
This images size is identical to what will appear on the aprons and all of the shirts.
Keith
Doesn’t he have to wait X number of months to become a lobbyist? Maybe Fox needs a Dem analyst for “balance” and threw him some money to walk away.
Dennis G.
Ezra makes a funny:
John Quixote
All three. And a slot on Morning Joe and the CATO Institute.
All because Obama didn’t name him VP, and Obama had the audacity to win Indiana without him.
His reasons are nothing more than more cash and pure spite.
danimal
@kid bitzer: No.
SATSQ.
I’m far from a purity nut, but as others have pointed out, I at least want someone that shares my basic goals as a Dem. Not someone cheering for the other team.
KC
Honestly, I for one am happy to see him leave. In fact, we could get rid of him, Nelson, Landrieu, and Baucus and I’d be happier.
Comrade Luke
Which means that’s exactly where he’ll end up.
Welcome to Morning Joe and Evan.
Ron
I know that FEC document from october says Feb. 16th, but it does say ‘subject to change’. Also, according to the Indiana Secretary of State it is Feb. 19th. (as does the form for filing). Not that it’s much better than the 16th, but the 19th appears to be the correct date.
Sly
The state party can name a candidate if there remains a vacancy on the ballot, which will likely be the case. The same thing happened in 2006 when no one decided to run against Dick Luger (only the Libertarian Party bothered) and they never actually did it.
The difference between this and a regular primary is that the choice for the Democratic nominee will be conducted behind closed doors and will likely be in the same mold as Bayh, which is likely the cause of his last minute announcement.
JenJen
If that’s true, Evan Bayh is a major league asshole. Gawd.
Malron
@wvng: Wouldn’t that be nice? Any progressive candidates they can draft to help bring the smelly armpit of Chicago into the 20th century?
Rick Massimo
Oh, they’ll love him: “Even the DEMOCRAT Evan Bayh says …”
Kryptik
@Ron:
Hrm…there’s some weird date futzing here. The form there for general primary candidacy says the 19th. But for Senatorial Primary candidacy, the form says the 16th. Now I’m just plain confused.
mr. whipple
What a douchbag.
I seem to recall reading at Kos recently, he was polling above 50% and handily beating any gooper challenger.
Now, it’s one thing if he held a grudge or grudges against specific people and decided to give them the finger on the way out. But to get to this level, he owes it to the Party not to screw them.
What a jerkoff.
Lurker
Star Wars fans staged a lightsaber flash mob in Bristol…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUZgrL85OKs
Maybe Indiana college kids could form flash mobs to gather signatures for a candidate?
Robin G
Should we really be that upset that he’s leaving? I mean, yes, technically, he’s a Democrat, but he’s always loved shivving the Dems so much that I have a hard time believing they’re not better off without him, even if we lose the seat.
Felicity Simpleton
Evan doesn’t have to work, his wife makes a zillion dollars sitting on all the boards. I think Evan is a brat who just decided he couldn’t take it anymore. I only hope the twins stay out of politics!
mr. whipple
@Robin G:
I don’t care that he’s leaving. You just don’t screw the entire party by announcing this days before the filing deadline.
Comrade Luke
@Robin G: Like i said in the original thread, it’s infuriating enough to be told I have to eat my shit sandwich all the time. I’m not going to keep eating it when the shit chef decides to quit because I’ve been complaining about the food.
So, no :)
aimai
I wonder what happens to all his campaign cash–especially contributions recently given him by the DNC/DSCC? I doubt very much that the DNC/dscc has the wit to have a “claw back” provision–they seem to like to dump our money on their weakest links, like Nelson, or their most traitorous Senators. I’d like to see them put one in. What happened to the old quid pro quo? When the pro’s are in, the quids are out.
aimai
Gregory
On the bright side, Bayh’s departure (good riddance!) means I may be able to cast a vote for the Democrat’s nominee for Senate this time.
(I won’t vote Republican, not even for Lugar, who seems a decent fellow but enables the Bush/McConnell Republican nonsense, and I wouldn’t have voted for Bayh either. I’d probably have written in either myself or Bullwinkle J. Moose).
SiubhanDuinne
@Laura W
The tote bags look great, but I’m not seeing Bianca. Either she is *vereh tineh kitteh* or you snatched her away even faster than you thought.
Davis X. Machina
Little-known fact — Evan Bayh’s sense of entitlement can be seen from the International Space Station.
Biden got his job — Hell, he probably thinks Obama got his job. He’s thinking “In Soviet Russia, entire party screws you“.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Robin G:
As much as I despise the conservadems, if they are the best Democrats that those states can give us then taking them to hold a majority is worth the pain. Why? Committee assignments. The majority has the upper hand in committees, which helps your party out tremendously. Unless of course it’s the Democrats. Then it just barely allows them to hang on. Sadly, without spines they need all the help they can get. If there are better Democrats that can win then by all means run them. Sadly, until then I think the conservadems are the best we can do.
On an emotional level I agree wholeheartedly, get rid of them. Practically though, that won’t work very good for us.
Laura W
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, she is tiny. Sorry, I meant in the rest of the photo stream, not in the one photo I linked to. She’s in the photo just before and after that one, I believe.
This one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13481225@N03/4359087045/in/photostream/
Marc
What a dick.
Tsulagi
My guess would be PhRMA. The wife already has Wellpoint covered. Plus, Tauzin’s $2M year job at PhRMA is now open since Billy was pushed out for failing to deliver “HCR” after spending $100M in advertising to support it. Sure, Billy was a prime pusher in getting the Prescription Drug bill through the House for them two months before he took that PhRMA gig, but it’s a matter of what have you done for us lately. In some sectors there are still consequences for failure.
Yes, there’s a waiting period before Bayh can become a lobbyist. But that still leaves plenty of time before the Senate will get to any HCR reconciliation.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
MSNBC is reporting that he is “fed up with partisan politics.” Bayh seems like one of those utterly worthless excuses for humanity, a radical centrist who wouldn’t know a principle if it bit him on the balls. Just calibrate the exact middle point, regardless of whether it is even comprehensible in those terms, and call it your policy position.
Shalimar
@Comrade Luke:
Well, we do have to have party balance in all things TV. And to do that, you have to have Dems like Bayh, because we can’t let actual liberals speak on television outside of their designated hours.
Gregory
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.):
I wonder why? Bayh hardly bothers with it, to the point of conspicuously not backing his own freakin’ party.
Sly
@Kryptic & @Ron
2/19 is the deadline for declaring your candidacy in any general primary election, statewide or local.
2/16 is the deadline for submitting petition signatures for ballot access to statewide primary elections.
Silver Owl
Bayh’s got a job with a company that he helped with his legislation. His helping “society” is all about his wallet.
Joy
Perhaps the other shoe is about to drop. This sounds so fishy to me – days before the filing deadline, running ahead in the pols, etc. Something just doesn’t sit right.
Martin
He did the party (though not the voters) a favor here. Because the party can pick their candidate, they can better make sure not to get a repeat of the Coakley situation. Doesn’t mean we’ll get a better Dem in office if it works, but we probably have a better chance of holding the seat this way.
And WATB Bayh is just pissed that Biden got his job, and that everyone is ganging up on his wife’s company.
Don’tlet the door hit you in the junk on the way out, Ev.scav
I’m frankly beginning to despise the word “centrist” as much as any other. Especially since “the center” is usually defined a priori by someone with an agenda, and oddly enough, it usually is in agreement with whatever the hell they want. Sorta like the definition of God’s Will, it’s a big mirror that is supposed to deflect all argument. If it’s God’s Will (r), it Must Be. So. If I’m a Centrist (c), I. Don’t. Need. To. Compromise.
Fair Economist
I think it’s a scandal. This is too sudden, and Bayh wouldn’t want to burn his bridges with his fellow Senators – his lobbying possibilities are his greatest asset out of office. Also, it’s not his style to screw over the party in public (he has a lot more political sense than most Conservadems). His wife has a very nice job for Wellpoint and he *is* a guy, so there are certainly possibilities for scandal.
Gus
Didn’t Billy Tauzin recently step down from PHRMA? Sounds tailor made for a bottom feeder like Bayh.
Sly
By the way, the Chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party, and the one who will have the greatest influence in picking the nominee, is Dan Parker.
Dan Parker is Bayh’s campaign manager.
If you ignore for a moment how much of a craven shitbag Bayh is, you really have to appreciate his capacity for putting himself in a position of fucking over his entire constituency without raising any alarms.
Max
I asked Marcos on Twitter what the Dems had on tap and he said the “bench is deep”
Candidates could be: Hill, Ellsworth, Donnelly, Andrew.
Don’t know any of those guys/girls. Let’s hope Marcos is right.
Paris
You know the Chicago machine has photos of Bayh and Larry Craig. Spend more time with his family indeed.
Davis X. Machina
And that was the Indiana Democratic primary — if you missed it, watch this slow-motion replay.
Pangloss
I was at a mall in Indianapolis when he was Governor, and saw him walking through the mall with his wife like they were strolling the Champs-Élysées. My guess is Lilly— unlimited Prozac and Ciallis.
Zifnab
@Davis X. Machina:
Is that what he’s been meaning when he says “Entitlement Reform”?
liberty60
Thinking more on the “purity” debate.
Looking at the NY-23, the more it seemed like the Teabagger version of the Tet Offensive. That is, a battle that they techincally “lost” as in, a reliable Republican seat was turned over to a Democrat, but “won” in the long run, because they showed they are a force to be reckoned with.
That battle caused every Republican to take notice, that they cross the Teabaggers at their own peril- even modreate Repubs are too frightened to do anything but vote as a bloc with their party.
Where is the fear on the left? Which moderate Dems are terrified of a kamikaze primary challenge from the progressives?
Sometimes, playing it safe and moving to the center is shrewd politics. But there are also times when there is no center, when extremists have taken over the other side, and agreeing with them even 90% of the time isn’t good enough- they want 100%.
These are those times. And I am thinking more and more we need to terrify the moderate Dems, even if it means a short term loss. As long as they can spurn the will of the voters without consequence, they will.
Contrary to Conventional Wisdom, the calendar doesn’t really end in 2012; we will still be fighting for health care and financial regulation and consumer protection long into the future.
Laertes
It’s bad news. Bayh is about the best Democrat we’ll be able to get in a red state like Indiana. Yes, I know Indiana went for Obama in ’08. I spent some time phonebanking for the campaign and ended up calling the bits of Indiana where I used to live. But that was a wave election, and it is still very much enemy territory. Non-hoosiers should understand that the “Bayh” name is magic in Indiana, in much the same way as “Daley” in Chicago or “Kennedy” in the northeast. Not only was Bayh the best Democrat we could likely have gotten from Indiana, but we wouldn’t have even gotten him if his name had been Jones.
Sure, he shivved the party a lot. But we had 60 votes for Health Care Reform, and he was one of them. He came through when it mattered, and I don’t recall him pulling a Blanche Lincoln or a Ben Nelson.
I’m sad that he’s leaving, but he’s got some cause to be angry. He was doomed in the next election, and he’s probably retiring to spare himself the humiliation of a near-certain defeat.
His last-minute announcement doesn’t really hurt us. His replacement is going to be a Republican, whether he announces today or six months ago.
Kryptik
@Sly:
Just to clarify, to make sure:
19th is the deadline to announce your candidacy…but the 16h is the deadline to get the necessary signatures in order to be placed on the ballot. So while technically the 19th is the real deadline, it doesn’t matter unless you get the necessary signatures by the 16th, making THAT the de facto deadline?
Andy
Well, MSNBC just suspended Harold Ford, Jr.’s contract while he fiddle-farts around in NY as a maybekindasorta candidate. So, I think there’s a seat for Bayh at the Morning Joe table.
danimal
@Martin: Perhaps he’s being a dick AND inadvertently doing the party a favor.
Sentient Puddle
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): This.
Seeing the reaction to this retirement, I can’t help but wonder if liberals are starting their own purity spiral. There’s very little reason to cheer because no Bayh makes it significantly harder to hold this seat. Yes, that meant that he could shiv us every now and then, but that’s what happens when you got a senator from a red state.
That all said, we can all agree to call him a jackass for waiting until now to announce his retirement. Because really, that was a dick move.
Eastriver
Bye-bye, dicke.
Sly
@Kryptik:
This is correct.
Page 16-17 of the the 2010 Candidate Guide covers the requirement for getting ballot access as a Senate candidate. It specifically states that the deadline for petition signatures is Feb. 16th, which matches the deadline on the form you linked earlier.
Will
A friend close to Indiana Democratic political circles says Bayh wants to run for governor again. That makes no sense to me, since Mitch Daniels won re-election in 2008 by a wide margin.
The Other Violet
@Will:
Indiana has a two-term limit, though, so this is Daniels’ last one.
Lolis
TPM talks about an interesting female business owner that wants to run for Bayh’s seat. She has been trying to gather the signatures necessary but says the Democratic machine in Indiana has been working against her.
Lolis
@Laertes:
How was Bayh doomed the next election? Most recent polls had him well over 50 percent.
Nick
@Sentient Puddle:
Being a journalist, I have a lot of friends on the Hill, and yeah, that’s definitely part of it. This is a coordinated effort by conservative Dems to let liberals prove they can get a majority without them…except Nelson and Baucus to retire when they’re up too, and expect them to be replaced by teabaggers.
This is what Rahm meant when he said they’re “fucking retarded”
Sly
By the way, I think all this discussion occurring across the Progosphere about how this decision “hands the seat to the Republicans” misses the point. The point of this exercise, as its becoming apparent at least to me, was how to get Bayh to retire and not create an open Democratic primary.
– A vacancy on the ballot means that the state party chooses the nominee.
– This process is accomplished through a closed and private convention.
– The people who will pick the nominee owe their positions to Bayh.
All this insures that the next nominee will be like Bayh but without Indiana Democrats (many of whom may or may not be pissed at him and his politics) having a say in the matter. Whether or not that nominee wins is another matter, I’ll grant you.
Davis X. Machina
Coats-Pence GOP primary? Could have real entertainment value…
Carpetbagger v. Teabagger
Kryptik
@Sly:
You still have to admit that 1) Dems who were dissatisfied with Bayh will very likely project their dissatisfaction onto a candidate they never picked in the first place, and is likely ‘Bayh Approved’, and 2) Republicans are unlikely to vote for a Dem without Bayh’s name recognition, even if he shares the exact same politics.
It may be more nuanced than that, but it’s still essentially a gift.
Nick
@Sly: I think the bigger point is that progressives don’t believe we can win the seat…all those calls to primary Bayh were unfounded. They truly understand they can’t win key elections in this country, but they’re willing to undermine the party anyway.
If progressives really believed in their agenda, they’d treat this as an opportunity to put a progressive in the seat.
It is clear the progressive blogsphere does not believe their own hype.
liberty60
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
I guess its a bit like any struggle- at what point do you compromise, and when do you push for a complete victory?
I do waffle, feeling that we can’t just accept a constant series of “lesser of two evils” but not wanting to get into Erick Erickson territory.
Maybe it comes down to things like cloture votes versus actually voting for the legislation. Like if he votes for cloture, but against the bill, he is a significant benefit. Whereas Lieberman is a total writeoff. Or if he is the best that can be expected from Indiana.
I just feel strongly that the progressives are so reflexively defensive and abject, a little “fuck you” swagger would do some good.
Added: Even running a progressive who garners 40% of a vote tells all future candidates to take them seriously- which affects even Republicans.
Barry
Sentient Puddle
“Seeing the reaction to this retirement, I can’t help but wonder if liberals are starting their own purity spiral. ”
Well, the man help f*ck up a major party platform plank, and is clearly well-paid for it (unless you think that his wife is actually earning her millions). And he’s leaving under circumstances where the opposing party will likely benefit (as opposed to leaving in ’08, where his replacement might have gotten in on Obama’s coat-tails.
This isn’t a purity wave, it’s being p*ssed off about back-stabbing.
Malron
@Fair Economist:
Bayh caught on video taking part in a threesome with another well-coiffed white Democratic senator from a southern state with demographics similar to Indiana?
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Sly
@Kryptik:
It’ll certainly be more difficult, but the ballot vacancy allows the state party to put up anyone they want without having to deal with the baggage of a primary contest. The Indiana Democratic bench is pretty deep, and the party can put up a person who has decent statewide recognition and all the “benefits” of being like Bayh without the negatives of… well… being Bayh.
If Bayh’s goal was to retire so he can spend more time with his wife’s money and still have the seat remain in the party’s control, he’s covered most of his bases. My problem is that Indiana Democrats will have no say in the matter apart from how they vote in November.
Sly
@Nick:
That opportunity doesn’t exist unless a significant portion of progressives make up the Indiana state party apparatus, because those are the people who are going to chose the nominee. I think that was the whole point of this announcement. It takes the decision away from the electorate who, according to the Bayhists, cannot be trusted.
I think that would’ve been just as true yesterday. Politics is hard work, where you have to smile at people you wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire. Such practices are not conducive to inflexible ideology.
Nick
@Sly: Then maybe they need to shutup.
AhabTRuler
@Nick:
Then that isn’t a “purity spiral” from progressives, that’s sour grapes from a bunch of corrupt assholes who seem to have largely gotten their way.
Now that’s, as you and Rahm put it, “fucking retarded.”
John Quixote
@Nick:
An Indiana progressive is an oxymoron. Without Indianapolis, Gary, and Bloomington, it’s fucking Nebraska with a pro football team. Not insignificant number of Klansmen in Jasper/Huntingburg and areas further south. The eastern part of the state is represented by Mike ‘dumbest fuck in human history’ Pence. Mitch ‘the bitch’ Daniels decided to cut unemployment benefits and school funding instead of tapping the state’s ‘rainy day fund’, and they love him for it. Bayh is the only one with a ‘D’ next to his name that could have won statewide. Obama won because he cleaned up in the metro areas and along the Indiana/Illinois border.
Wanting a progressive to win a Senate seat in Indiana is a pipe dream. Not. Going. To. Happen.
The best chance the Dems have is Ellsworth, and he’s no fucking progressive. He’ll vote with the party alright, but not without his bribe.
Nick
@AhabTRuler:
Maybe so, but when they’re proven right, liberals are the ones who will look retarded.
Nick
@John Quixote:
Ironic that people like Markos are pimping Ellsworth and Hill’s names even though they’re Blue Dogs.
I guess despite all they’re complaining, they understand reality.
Nick
@John Quixote:
Ironic that people like Markos are pimping Ellsworth’s name despite him being a Blue Dog. With all their bitching, they seem to understand reality.
Kryptik
In other words, Nick, “Dirty Fucking Hippies need to shut up because they’re irrelevant”?
Scott P.
He also has helped torpedo the steps necessary to see that the bill actually gets to the President’s desk.
kay
@Sly:
Why do the county party chairs “owe their positions to Bayh?”
I don’t think they do. I think they’re elected in their counties. Our county Party chair selection process has nothing whatsoever to do with federal officeholders. It has precious little to do with state officeholders. In the urban counties, mayors have a lot of pull.
I can’t imagine Sherrod Brown weighing in on a county meeting, and I know he hasn’t had anything to do with the various machinations at state Party conventions, because I’ve gone to them.
Nick
@Kryptik:
Yeah.
Prove your relevancy, or get the fuck out of the way. They’re not helping at all.
If they can win a seat like Bayhs, work and do it, but don’t piss all over people like Bayh and they cry when he retires and hands the seat to a Republican. If you really think you can do better in Indiana, show us, but clearly they don’t think they can, so STFU.
I mean, what are they going to do? Push for someone like Ellsworth to run and then bitch when they doesn’t do what they say and undermine him?
Robin G.
@Laertes: I agree on principle, but here’s the thing: we don’t have 60 votes anymore, and we’re nor going to have them again any time soon. At this point, the only way to legislate is to get the Democrats in the Senate to think in terms of what they can get (and how to arrange their battle tactics) with a simple majority. Bayh is one of those people who not only wouldn’t be in favor of those tactics, he’d be going around deliberately undermining every effort to get something passed with 51 votes. So, in that sense, I think it’s better that he’s gone.
gwangung
More like, “Dirty Fucking Hippies need to shut up and work until they’re no longer irrelevant.”
Honestly, progressives need to be part of the power structure, hold a lot of precinct officer positions, etc. to be relevant. If they don’t do that, then they’re ceding real political power.
AhabTRuler
Good point. Where’s my Health Care Reform bill?
dcBill
You know, I’ve stopped trying to hide my disdain when someone, most likely another parent at my kid’s school or on a sports team tells me that they’re a lobbyist. Making the big bux at all of our expense. D bags.
Sly
@kay:
Bayh was Governor for eight years before being Senator. He was SoS for four years before that. His father, Birch Bayh, was Senator for almost 20 years and, prior to that, was the Speaker of the Indiana House. In other words, the Bayhs are something of a minor dynasty in Indiana politics. Decades of being major players in state politics gets you a lot of favors.
Plus the guy with arguably the most influence over the process going forward, State Chairman Dan Parker, is Bayh’s longtime campaign manager.
John Quixote
@Nick: Ellsworth won’t win. He’ll do his best to blur the differences between him and Coats, but that ‘D’ next to his name and his yes vote for HCR will kill him in the rural, reactionary parts of the state (ironically, the parts of the state that need the most help).
I know Indiana politics. I called Daniels winning re-election and Obama’s razor thin win. I know the ins, I know the outs. What works, and what doesn’t. There are not enough progressive votes to be had in a mid-term election to keep the seat Democratic. Obama’s Indiana team worked thier asses off and tracked down every vote they could find. They worked the state for a year. We won’t know who the Dem candidate will be until June. That doesn’t help one fucking bit. The only reason Bayh’s seat was relativey safe was because he’s a Legacy. His dad was a long time, Kennedy backing Senator. ‘Voting for Birch’s kid’ put him in the Govenor’s mansion and the Senate.
Markos knows not what he speaks of. The votes are not there. Not this year, anyway. Not the Year of The Angry White Male Voter.
Maybe if they somehow recruited Peyton Manning. But I’m fairly sure that he’s a GOPer. Upper class tax cuts and all that jazz. Bayh pulled this bullshit stunt to spend more time with his wife’s dirty money, and to poke the guy who didn’t pick him for VP in the eye. Rich, white Hoosiers are not above spite. They loved Palin in the northern upper class suburbs of Indianapolis.
This isn’t some type of purity death spiral. It’s rage at an opportunistic asshole who gave his party less than a 20% shot at holding on to the seat. On top of that, he is an incredibly shitty politician. No big pieces of legislation bear his name. Unless you count the Iraq War authorization. But Bayh definitely doesn’t want to talk about that.
Nick
@gwangung:
I wholeheartedly agree…but when they decide that without Bayh, this seat is lost…same with North Dakota…they’re proving their lack of relevancy.
kay
@Sly:
I agree to a certain extent, but in my experience, counties are like little political entities all to themselves, and the leaders guard their turf zealously.
It actually works for small “d” democracy, in a weird way.
We see federal officeholders when they show up and plead for support. They kiss ass. They don’t give orders.
Our current county chair wasn’t even a registered Democrat until 2004. He’s a lawyer, younger than, oh, seventy, and plain-spoken, and people liked him. He had no official Party ties at all, and he’s very outspoken. I don’t think he owes that job to anyone other than local Democrats. If he does, he’s certainly not shy about speaking up.
NobodySpecial
I love it when a butthurt ‘centrist’ gets all hippy-punchy.
gwangung
@Nick: Well, yeah. Some progressives are totally forgetting the lessons Obama taught on how to win. It wasn’t the ideas; it was how he implemented his plans—and it took a truckload of work and money, taking over the local political machinery. He made himself relevant.
kay
@kay:
I would have to say, too, Evan Bayh didn’t really deliver Indiana with all his vast family dynasty power. Hillary should have won that primary in a walk. She barely pulled it out. She lost St Joe county which was like the best place in the world for her, and she practically moved in there. If he “delivered” county chairs he did a piss-poor job.
I think maybe Massachusetts teaches us that the whole Family Dynasty thing may be overblown just a tad.
I think mayors matter, and urban areas are more liberal.
Ron
@Robin G: The answer is yes. As much as a lot of us like to bitch about senators like Bayh, the sad truth is he is far superior to what we’re likely to get from an actual republican senator.
Nick
@Robin G:
When the Republicans have a one seat majority in the Senate, and have subpoena power, you’ll no longer have a hard time believing we’re not better off without him.
John Quixote
@kay:
Anti-female sentiment.
The only real shot the Dems have at holding onto the seat is if Tamyra d’Ippolito is nominated. I have peeps in Bloomington who tell me she’d be great. But I’m not convinced that a woman could win statewide. Indiana, to my knowledge, has never sent a female to Congress. It’s a wierd, funny little state. It is nominally GOPer country, and the only time Dems win ‘swing’ districts is when the candidate’s personality is ‘Hoosier nice’. And she’d have to take the wood to Coats or whoever else they run. Doing so would kill any chance at being ‘Hoosier nice’.
It’s also not out of the question that Coats would be stupid enough to denegrate her for being a woman. Unlikely, but not impossible.
JGabriel
@Nick:
Purity spiral or not, I really wouldn’t mind losing Nelson. Baucus, on the other hand, is painted worse the he is and that probably would be a loss for the party.
.
Nick
@John Quixote:
Katie Hall, Jill Long Thompson, Julia Carson
JGabriel
Nick:
I think they/we proved our relevancy when when we elected the first black president in 2008.
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kay
@John Quixote:
I’m there a lot, for a variety of reasons. I think they loved Hillary, particularly in Catholic areas.
I’m not talking about southern Indiana, although she should have done better even there, what with the Appalachia-like counties. I know they’re right-leaning, but so is Arkansas.
I recognize that the Bayh name is really important, but I have questioned that sort of dynasty power for a while, and I think both the Clinton loss and Massachusetts in general bear me out.
Can he force Indiana Democrats at the county or state party level to do something they wouldn’t do anyway? I don’t think he can. If he had current clout, it was because of the Senate seat. They’re going to obey because he might be governor at some point? That just doesn’t sound plausible to me.
Nick
@JGabriel:
Since the progressive blogsphere by in large supported different candidates, and the big sites like DailyKos first supported Edwards, I’m not sure this shows their relevance except that they’re really going at jumping on bandwagons.
General Winfield Stuck
While in a normal world, this would be a bad thing for dems. But the world here in the land of the well scrubbed idjits, is not so normal. My lack of regret that Bayh quit and this seat will go the wingers is based on current realities, and recent past mirages of advantage.
The current reality is the mirage of a filibuster proof majority is gone and won’t return any time soon. And though it is true that several large bills got passed before HCR that may not have without, it had become a curse recently with HCR, and fueled the fratricidal tendencies of dems in general and pyromania impulses of progressives to burn down the donkey house from feelings of betrayal. So the battlefield has, and will more become a GOP v Dem affair, as it should be.
So we are squarely back in the GOP filibuster realm and pure tribal party line voting. And the loss of one dem seat for the near future beyond 2010 is acceptable and sufficiently mitigated by the fact that Bayh had become more of an asset to the GOP cause than the dem one. By lending his bipartisan voice to validate the wingnut narrative. And in a pure ideological war as we now have, that is unacceptable for one of your own and causes more damage than one senate seat and sometimes dem vote is worth imo. Maybe things will change someday in the not to distant future, if we still have elections in America, which is up for debate I think.
This is a struggle for basic philosophy and which is suitable to run this country, and the gloves are off. It is not about a single bill or several, because the right wing has crafted the battlefield this way by shutting down the senate even for compromise short of them writing the bills themselves,
It is about dems coalescing around their own narrative to fight back with, ceasing the circular firing squads, and lib dems putting up for votes bills that are far less than ideal but decent enough to accept with provisions that are popular with most Americans, and daring the wingers to block them, or vote them down. It is the only avenue left to use our majorities in a way to create ammunition to fight back with. Make the wingers expose themselves and hopefully our prog friends will accept this tactic and we can get on with business to defeat the republicans at their own game.
John Quixote
@Nick: I stand corrected. My memory isn’t the sharpest at the moment. Been up too long. Thompson should be embarrased over her thumping by former Bush budget director Mitch Daniels. Her campaign was really pathetic. Then again, it’s weird state. Lee Hamilton’s old district (9th) has switched between Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel twice since 2005. And Sodrel’s running against Hill again this year. Hill needs to work Bloomington hard if he’s going to survive.
JGabriel
@Nick:
While there were some people at DKos pulling for Edwards, it’s inaccurate to describe the entire site as first supporting Edwards, especially since Kos himself, the site’s owner, was advocating for Obama from the get go.
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John Quixote
@kay:
Daniel’s term isn’t up until 2012. Don’t buy into the “Evan just wants to be govenor again” BS. He’ll get his executive position allright. It’ll just be at Eli Lilly. Indiana politics is a strange beast. Bayh’s name counted for more than you might realize. And his blandness helped him as well. Daniels’ blandness masks the fact that he’s a Bush Republican, one who screws over the unemployed and underfunds the schools, so he doesn’t have to tap into the state’s ‘rainy day fund’, which I find insane. Hey Mitch, if you haven’t noticed, it’s raining cats and dogs out there. But he catches no flack for it, which I can’t explain.
Sentient Puddle
@Nick: To be fair, there are some local examples you can pick out. The progressives helped Jon Tester beat out the party machine and win his senate seat, for instance.
I’m not convinced that progressives carry nearly as much weight in Indiana, however.
Nick
@Sentient Puddle:
Morrison’s ethics issues didn’t exactly help him either.
Nick
@JGabriel:
Actually, when asked who they prefer before the primaries really got started, Edwards far outpolled all other candidate son DailyKos.
Rhoda
Good riddance.
I’m hopeful that the party will recognize the seante needs to pass some damn bills for Democrats to have a chance come November.
But if the democrats can keep the majority in both houses; losing a Bayh, Lincoln, or Reid is good with me.
inkadu
@General Winfield Stuck: This.
The difference between 59 apples and 51 apples is 8 apples.
The difference between 59 Senators and 51 Senators is zero.
Good riddance.
gwangung
No, you missed the point if you think you did.
You can’t rely on a one-shot performance; you have to do it over and over again to demonstrate your relevancy. It has to be an ongoing presence to be taken seriously.
rikyrah
he’s a punk ass bitch and good riddance.
JGabriel
gwangung:
Agreed. How did that work out when the old guard DLC / centrists were running things? Oh, yeah, 1994-2005, the GOP controlled Congress for six sessions in row. The centrists certainly proved their relevancy over and over again then.
Look, I’m sick of the contrarian hippie-punching. IT doesn’t strike me as any different than the typical Ambinder/Todd/Villager contrarianism. And despite engaging in it, I’m not too fond of punching centrists either. The point is that we need to appeal to both ends of the Democratic spectrum, and centrists who fail to recognize that are just as bad as DFH’s who fail to recognize it.
So, I’m not relying on a “one-shot” performance, I’m relying on a performance that did it over and over again in multiple Congressional elections in both 2006 and 2008, as well as in the 2008 Presidential election, that required voters from all along the Democratic spectrum to turn out and vote.
And it might be a good idea for some Dems in the center, and even some Conservadems, to figure that out and start working with their progressive compatriots to the left, rather than sniping at them and re-inforcing GOP narratives.
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JGabriel
gwangung:
Agreed. How did that work out when the old guard DLC / centrists were running things? Oh, yeah, 1994-2005, the GOP controlled Congress for six sessions in row. The centrists certainly proved their relevancy over and over again then.
Look, I’m sick of the contrarian hippie-punching. It doesn’t strike me as any different than the typical Ambinder / Todd / Villager contrarianism. And despite engaging in it, I’m not too fond of punching centrists either. The point is that we need to appeal to both ends of the Democratic spectrum, and centrists who fail to recognize that are just as bad as DFH’s who fail to recognize it.
So, I’m not relying on a “one-shot” performance, I’m relying on a performance that did it over and over again in multiple Congressional elections in both 2006 and 2008, as well as in the 2008 Presidential election, that required voters from all along the Democratic spectrum to turn out and vote.
And it might be a good idea for some Dems in the center, and even some Conservadems, to figure that out and start working with their progressive compatriots to the left, rather than sniping at them and re-inforcing GOP narratives.
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JGabriel
gwangung:
Agreed. How did that work out when the old guard DLC / centrists were running things? Oh, yeah, 1994-2005, the GOP controlled Congress for six sessions in row. The centrists certainly proved their relevancy over and over again then.
Look, I’m sick of the contrarian hippie-punching. It doesn’t strike me as any different than the typical Ambinder/Todd/Villager contrarian-ism. And despite engaging in it, I’m not too fond of punching centrists either. The point is that we need to appeal to both ends of the Democratic spectrum, and centrists who fail to recognize that are just as bad as DFH’s who fail to recognize it.
So, I’m not relying on a one-shot performance, I’m relying on a performance that did it over and over again in multiple Congressional elections in both 2006 and 2008, as well as in the 2008 Presidential election, that required voters from all along the Democratic spectrum to turn out and vote.
And it might be a good idea for some Dems in the center, and even some Conservadems, to figure that out and start working with their progressive compatriots to the left, rather than sniping at them and re-inforcing GOP narratives.
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JGabriel
Testing 1, 2, 3.
JGabriel
Test 2, please ignore if you see this …
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The Raven
There’s a progressive woman trying to make the primary ballot in Indiana. If enough residents sign the petition, she might make the ballot, beating out the local Blue Dog. On the other wing, commentary over at FDL is that she’s not very competent and likely to lose. On the foot-claw it’s not real clear that a Blue Dog can win.
Croak!
morzer
@stevie314159:
Superb, sir, superb!
morzer
@gwangung:
Is this the porn-star theory of politics? One shot is never enough?
NobodySpecial
@Nick:
Actually, they didn’t originally support Edwards. Straw polls all the way up into 2007 showed Clark as the clear frontrunner, and Edwards didn’t move to the top spot until after Clark announced he wasn’t running. He also never got a majority in any straw poll; his high was 48, and he only cracked 40 five times in 18 polls prior to January 16, when Obama took the lead for good.
As far as Obama goes, he consistently broke 20 percent and routinely commanded a quarter or more of the votes in their straw polls. So it’s unfair to characterize the GOS as strong Edwards endorsers – at best they were ‘lean Edwards’ and coalesced around Obama well before the primaries were done.
gwangung
@JGabriel: I can sign on with that. You’re right that everyone has to pull together, from all spectrums.
Again, I should remind folks (and myself, to be honest) we’re discussing tactics, not objectives. There’s a tendency in everyone to leave it to others, but if we want something, we should be engaged completely.
gwangung
@morzer: Nah. Boxing. Jab. Jab. Jab. Hook. Upper cut.
Sometimes the dimmer politicians need a two by four.
Nick
@NobodySpecial:
And it’s unfair to say Obama was the result of progressive support. He won Iowa without them, as yo mention, most of them leaned Edwards at the time. Obama doesn’t prove they’re relevant. President Clark or President Edwards would prove they’re relevant.
Nick
@JGabriel:
What happens when one end of the specturm does not agree or respect the views of the other end?
Speaking specifically from left to center, perhaps accusing the more moderate end of being pawns for corporate interests may not inspire unity among both end up of spectrum just as accusing the left of being closet Communists doesn’t either.
morzer
@gwangung:
Funnily enough, I’ve always felt that Evan Bayh’s natural habitat was the cheesier end of the porn market. Maybe he can spend more time making classics as “Sexy Senator”, “Boffed by Bayh”, and “Evan’s Excellent Erection”.
Catsy
@Laertes:
This is complete and utter horseshit. We never had 60 votes for HCR. EVER. To argue otherwise is to live in a fantasy world where having 60 people in your caucus automatically equals 60 votes for cloture.
It does not and never did, and if there’s one silver lining in the parade of epic fail that has been the Senate in 2009, it’s that it has gone a long way towards destroying that fantasy.
Bayh did not come through “when it mattered”. He has been happy to sabotage or threaten any Democratic initiative, no matter how important, if it helps the corporations that provide income for him and his wife. He has been especially malignant and destructive in HCR. That he has not–until now–pulled something as blatantly offensive as Nelson or Lincoln is a measure not of his principles, but of his chutzpah compared to theirs.
Bayh is and always has been a corporate whore, and frankly I’d rather have a (R) who can be counted on to vote no and contribute nothing of worth than a so-called Democrat who actively harms our agenda by holding his vote hostage in order to destroy anything progressive in the bills on which he has influence.
Fuck Bayh and good riddance. There’s a bright line between being a moderate Democrat and being a corporate whore, and maybe now that Bayh’s gone we’ll have a chance at putting a Democrat in that seat who isn’t completely beholden to the insurance industry.
NobodySpecial
@Nick:
I’ll note that Edwards’s second place finish was therefore the result of progressive muscle beating out all of Hilary’s advantages if as you claim, the blogosphere was strong for Edwards. So obviously they had SOME impact.
Personally, I think it was the combination of the retail politics being Obama’s strong suit, Edward’s year spent prepping in Iowa, and some animus towards Clinton. But certainly motivated primary voters and volunteers were something the blogosphere provided large numbers of for both Obama and Edwards.
Sentient Puddle
@Catsy:
So…what was that bill in late December that passed the Senate 60 to 40? Pretty sure that one happened in the real world.
Catsy
You mean the bill that Bayh, among others, did his level best to strip of anything remotely resembling actual reform, to the point where it’s still an open question whether it will do more net harm than good?
That’s not 60 votes for HCR, that’s 60 votes for something that superficially resembles HCR–and Bayh’s vote for even that was assured only after gutting it of anything that would offend his corporate sponsors.
People like you need to get it through your heads that this 60 vote thing is a fantasy even when we have a caucus of 60. The number that matters is not the number of Senators who will caucus with you, the number that matters is the number of Senators who are unwilling to obstruct their own party’s procedural votes.
The difference between Bayh and scumbags like Nelson and Lieberman is not in their willingness to obstruct their own party, but for what reasons they are willing to do so.
Sentient Puddle
@Catsy: Yup, that’s pretty much how I expected the reply to go. Although I was expecting shorter. I mean honestly, does it take four paragraphs to say “This bill isn’t real reform, and the process of having to get a supermajority inherently prevents real reform”?
In any case, before you go accusing people of living in a fantasy world, it does help to agree to some general ideas. For instance, there are plenty of people who would benefit tremendously from the Senate bill (flawed as it is), and would very much disagree with you claiming that the bill isn’t real reform. Which then makes your whole assertion of “not ever having 60 votes for reform” quite wrong.
So yeah, don’t define the real world as “what I say goes.” Otherwise, you end up being the one living in fantasy land.
JGabriel
morzer:
Maybe Bayh and Scott Brown can team up together: “BI-partisan”.
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JGabriel
Testing, Again?
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Catsy
@Sentient Puddle:
When you’re reduced to whining that someone used too many words in responding to you, it’s time to pack it in–you’ve got nothing.
You may also wish to consider that the complaint says more about the depth of your comment than the verbosity of the response to it.
Jim Once
FWIW, I was once paid 60 dollars for simply walking into a research firm to demonstrate my willingness to tell them what I thought of Bayh. When I arrived, they immediately gave me an envelope with the cash, saying they had enough participants. Pissed me off – I so wanted to tell them what I thought of him.
Also – the research firm was Frank Magid Associates – Frank died last week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/arts/television/10magid.html
I worked for him centuries ago – helped him with various nefarious deeds for which I’m ashamed. The stories I could tell.