Evan Bayh won’t seek re-election:
Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this year, a decision that hands Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in the middle of the country.
“After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned,” Bayh will say.
I wonder what’s next for Bayh. I never liked him but he did some around on a lot of things the past few months.
Napoleon
So do the Dems have someone in that state that can plausibly win that seat?
John PM
If I am being generous, perhaps Bayh is not seeking re-election so that he can vote for HCR without pissing off his corporate overloads.
Ha Ha Ha Ha, whoo… I tried to keep a straight face on that one but could not.
ericvsthem
He wants to spend more time with his wife’s money.
Pangloss
According to the GOS, the filing deadline for Senate in Indiana is Friday. Good luck finding a good candidate in four days.
geg6
Sorry, but I think you’re nuts to think Bayh has done anything at all productive at any time within the last few months (perhaps I missed something??) other than his usual Blue Dog King bullshit. Now this is a Dem I am positively thrilled to see gone, regardless of who replaces him. Whatta worthless load of poop he is and always will be.
RD
I swear, if he becomes the VP candidate in 2012, I’m leaving.
valdivia
weird no that he all of sudden is not running?
DougJ
My guess is health or a scandal.
John Quixote
Becoming a full-time corporate whore. Just like his wife. He’ll become the point man for Eli Lilly and Wellpoint.
Indiana will go out of it’s way to elect the carpetbagger Dan Coates. Bayh is a professional pussy anyway. Obama wouldn’t pick him as VP, nobody joins his ‘working groups’, so he’s taking his ball and going home to suck on the corporate teat. Fuck him.
Fwiffo
What a team player.
valdivia
@DougJ:
exactly what I thought. This sounds like it was done last minute with the deadline in mind because something else is going on
El Cid
Well, he didn’t get his way on every single piece of
lobbyinglegislation, so it’s obviously time to quit.ed
Smart money’s on an insanely lucrative career as a lobbyist. You could hedge your bet with a side wager on running for President in 2012 (Veep candidate from RD is an interesting call. I assume that would be for the GOP candidate). Would be ecstatic to be wrong and see a shit load of Doing the Right Thing as a lame duck, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Ailuridae
I think there may be no better sign of purity driven manic progressivism than cheering for Evan Bayh’s retirement knowing he’ll be replaced by Dan Coats. Honestly, wtf is wrong with you people?
I suspect he’ll pop his head up again whenever Mitch Daniels moves on to greener pastures.
General Winfield Stuck
Ordinarily, I would be saddened and distressed to hear a dem senator, though something of a conservadem, turn this seat over to the wingnuts. But since it seems our politics is in full metal war mode with the nihilistic ultra wingnut party, any dem opposing dem initiatives while lending aid and comfort to the enemy, needs to go. If they keep their big yappers shut and not undermine the dem party on a regular basis and particularly on liberal signature issues like HCR, then fine, they can stay and vote the way they want. But not go on teevee every ten minutes to make hay with the wingnuts or threaten to join their filibusters. Fuck it, the wingnuts are going to run things in a cycle or two with all the free speech corporate cash, so we’re all gonna die anyway.
El Cid
Yeah, and since the deadline for filing is Friday, this just shows how much dedication Bayh has to the Democratic Party and to the American people. Fucking jackass.
KCinDC
Despite Bayh’s unreliability, this is bad news. First, Republicans, the media, and conserva-Dems will be gravely warning us that it’s an indication that Obama and the Democrats have overreached and move too far left (without bothering to give any examples of actual “leftist” legislation or policies). Second, it’s still better to have Bayh in that seat than a Republican — especially if it makes the difference between a Democratic and a Republican majority in the Senate, which is conceivable — and it doesn’t look likely that we’ll be able to get a better Democrat instead.
GregB
The real dicky thing about this is that the filing deadline for this senate race is this Friday.
Thanks Evvy.
-G
Comrade Luke
What a joke. The morans on twitter are speculating that it’s because he wants to run against Obama.
Then there’s UberTool Marc Ambinder:
It. just. never. stops.
ajr22
@DougJ: I don’t know about a scandal. My dad was friends with a former mayor of indianapolis , and he used to say that Bayh was clean as they come. He said Bayh wouldn’t even have a meeting with a woman unless he had another party there to witness.
valdivia
@Comrade Luke:
shoot me now.
demkat620
There has got to be more to this. He was twenty points up on his nearest challenger. This just flat out hands the gop a free seat.
geg6
@Ailuridae:
Sorry, but the difference between Bayh and Coates in that seat? Maybe you’re a pure enough Democrat to put aside any and all substantive matters simply to support anyone with a (D) beside their names, but I’d prefer the enemy to be sporting the other guy’s colors and not my own. I don’t expect a damn thing from Coates and, apparently, I should never have with Bayh, either.
El Cid
Don’t give me this god-damned “manic progressive” shit. Bayh is fucking retiring. He fucking announced it. “Manic progressives” didn’t god-damned make him (no matter what horse-shit you want to spin) and this is not him publicly wondering ‘what if’. He — Bayh — is saying “Fuck you, Democrats, and fuck you, America“. Fucking Jane Hamsher or whoever the latest “manic progressive” crazy of the week didn’t do this — and no amount of solemn mourning for the imminent replacement by Dan Coates will change the fucking fact of what Bayh just did. Himself. Him. Not us. Not blog commenters. It fucking sucks. But he is the ass. He could have done this at any time.
Usually the player who knocks the checkerboard over and walks away is considered the one at fault, but I guess it was all the bystanders who call him immature as he walks away after having done so.
Comrade Luke
@demkat620:
Why would there be any more to it than that? He wants to do something else and fuck over Democrats in the process.
Mission Accomplished.
Tenzil Kem
Not good. Whatever his faults, Bayh was Not A Republican, and when you’re talking about Indiana that’s a pretty good start and anything else is gravy.
This is my great worry about the next few cycles — that a not-insignificant number of Democratic senators are the only people who can win their seats, and should they retire or get appointed to something else the Dems will have a very, very hard time holding those seats.
Someone remind me again why Ken Salazar is in the Cabinet?
John Quixote
@Ailuridae:
I kick him because he’s an asshole. Remeber the Senate caucus meeting a few weeks ago? His ‘bipartisanship’ whine was as foul as Lincoln’s. He would not have beat Coates. The Indiana GOP was going to use his wife’s insurance company connections to beat the holy living shit out of him. This way, he gets to become a full time corporate bitch, and stick it to Obama for not naming him VP. Calling him a whore is an insult to prostitues around the world.
Tom Q
I have to say, my first reaction is, what a scumbag — running out when his party needs every safe seat it can manage. It’s not like Dan Coats was giving him any serious trouble. I realize he was a major pain in the butt — just a few degrees away from Lieberman/Lincoln in that department — but a Dem Senate seat in Indiana is like a GOP seat in MA: a gift you can’t expect to replicate and from which you shouldn’t expect 100% party loyalty.
The sudden-ness of this is indeed odd. I wonder if there’s another shoe to drop. Further: will it complicate the re-election efforts of the Dem Reps? Will one of them feel motivated to chase the seat, endangering both the Senate and House situation in the state?
General Winfield Stuck
@KCinDC:
Bad news? What other kind is there these days?
Kryptik
@Tenzil Kem:
Like pointed out before, he was as good as one, and the whole timing made it obvious that he was essentially gifting his seat to his Republican challenger. Bayh may have had the D by his name, but he seemed to take every chance he could to try and sabotage any Dem agenda.
Fuck him. Like someone noted, I’d rather see my enemy in the other team’s colors, not our team’s.
4tehlulz
So did Eli Lilly make him an offer he couldn’t refuse?
Michael K
@Napoleon:
I live in Indiana, and I hate Evan Bayh. We really only have two people that could possibly get elected to that seat as a Democrat — Rep. Brad Ellsworth (8th district) or Rep. Baron Hill (9th district).
Hill’s likely to run for governor in ’12, so it’s all on Ellsworth. And he has to decide quick, because DK’s mistaken — the filing deadline is TOMORROW.
Davis X. Machina
He’s never forgiven Obama for passing him over for VP.
My theory: a primary challenge to Obama, featuring a within-the-party version of Unity08. Watch for an early announcement of a non-party or cross-party running mate.
Sitting Senators haven’t done well in national campaigns lately.
John Cole
He’ll be a lobbyist with Eli Lilly and Wellpoint by january 22nd 2011.
Michael K
@Napoleon:
I live in Indiana, and I hate Evan Bayh. We really only have two people that could possibly get elected to that seat as a Democrat—Rep. Brad Ellsworth (8th district) or Rep. Baron Hill (9th district).
Hill’s likely to run for governor in ‘12, so it’s all on Ellsworth. And he has to decide quick, because DK’s mistaken—the filing deadline is TOMORROW.
KCinDC
@El Cid, if you agree that it sucks, then you’re not “cheering for Evan Bayh’s retirement”, so what are you disagreeing with in Ailuridae’s comment? No one is disagreeing that the guy is scum, just saying that the situation is likely to be even worse now.
John Cole
@DougJ: Bullshit. Money.
Anya
@Ailuridae: Totally agree with you. I am not sure what would they get with a republican other than a guaranteed 100% vote against anything they stand for. I sometimes wonder at the sanity of these people.
demkat620
And he thinks this will help him primary Obama in ’12? Riiiiiight!
Bob In Pacifica
Quite honestly, glad to see him go.
What’s next for him? Is it too much to hope for an indictment of some kind?
FPN
@ John Quixote
“He would not have beat Coats”
You’re nuts. It was a layup. While Bayh’s wife (and his Dad, Birch) is a lobbyist, Coats himself is a lobbyist.
FPN
Maybe Joe Donnelly will step up.
gypsy howell
Seems so simple to me:
He’s going to cash in by pimping for either the health care or financial industry (why not make it both?), and wanted to make sure he waited long enough to announce his retirement so that no credible democratic candidate would have time to file in IN, thereby double-plus-screwing the dems.
Fuck it, we’re going to be out-and-out ruled by the plutocrats come November. I thought the Bush years were ugly — this is about to get much much worse. Wish I knew how to protect me and mine from the shit that’s about to come down the pike in this country. 39% increase in health care premiums? HA! We ain’t seen nothing yet.
Ailuridae
@El Cid:
Nobody is blaming manic progressives for this. I am just completely baffled by anyone who has a concern for the country’s future and is a progressive thinking this is a good thing. Dan Coats is a reactionary piece of shit – he’s going to be right of the median within the Republican caucus and a substantially more reliable no vote than Dick Lugar.
So if you think there is “no difference” between Coats and Bayh’s voting record how about you compare Bayh and say, Orrin Hatch’s voting records and get back to me on how this doesn’t make a bit of difference.
demkat620
@FPN: Especially with Coats on tape saying he would rather live in NC.
This was a definite hold, now its an easy GOP pick up. Maybe even unopposed. GOS is now saying the filing deadline is tomorrow.
Jeebus Christ on a pogo stick. Senator John Hosteter. Good god.
Kryptik
@KCinDC:
The problem is that the Democratic agenda has been anathema to him. He’s done his part to hand the reins over to Republicans time and time again, and doing this, at this time, when he knows there’s no real way to muster up a credible replacement in time, shows that he’s gifting the seat to his Republican colleague. Better to be stabbed in the front than stabbed in the back.
gypsy howell
I see John beat me to the punch with the money angle. You just can’t go wrong betting on the money angle these days.
General Winfield Stuck
@John Cole: I hear chief lobbyist for Phrma came open recently from the Tauzin departure.
demkat620
Hearings won’t be enough this time around. Disgraced resignations won’t be enough.
This shit will make the 90’s look like a cakewalk.
Davis X. Machina
Obama’s real primary opposition is the unemployment figures.
Bayh’s going to run on electability-electability-electability. If that’s all we (the masses, not the BJ elite) hear, as per Kerry v. Dean in ’04 — that’s what we’ll think is important.
That and moderation. And bi-partisanship. And moderation. And more bi-partisanship. And deficit reduction. Pete Peterson will think he’s died and gone to heaven.
It’s Unity 08 with a real politician, not Bloomberg.
KCinDC
If Dems end up after the election with 57 seats rather than 58, then Bayh being replaced by Coats won’t make much difference, and has the advantage that Coats could be ignored by the Democratic leadership. If Dems end up with 49 rather then 50, then it makes a huge difference, because even if Democrats haven’t gotten a lot of their own legislation through, at least the Republican bills were never getting going in the first place.
Ailuridae
@FPN:
That would be the hope. Unless I am not remembering clearly Donnelly has next to nothing for cash for a Senate race. His district is a swing district that he will comfortably hold (its somewhere between +1 and +3R) for the foreseeable future if he wants it.
Donnelly has already lost statewide in a primary at least once and he’s likely to vote pretty much the same way Bayh did although maybe with less preening.
kay
@Ailuridae:
Bayh’s wife should have resigned from the boards she sits on. It’s a direct conflict. You cannot ask me to grant the Bayh family that much leeway. Was he really going to vote in a way that was going to harm his family fortune? Why would I extend him that? No one else on the face of the planet gets that assumption of good faith, in any profession.
Christ, Ailuridae, Leiberman’s wife resigned, when it became an issue in 2006.
Give me one good reason I want him in that seat. Not that it matters. He just handed it to the Republican, without my help.
I just think you’re way off base. This has not one thing to do with progressives.
John Quixote
@Anya:
Whatever. There’s loyal Democrats, and assholes like Bayh. Two seconds after Obama was inaugurated, Bayh’s position on HCR was ‘agnostic’. He votes against Obama’s budget (after praising it) then goes on TV bitching about what? You guessed it, deficits. After he votes to blow a 250 billion dollar hole in it in the name of ‘estate tax reform’. Better to have your enemy wearing red than blue.
He quit to:
A – make more money
B – stick it to Obama
C – get a permanent slot on Morning Joe, where him and Joe the Scar trade off on who’s the biggest concern troll.
Sly
The filing deadline is tomorrow.
When in doubt, the FEC is your friend: http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2010/2010pdates.pdf
You need 4500 signatures, 500 from each district, to gain access to the ballot for statewide primary elections.
Jules
Wow, thanks Evan for waiting until 4 1 days before the filing deadline.
bastard….
Ailuridae
@Davis X. Machina:
If Bayh runs he has to do it as a third party candidate. There are probably only ten states in the union that Bayh could come close to 10 points of Obama in a primary of Democratic voters. If someone is advising him that he can unseat the president in 12 they are providing horrible advice.
valdivia
@Sly:
he is a total fucker then. and this is his gift to the republican party. if he was not going to run, how in the hell did he wait til ONE day before the deadline to do this.
the fire of hell is not enough for this guy. fucker!
bkny
@Tom Q:
The sudden-ness of this is indeed odd. I wonder if there’s another shoe to drop.
friday is the filing deadline for anyone interested in running for the seat.
once again, bayh fucked the democrats.
General Winfield Stuck
@Ailuridae: I’m certainly not a manic progressive and though not cheering for much of anything these days, this does not bother me. And voting record is not why. It is supposed dems actively working to defeat dem causes and initiatives. These are not normal times, these are times of blood match ideological warfare. I don’t want Nelson, or Bayh or Stupak etc… leading charges for the other side. No more. And it just could be that the American voter didn’t have enough wingnuttery after 8 years of Bush Crime syndicate and their Capos in Congress. Maybe they need some more of it to come to their senses once and for all on what the GOP is about. Sometimes you just have to fight by accepting events go the way they want to. I want to be wrong about this, I hope I am and a political awakening occurs for the apathetic citizenry of this country and they realize that torture is always bad and thieving republicans are what they are. Not hopeful in the near term, but could be way wrong.
Macha Maguire
As i understand it, the deadline is noon on the 16th – that is… tomorrow.
Any chance the local party has someone they can put up by then?
/sigh
John Quixote
@FPN:
Layup my ass. The Indiana papers very rarely bring up him and his wife’s legal corruption. I live just across the border from Indiana and work with some Hoosiers who are completely unaware of his wife’s corporate connections.
Hillary blew a twenty point lead in 3 months. The state GOP had 10 months to batter him. He was dead meat. Why do you think the DNC went after Coats like they did? Because Bayh was a shoo-in?
danimal
Normally, I’m all about the numbers. Rationally, any Dem is better than a Repub in the seat. Despite that, I can’t say I’m disappointed. Good riddance.
And don’t even dream about running for POTUS. That campaign just reeks of Joementum. Maybe the Blue Dogs think the Dem base wants them to have more power, but they’re wrong.
I’ve been hard on progressives for supporting a flawed legislative strategy, but getting rid of pricks like Bayh and replacing them with better team players will result in more progressive policies. Even if we have to suffer a Coates win once in a while.
liberty60
I get the purity angle- in a contest between a full metal wingnut, and a moderate Blue Dog, we would be better off with a Blue Dog.
But on the other hand- the Senators who did the most damage were the ones closest to the edge, the ones who caused Baucus to desperately strip more and more from HCR until it became a parody; Ben Nelson was more deadly to the process than James Imhofe.
I know that Coats will be a reliable 42nd R vote; but one that can also safely be ignored, rather than chasing desperately- and futilely- after that 58th D.
But either way- since Bayh is leaving us, rather than being pushed, whether we weep for his departure or cheer doesn’t really make any difference.
Ailuridae
@kay:
Nobody is defending Bayh. He is, like Nelson, plainly a dirtbag. Please stop pretending someone is arguing for Evan Bayh here. Its pretty simple: with Bayh out of the Senate and likely replaced by Coats or someone further to his right from the GOP passing progressive legislation will be more difficult. It can’t be said more bluntly: if you are happy to see this retirement you are happy to see a less progressive future for America. Nothing less, nothing more.
Davis X. Machina
He doesn’t need advisors. He’s got spite. Joe Biden got his VP job, he’s pissed, and he’s got 20 million raised for his most recent campaign to play with, plus whatever the health care and insurance lobbies can find between the couch cushions, thanks to Citizens United.
If all you want to do is punish Obama, you primary him, and then run third party. White Democrats who held their noses and voted last time for an Obama that still had the new-car smell might not be able to deliver the nomination, but they can throw the general.
danimal
@General Winfield Stuck: D’accord.
Comrade Luke
@General Winfield Stuck: There seems to have been a change in tone from you recently.
Have you thrown in the towel now that HCR looks to be dead? Because there is an air of “I for one welcome our Republican overlords” coming from you recently.
If so, I can’t say that I blame you…
Ana Gama
@Michael K:
What a total asshole.
FPN
Wow, a Senator who has corporate connections.
Comrade Luke
@Ailuridae:
Compared to progressive legislation that’s been passed?
That phrase. You keep saying it. I do not think it means what you think it means.
kay
@liberty60:
Absolutely agree. The best part is, they didn’t even help themselves. I know the Conventional Wisdom is blue dogs are tanking because Obama is a radical liberal, but I think it’s completely plausible that blue dogs are tanking because they were on television so much.
It wasn’t goddamn pretty, I’ll tell you. The longer they were on their the more people were horrified.
KCinDC
Word is that if there’s a Democratic ballot vacancy, the Democratic State Committee can select a candidate by June 30.
valdivia
@KCinDC:
well maybe we can get Lee Hamilton in there ah?
Shalimar
Nice of Bayh to remind everyone how disloyal he is even in his exit from the stage. As others point out, the seat will only matter if it gives Republicans a majority. Otherwise, Bayh votes against Dems often enough that his replacement won’t be a big difference. It is anti-liberals like Bayh who keep the Democratic party from doing anything effective when it is in power.
It’s really sad after 8 years of Bush, but it looks like the country needs another reminder of how horribly Republicans govern before we can really reject them and get things done to at least try to reverse the tailspin the United States has gone into the last 3 decades.
Comrade Luke
This fucker does nothing but sides with Republicans, then quits the day before the deadline and I’m supposed to feel bad because we’re not going to be able to pass progressive legislation, when we haven’t been able to pass progressive legislation to begin with because of fuckers like him?
Fuck that.
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.
KCinDC
@kay, yes, Nate Silver wrote about that a while back — how Ben Nelson’s approval had plummeted while his fellow Montana senator Jon Tester’s had remained level. They voted the same way, but Nelson had made himself a central figure in health care reform. By lying low, Tester remained unscathed. Landrieu made the same mistake as Nelson.
Ana Gama
@KCinDC: TPM says the same.
kay
@Ailuridae:
I don’t think Senators like Bayh have helped Democrats, politically, at all.
They don’t help as a practical matter, because they block and delay, and they are so venal and dithering that they harm the whole idea of Congress.
If the conventional wisdom were true, that voters are madly in love with these bought and paid for centrists, they should be popular, should they not?
They aren’t. They got less and less popular with each television appearance. Pundits are going to say that was because they were forced to carry Obama’s liberal-policy water, but that isn’t true. They did nothing to advance any agenda, liberal or otherwise. They actively opposed Obama.
Voters were freaking repulsed by them.
So tell me again why I want Bayh and Baucus and the rest. They do nothing for any legislative effort, and they’re unpopular. They’re Democrats? That’s enough?
General Winfield Stuck
@Comrade Luke: Nope, I still think HCR will pass before the Senate bill expires in Jan 2011. And I am not the least bit unenthused with Obama and am actually heartened by his adapting and learning to be a better presnit.
My change in tone comes mostly from the utterly dysfunctional Senate and winger scorched earth behavior in that body that is essential to enact dem policies and the continued health of the country. And am positively dystopic with the SCOTUS decision on turning the money spickets wide open for non candidate spending and the likely overturning of all other restrictions for spending in the near future by candidates themselves.
I think by November, it will be hard to recognize this country as being relatively civilized politically from these awful court decisions. And it will go further downhill fast after that. And I suspect it is a big reason why wingnuts have just gone galt in participating in an Obama run government, and are just shutting it down till they can flood the airwaves with unfettered wingnut propaganda to get back power.
Other than that, in my personal life, things are just fine. Political optimism is in the shitter though. Especially long term.
kay
@KCinDC:
I read that, and that’s where I got it.
It’s true, but because it flies in the face of punditry (voters love the centrist Senators!) it cannot be spoken.
I’ll tell you what I saw when I watched the centrists. I saw Senators acting to protect monied interests. I saw them pretending to be unable to make even the smallest decision, because they were terrified of alienating not voters, but backers.
It wasn’t pretty, and I can’t be alone. I’m still amazed at how stupid Max Baucus is. He had no idea how horribly he was coming off. He’s an idiot.
Ana Gama
Contessa Brewer on MSNBC just compared the language of Bayh’s announcement to Palin’s when she resigned as Governor. HA!
She also said that Harry Reid was totally unaware, but apparently Obama had some knowledge of Bayh’s move.
Comrade Luke
@General Winfield Stuck:
Oh yea, I forgot about how you were after the SCOTUS decision. Fully justified of course.
I’m just numb these days. I don’t know what to do anymore, and I see where we’re headed and feel pretty helpless about fixing it.
Fight on I guess…
geg6
@Ailuridae:
Fuck you. You are not the person in charge of the purity committee who gets to pronounce on anyone’s commitment to progressive ideology. You’re a real asshole, you know? Adding another GOPer to the 41 already in the Senate changes exactly NOTHING. Meanwhile, you stand around proclaiming your purity. You’re a fucking idiot.
Shalimar
@Ailuridae:
It can’t be said more bluntly: Bayh is an admitted enemy of liberals/progressives. He hates us just as much as Republicans do, and does everything he can to keep progressive legislation from passing. That is the major pattern of his Senate career.
I don’t have a clue how his retirement could possibly make the future less progressive. Less Democratic in the party sense, obviously, but not less progressive.
Ana Gama
Apparently the Tea Party has officially registered as a third party in NV and will have a candidate in the race, which would be a big break for Harry Reid.
kay
@Ana Gama:
That’s what I was waiting for. It’s about blocking insurance reform, then, which probably would have happened, regardless of health care reform.
It’ll work, too. He just gave every bought and paid for asshole cover.
liberty60
@kay:
The Conventional Wisdom is, as usual, crap.
Can anyone think that any of the groveling and belly offering that the Blue Dogs have done for the Republicans has earned them even one tiny morsel of pity or mercy from the Teabaggers?
The hate the Blue Dogs with a passion surpassed only by their hatred for the Kenyan Kommie.
@Comrade Luke:
This. Not only are the sandwiches awful, but the portions are too small!
Its the classic manipulative ploy- “You have a choice between Evan Bayh who will stab you in the back, or Dan Coats who will stab you in the front.”
The willingness of the progressives to accept this shit sandwich is why they lose time after time.
When I was a conservative, when we lost, we told ourselves we didn’t try hard enough to get our message out. Progressives tell themselves they failed to mimic the other side hard enough.
KCinDC
There’s a random activist challenging Bayh, Tamyra d’Ippolito, and now someone’s suggesting she get teabaggers to help collect signatures in the next couple of days. If she gets her signatures, then there’s no ballot vacancy and Democratic chances seem doomed.
Ailuridae
@geg6:
No. Fuck you. You are so astonishingly consistently wrong about, well, everything that its fucking startling. You were the fucking idiot that insisted that your two home state Senators, Casey and Specter would inevitably gum up the works on health care reform because you don’t like that Bob Casey is a anti-abortion and that Specter is a former Republican.
You can use your personal dislike for Evan Bayh to color things however you want. If you are cheering for Evan Bayh to be replaced by Dan Coats you are cheering against progressive interests. That’s the sum of it. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings.
mak
Announcing one day before the primary filing deadline is the consummate dick move. I almost hope he’s doing this in order to primary Obama so that the issue of his dicking over of the dem party can be raised at every press opportunity and debate.
Of course, if he’s retiring because he’s about to be indicted, that would be okay, too, but I don’t see that happening.
Most likely, he’s just pulling a Petulant Joe, and retiring to enjoy his wife’s money and his new position as the chief lobbyist for Eli Lilly (IN).
Ailuridae
@Shalimar:
I don’t have a clue how his retirement could possibly make the future less progressive. Less Democratic in the party sense, obviously, but not less progressive.
Just look at ARRA. Bayh was a pretty easy and early get for the Democrats on that. What price would have had to have been paid to get a Yay out of Voinovich or Martinez? Or fuckign McCain? Keep in mind that getting Nelson and the two Maine votes came at the direct cost of 1-2% of the current unemployment rate (that was the proce of the swap out of the AMT for state aid). Maybe a Republican votes for the bill if the estate tax is extended another year – that 75B dollars. Maybe its an extension of the Bush tax cuts. Or CAFTA? A border fence?
I followed the health care talks pretty extensively. Bayh was on board pretty early and even worked out the Medicare compromise. Who within the Democratic caucus threatened the Medicare compromise besides the obvious (Nelson and Lieberman) ? Yeah not a lot of reporting on that but there were ten Senators including many of my favorite progressives (Franken, Klobuchar, Leahy etc).
As near as I can see there have been two major pieces of legislation since Obama has taken office. Bayh voted for both. Coats wouldn’t be a consideration for either.
Marc
@Davis ex Machina:
I can think of a couple who did pretty well in ’08. They’d stomp Bayh’s ass in a primary, too. Even in Indiana, after this.
This isn’t about running for higher office. This is about money, with a heaping side of spite.
rootless_e
: @Ailuridae: Don’t try to bring in realism when we’re wanting to sulk.
Davis X. Machina
Bayh is already set for life. Spite > money.
Davis X. Machina
Bayh’s set for life, and spite > money.
The Golux
So long, and DLTDHYITAOTWO.
KCinDC
I’d almost be willing to accept the argument that Bayh being replaced by a Republican would be a slight positive *now*, when there are 59 senators in the Democratic caucus. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about him being replaced by a Republican next year, when Democrats will likely have a much smaller majority — if they have a majority at all.
Republicans having control would be much worse than Republicans and conserva-Dems blocking and watering down everything as they’re doing now, especially if they get the presidency in 2012.
rootless_e
@Comrade Luke: Barbara Boxer is chair of the environmental committee instead of Inhofe because of Bayh and other clowns.
The American left: If I keep spitting on this crust, someone will donate me a 5* gourmet dinner eventually.
Ailuridae
@rootless_e:
If there were sulking I wouldn’t have anything to type. Its the excitement that Evan Bayh is gone and will be replaced by Dan Coats that confuses me.
Ailuridae
@KCinDC:
Republicans having control would be much worse than Republicans and conserva-Dems blocking and watering down everything as they’re doing now, especially if they get the presidency in 2012.
No it wouldn’t. Once the Republicans regain control and everyone realized how awful they are at governing thanks to the tireless efforts of the mainstream media there will be a progressive revolution in 2012 with milquetoast Obama replaced by Presnit Kucinich who will declare the filibuster over once he gets done establishing the Department of Peace.
kay
@Ailuridae:
You and I agree about 90% of the time, so I’m not interested in an argument.
How about we just put this where it belongs, on Evan Bayh?
Whether it’s a political calculation, some residual bitterness over another Senator being President, or, as I suspect, a purely corrupt and self-interested move, does it matter?
It sucks. The way he did it sucks. And it won’t help the people of Indiana, who he was elected to serve.
rootless_e
@Ailuridae: I’m not ceding the seat to Coats yet, and Bayh is a negative, but I’m appalled at the American left’s theory that by rejecting unpalatable choices they can obtain a better option.
KCinDC
The timing is bizarre and does suggest there’s something going on we don’t know about. Perhaps the least nefarious possibility is that Bayh is trying to ensure the Republicans are stuck with Coats while allowing the Democrats to pick a good candidate. Does that make any sense?
Davis X. Machina
@ Ailuridae
And a pony!
Thanks. Now, saving much time, instead of going over to DemocraticUnderground.com, I can just bookmark your comment instead.
Ailuridae
@kay:
Again, I’m not arguing in favor of Bayh or how he handled this. My initial point and subsequent points are directed at the people who are stupidly claiming its a good thing to lose Bayh given the circumstances. I think Bayh is a total dirtbag. Actually I well know that. I also know that replacing Bayh, even with all his problems with Dan Coats is a huge fucking loss for any progressive legislation.
John Quixote
@Ailuridae: Let’s all shed a tear for Evan Bayh. Thanks to Bayh, Coats gets to run unopposed until fucking June. Bayh did this to fuck over his President, his party, his constituents, and Dems across the country. He’s getting pilloried here because he’s an opportunistic asshole. Good riddance.
It’s not glee. It’s rage. Rage at his two-faced bullshit. Sure, he voted for the ARRA (it was political suicide at the time for any Senate Dem to oppose it), then he went on TV bitching about the deficit. Bitching about deficit = bitching about the stim. He voted for HCR after he spent the better part of the year trashing it, repeating ‘slow down, slow down’, not saying if he would vote for it until the last minute, making sure he wouldn’t be the 41st filibuster vote. Wouldn’t want the bad pub for killing it, now would he? At the Senate caucus meeting, his fine whine about ‘bipartisanship’ was more or less him spitting in Obama’s face on national TV.
If he wanted to quit, he could of picked a much better date than 4 fucking days until primary filings have to be in.
And I just love his statement today, crying about the Baucus Boondoggle of a jobs bill that Reid rightfully spiked, because it was larded up with his precious ‘estate tax reform”. Gotta make sure that the Bayh twins get to keep more of mommy and daddy’s dirty money when they pass. God forbid they get a strait job.
If he had decided to quit say, in December, the state Dems would have has plenty of time to get a candidate selected. Now, there’s not going to be a Dem primary. No Dem candidate until June at the earliest.
What good is a semi-reliable vote if the jerk is going to go out of his way to screw the rest of his party?
Ailuridae
@John Quixote:
I’m not arguing shedding a tear for Evan Bayh. I’m not defending his decision to retire or the timing of his retirement. I’m pointing out, correctly, that if you are happy to see Evan Bayh go knowing full well that he’ll be replaced by Dan Coats you are cheering for a much less progressive future in America.
I don’t like Evan Bayh anymore than any other progressive. I just prefer him to an alternative that is four klicks to his right.
kay
@Ailuridae:
I don’t know what to think yet. I obviously have some opinions on Bayh, but those date back to Iraq. I don’t think liberals have been hard enough on Bayh. I still have no fucking idea why a third generation Democrat from Indiana was one of the first on the Iraq bandwagon.
I honestly do not know who Evan Bayh works for. He’s now saying he’s quitting because the bipartisan deficit commission failed. Come on. That was the fatal blow?
Anyway, here’s the actual count:
Bayh is the fifth Democratic Senator not seeking re-election. He joins Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Ted Kaufman (Del.) and Roland Burris (Ill.) on the sidelines. Six Republicans are retiring: Sens. Kit Bond (Mo.), George Lemieux (Fla.), Judd Gregg (N.H.), George Voinovich (Ohio), Sam Brownback (Kans.) and Jim Bunning (Ky.)
Desert Rat
>I wonder what’s next for Bayh. I never liked him but he did >some around on a lot of things the past few months.
Name one where he was taking any sort of political risk.
ruemara
@Ailuridae:
Who’s excited? Who the hell sounds excited? It sounds more like shocked, annoyed or angry at hell at Evan Bayh, who has pulled a supreme dick move to screw the Democratic Party-AGAIN. The man’s an asshole, it’s better to have someone you know you can’t count on so you can avoid wasting time. Nobody wants to lose a majority Democrat Senate. Unfortunately, we barely have one. Losing Bayh is not losing a democrat, it’s losing a slimeball who only fails to stab you in the back because he’s waiting for a better, sharper knife.
Admiral_Komack
Evan Bayh:
Good-bye and good riddance.