Not even going to comment on this slow motion train wreck that is about to happen in Indiana and in the blogosphere. I’ve noted it, and now I will sit back and watch.
*** Update ***
Reader Interactions
91Comments
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
Come on, man.
“woke” is the new caravan.
Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.
Bark louder, little dog.
Accountability, motherfuckers.
Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.
Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.
fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)
I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.
You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.
Let’s finish the job.
How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?
Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.
Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity
Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.
Damn right I heard that as a threat.
American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated
The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.
I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.
You are here: Home / I’m Sitting This One Out
Molly
PUMA has another dead-end cause to join.
Comrade Javamanphil
I’ll take “Learning the Wrong Lesson from NY-23” for $400.
demo woman
Maybe Bayh could have give the dems more time so they could run a primary. Nah, he’s to self centered for that.
Linda Featheringill
I have never heard anyone not from Indiana say anything about Bayh. Nobody else knows he is there. I don’t think he is interesting enough to be elected president.
However, even I can be wrong.
Old Chinese proverb: It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.
jl
Any blogospheric Indiana state politics flap, whatever that might, as hypothosized by one John Cole, would be far too deep in the weeds for me to understand. So thankfully, I will be completely oblivious to it.
But as for a Ford-Bayh ticket mentioned in the previous post, I think the Bayh teaming up with Gerald Ford is a great idea. Ford was not that bad a president, considering the GOPers that came after him.
As long as Bayth is VP, it would be a great ticket.
mcc
So speaking as a former Indiana voter, the words “cafe owner in Bloomington” make me initially predisposed to like this person, but there’s this little thing I don’t know anything about her.
I’m going to leave aside the “what are her qualifications and what makes anyone think she could perform in a general Senate campaign” question. What are her positions?
merrinc
My husband is from Indiana (though he was smart enough to escape ages ago and marry a smart, sassy woman from WV) and he has always despised Bayh and his daddy. First thing he said to me when I told him was “John Mellencamp.”
And that was before it started popping up in comment threads at TPM and diaries at GOS.
mcc
@jl: Although a funny proposal, this would not be legal because Gerald Ford is, of course, a convicted felon.
The Raven
It’s the slo-mo train wreck of the Democratic Party. Join the Progressive Popular Libertarian Party. We have at least one principle: “No government by corporations!”
Croak!
(No, it doesn’t really exist. Sigh. But you might try the American Pirate Party.)
jl
@mcc:
Oh dear. I thought Gerald Ford was just dead, which BTW I’ll have you know makes him more qualified than Bayh for anyting other than sitting on his ass and taking bribes.
But, sorry. My bad.
Cat Lady
Bayh has a Colts stink about him. He’s a legend in his own mind. There will be media sturm und drang, then it will peter out, because it’s Indiana and Bayh and there is no there there.
West of the Cascades
@jl: And, of course, if it’s Birch Bayh to whom you’re referring.
jl
@West of the Cascades: Evan Bayh, weasel, sniveling con man and sanctimonious passive aggressive dim witted little fink, to be polite about it. Very fit gentleman to run for VP with a dead man on the top of the ticket.
thomas Levenson
Oh F*ck.
And yes, if Mellencamp ran, I’d give him money. We need a Democratic alternative to the Senatorial song stylings of this guy.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Okay, here is Weigel’s quote on the FDL comments:
Being curious I read through the comments myself. There is by no means a general consensus for D’Ippolito and quite a bit of skepticism to go along with the enthusiasm. Weigel must have stopped reading after about comment 7. But maybe he has a blogwar to gin up.
jl
Just a note to Mr. Cole regarding tags for Evan Bayh posts: he is an asswipe, not an asshole. Please do not give him undeserved stature by inaccurate use of tags.
thanks for your attention.
KCinDC
Good to see Chris Bowers at Open Left saying “Please, for the love of God, don’t help Tamyra D’Ippolito get on the ballot”.
Ash Can
I just posted on this at the end of the “Bayh Partisanship” thread, complete with links. I’ll repost the text here:
Dengre’s latest post notwithstanding, I’m actually seeing some fairly interesting information and speculation on this at the GOS. First, as others here have already mentioned, there’s the fact that, if no valid papers are filed by the deadline, the party itself can choose a candidate. Jed Lewison points out that this works both ways, of course. The IN GOP is committed to running Hostetler and Coats. On the Dem side, since everyone assumed Bayh would be the candidate, nobody else mounted a campaign, with the sole exception of Tamyra d’Ippolito, who appears to be spectacularly inept. She has until noon tomorrow to gather another 1,000 or so signatures, and according to the second link the IN Dem network is not her friend in this effort (surprise). Assuming either 1) she can’t gather enough signatures in time or 2) if she does, enough of the signatures will be invalidated to DQ her, the situation becomes this: The IN GOP must go through a primary campaign, which presumably will involve GOP candidates saying uncomplimentary things about each other at best. The primary winner will then go up against a Dem candidate hand-picked by the state party for maximum effectiveness against the GOP candidate.
The theories that Bayh decided to drop out due to too much dirt on him emerging during the campaign and/or he decided to take the money and run make perfect sense. In light of what else is going on, as described above, the timing of his announcement, as well as him (and the IN State Dem party) wanting to keep it under his hat until the last minute, begin to make more sense as well. It begins to make sense that he would have reached this decision before this, and was going through the motions of doing things for his campaign in order not to tip his hand.
Regardless, though, it appears he just doesn’t like Harry Reid.
demo woman
@Ash Can: I think that you are right. Earlier I stayed away from the speculation but if you watch the first minute of his speech watch his wife’s hand on her son’s back. I thought that she was going to rub his skin off.
Something is going on!
Capri
I’m from Indiana, since 1983. Folks from the deep south tell me it’s more conservative than MS, and from what I’ve seen I believe them.
Bayh became extremely popular in the state as govener when he stood up to a republican majority in the state senate. They tried to pull a Newt Gingrich and close down the government and he called their bluff and and didn’t let them end their session until they passed a budget. It took them 48 hours without a break, but they finally did it. He’s been riding on that ever since.
What he’s doing now is ensuring that a party-selected blue dog gets named in his place exactly because they want to make sure that nobody from Bloomington (i.e. Moscow on the Wabash) get a wiff of the nomination only to get creamed in the general.
For a little perspective – I work with a gentleman who would not allow anyone to give him dimes as change, he insisted that he get 2 nickles instead, because he refused to carry a likeness of FDR in his pocket. Another one of my esteemed co-worders told me that the reason most folks didn’t sympathize with Timothy McViey was because some kids were killed when he bombed the federal building and not just lawyers.
Cathie from Canada
This is priceless — in the comments at the TPM post on this race (which by the way demonstrate that this woman is a flakey restauranteur who is being evicted from her building because she didn’t pay rent and she has no organization at all so she decided that NOW is the time she should run for the Senate) one of the commenters asks this question about some other possible candidate “Other than being popular, does he have any qualifications for office?”
It just struck me as the perfect summary of what is wrong with the Democratic party’s election thinking now.
JGabriel
Ash Can:
That doesn’t necessarily work in our favor. Despite the intra-party mudslinging, contested primaries tend to produce stronger, not weaker, candidates.
.
mcc
The question is then whether the dem party can do a good job of picking someone that fits those qualities, or whether they will pick a Martha Coakley. The fact Brad Ellsworth’s name is even being mentioned terrifies me, as although Indiana is probably the kind of state where you have to run a blue dog Ellsworth is so much of a blue dog he would likely make it impossible for a lot of Democrats, especially pro-choice Democrats, to vote for him– indeed, so much of a blue dog he might be in that tiny pool of people who we would be objectively better off with a Republican in the seat.
I think primaries are healthy. Primaries help you see whether a candidate can connect with the voters they’ll need the support of later. Primaries help you learn things about candidates.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@Ash Can:
Well, who doesn’t?
forked tongue
Good plan, John.
Here, read something worthwhile:
Judging Presidents Based Solely on Their Portraits
MNPundit
You do realize that OpenLeft is pleading for D’Ippolito to not run right?
Oops sorry. Didn’t mean to rock the boat.
mcc
Not all that relevant to the thread, but…
I’m originally from Texas, but spent about four years in Indiana. I was continually shocked at how many confederate flags I saw. I kept wanting to stand up and go “YOU WEREN’T EVEN PART OF THE CONFEDERACY!”
JGabriel
Wonkette:
It’s not just snark, that’s really what Bayh’s speech parses out to.
.
ellaesther
I feel I should say that the train-wreck doesn’t appear to be all that slow. It’s just endless. There are more cars to this train than we can even imagine.
But otherwise, what you say here makes dandy sense. I would like the record to show, however, that I don’t believe that you will actually, you know, sit it out. What with being you and all.
geg6
Well, I won’t go to FDL, but I’m not seeing a lotta love from commenters elsewhere for D’Ippolito. And I am seeing some Indianans (?) Saying she’s a nut. So, once again FDL is just completely insane.
Napoleon
@mcc:
. . . and by flying such flags they dishonor the deaths of all the Indiana soldiers who died for the Union.
Just Some Fuckhead
I think we oughta use D’Ippolito as some sorta litmus test to determine the steely-eyed realist Democrats from the insane ones out to cause trouble.
Leelee for Obama
All things considered, I find the Evan Bayh crap completely uninteresting, mainly because I always thought he was a useless piece of trash who’s wife was working with the enemy of the people. It’s easy to extrapolate that Bayh is working for them also. It is totally unsurprising that he would wait till the last moment to ditch, however, he may have done it this way to make it easier for the state party to just pick who they want, rather than getting the woman you are all speaking of. She seems completely unqualified and, like the primary winner in Illinois for Lt. Gov, likely to crash and burn right quickly. I’ll withhold judgment on this until I know more.
Just now watched Joe Biden trash Cheney on MTP- forgot to watch yesterday1 He did well, and I’m now waiting for the awesomeness I read Rachel provided.
Carry on.
General Winfield Stuck
the Bayh senate seat is now wingnut. nothing to do about it but accept and move on. Wasting brain cells on some fantasy that dems can hold on to it is navel gazing in the extreme. This is the state where wounded Confederate soldiers were welcomed to mend up and go back fighting the North. It is historically, one of the, if not at one time, central command for the KKK.
Only a political dynasty like the Bayh’s would stand a chance. And say what you will about Bayh’s recent full wingnut mode, part of it was him getting those same vibes from the states voters, returning to their default tea bagger position. Obama woke up some moderate and liberal voters once, who had likely not voted in a long time. It won’t happen again anytime soon.
KCinDC
Just realized one of my photos is being used on FDL, fortunately in a Spencer Ackerman article. I don’t mind the use, but it’d be nice if they’d link to the original in the credit.
Edit: Bizarre formatting. The photo only appears in the article as it appears on the FDL front page, not when you link directly to it.
mr. whipple
@KCinDC:
Make them pay for it with Grover’s money.
thejoz
Erick the Fatass Erickson over at RedState thinks that D’Ippolito’s candidacy is a great idea.
That should tell any Democrat exactly what they need to know about her, and why supporting her would be a shit-tastically bad idea.
thejoz
Even Erick Erickson thinks this is a great idea. To get D’Ippolito on the ballot, that is.
That ought tell you all you need to know right there.
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/02/15/lets-help-tamyra-dippolito-get-the-500-votes-he-needs/
gwangung
I wish some progressive folks would remember this. If there’s a considerable wingnut constituency for a politician, it’s not a betrayal if that politician heeds them. It’d be better to resist, of course, but you can’t call it a stab in the back—the folks they’re representing just simply not progressive.
Jules
Does Bayh get to keep all the money he has raised?
Brien Jackson
Damn, Chris Bowers can’t even make a good point when he’s trying to sound reasonable. To say nothing of being a flaming hypocrite.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Quite an impressive remote diagnosis on your part. Tell me how you do that, refuse to read something yet know that it’s authors are insane anyway.
I read through the comments on Dayen’s piece. It’s not remotely a consensus for D’Ippolito. But by all means, stick with your bigotry, it’s much easier.
General Winfield Stuck
@gwangung: While I agree with this in a basic way. My problem with Bayh is he took it several steps further and planted himself in front of the teevee to oppose his parties initiatives and validate wingnut talking points. When that happens time to hang it up or join the other side.
Maybe that was part of Evan’s rationale for quitting. I was surprised by his vociferous opposition to Obama, to be honest. I really do think he is a decent dem moderate and at times a good liberal. Maybe finding himself being directed by his instincts to get re elected by going all Zell Miller was something he couldn’t stomach.
mr. whipple
@General Winfield Stuck:
Agreed. I don’t mind a Conservadem occassionally throwing a little critique towards the LW of the party if that’s what they need to get elected. But there is a right way to do it, and a wrong way. And there is use and overuse.
I’d love to know what the real deal is here, because it sounds to me like he’s just a quitter.
Velvet Elvis
Thank You.
I wish the people who are trying to find a way to get a progressive to run for this seat would see that there’s no way in hell that would work out. A blue tinged canine is all that will ever come out of there and only then if the Republican candidate really blows it.
gwangung
@General Winfield Stuck: True, I’m speaking more as a general rule, not in specifics. A Democrat in general in Indiana is probably not going to be anywhere near as progressive as someone from San Francisco or Seattle.
mai naem
@Jules: He keeps it but its to give it away to other candidates not for his own personal use.
I smell scandal. You don’t surprise your own staff unless there’s a scandal. For those who think he’s too boring to have an affair, just remember John Major was having an affair and John Major looks even more boring than Bayh.
Woodbuster
National Enquirer blockbuster Bayh article hitting the presses in three, two, one…..
mr. whipple
@mai naem:
“I smell scandal.”
Yup.
Litlebritdifrnt
I would just like to say that I am about done with this country. Moving back to the UK is looking more and more like the best option. My sis and her DH enjoy a really nice life, where they do not scrape to pay for basic needs, they go on vacations several times a year, they own a nice home, they go out whenever they want to. With this latest round of medical issues with my DH I am thinking that the NHS is the way to go.
gwangung
@Velvet Elvis: Yeah, think about Nelson and other conservative Dems—primarying them at this moment will just get you a Republican. Short term, you have to learn to compromise (hmmmm), long term, you try to foster more progressive policies in their general population.
General Winfield Stuck
@mr. whipple: Oh God, I hope not, not another democratic restless pecker story . I’d rather he stole something, or found baby wingnut Jeevus. Anything but that.
SenyorDave
Litlebritdifrnt,
But if you make $10 million a year on investments, you get to keep so much more here in the US.
Litlebritdifrnt
@SenyorDave:
Why do we not have ROTFL emoticons? Thanks.
mcd410x
Great quote from Yglesias:
Corpsicle
@Litlebritdifrnt: For us expats thinking of returning, do we get NHS after 6 months of residency?
rootless_e
Obama did carry the state.
rootless_e
Perhaps someone found a videotape of Bayh making snotty remarks about Larry Bird.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Corpsicle:
Dunno, I asked my Mum about this, I paid my “stamp” prior to leaving so I am covered, DH is also covered thanks to being married to me. Depends on how long you have been in the US I would suppose. I have been here 19 years, but because I paid my “stamp” for many years prior to that I will be cool (in fact I went home for a visit in 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 and was sick as a dog both times, I went to my local doctor and was covered under the NHS both times) I don’t want to sound like a drama queen but these medical bills for DH are killing us. We are just sinking further and further into an unpayable debt. It is time to do something about it, and I guess leaving the country is it. I hate to leave my home, my gardens, my flowers and my critters, but you have to get to a point where you say enough is enough, and to be honest we have got to enough. With this latest blackmail of “you have to pay $125.00 up front before you can have the surgery” I was done. This is not right.
Leelee for Obama
If there is some sort of scandal, I’m betting it’s a payoff so big, no one could look the other way. Mainly because I cna’t see him being unfaithful to the woman who keeps him in luxury. But, what do I know?
@Litlebritdifrnt: If I could go back to somewhere, I’d already be there. Sounds like you really should get boogying, brit. You’ll be safer and that’s what’s important.
I think my death certificate will list C O D as American Citizenship, aggravated by a really bad choice of spouse.
I’d laugh if it didn’t suck so much.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Leelee for Obama:
Sadly that is where I am right now. This has been my home for almost 20 years, I am a part of the community, I recognise and greet people in the street, I am a part of the courthouse gang, I belong there. But DH and I simply cannot resolve this mountain of debt that is destroying us every single day. The phone rings constantly from debt collecters trying to convince us to pay the hospital, doctors, radiologists, blood work, x-ray technician, janitor bills, every single day, they call every five minutes, at 9:01 on a Sunday morning the calls begin and they do not stop, all day,every day, it is terrorism, it is harrassment, it is piling on more and more. I cannot handle this. Time to go home. Where I can live in my Mum’s house, earn a decent living, know that my DH’s next health crisis will not bankrupt me, and know that I can afford to buy food while still buying prescription medications. This country is well and truly fucked, and I like a rat, is going to be swimming far away from that sinking ship.
Leelee for Obama
@Litlebritdifrnt: I completely understand, and hope it all works out for you soon, brit. It’s a bloody shame that it has to be this way, but thank goodness you have an option that will give you a chance. You are not abandoning the ship, Dear Heart, you are saving your own fragile bark.
Nick
@Litlebritdifrnt:
This explains why it’s so difficult to get out the vote for us. This feeling is pretty widespread.
I got this from a friend today, who said she’ll never vote again;
Leelee for Obama
@Nick: I’m nowhere near not voting yet. I feel the same way about my Voter ID that the NRA feels about their guns. It’s just been so very disheartening these past few weeks. Things may yet be different, if the President has decided to go balls to the wall. That’s what it will take, and only time will show the outcome. The idea of Liberals not voting causes more erections among the opposition than naked girls, or boys, so that’s the last thing to give in on. I am going to volunteer some time with OFA-see if a few determined people can actually change the world. I met Margaret Mead once, and a s crazy as she was, she was right about some things.
HRA
My 2 cents is he did not look so well. His wife looked happy.
I doubt there is any great scandal with his wife looking that happy.
The truth is more likely closer to being worn out and greatly disappointed in a Congress that can’t seem to get its act together to accomplish anything of substance.
rootless_e
@Nick:
People who say stuff like that are morons who need to drop the past life recovery, stop staring at the crystal, and smack themselves with the aromatherapy care-bear until they wake the fuck up.
Nick
@rootless_e:
oh I know, but that still doesn’t get them out to vote.
Liberals and progressives just don’t vote like conservatives do, simple fact of life. They’re outnumbered at the ballot box. Until we start fining people for not voting, we’ll keep losing.
Wayne
Wasn’t there a quote somewhere when the news broke (sorry, too lazy to search for it) that Coats was running about how he was sure that he had some sort of smoking gun that would allow him to beat Bayh? At the time, I believe that even the reporters covering the story felt sure this was a reference to Bayh’s wife’s corporate ties. But given today’s news, it’s difficult not to wonder whether Coats really had something substantial up his sleeve after all.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Nick: Until we start fining people for not voting, we’ll keep losing.
Yeah, I don’t think I can stand another defeat like ’06 and ’08.
Just tell ’em “the franchise: use it or lose it.”
rootless_e
@Nick: I’ve had people tell me stuff like that, and I usually say, “really? just like the civil rights organizers who were tortured and killed and dumped in the swamp, you gave up everything? Wow!”.
Nick
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Well good, maybe if we can have Obama resign and be replaced by another historically unpopular Republican President, we’d be ok.
timb
@merrinc: his dad is/was amazing
Xecky Gilchrist
@Nick: I’m on your side. Just sayin’, it doesn’t make much sense to say “we’ll keep losing” when we haven’t actually been losing.
4jkb4ia
This is a perfect spot to note that Open Left is a mishmash of people with very strong outlooks and to judge Chris, Mike, and Paul by what Sirota posts or what awful pictures Stoller posted is absurd.
Mike Mundy
What’s with that “H” at the end of his name?
timb
@General Winfield Stuck: bullshit
I actually live in Indiana, General, and I’ll submit you don’t know my state at all. Indiana went blue in 2008 and has a growing Latino population, which trends very Democratic. So much so, that Marion County, the last major wingnut run in America is, short of a major tax revolt, a Dem bastion. Democrats control the population centers in Indiana. Republicans run the exburbs and rural areas. It’s 50/50
timb
@merrinc: his dad is/was [email protected]General Winfield Stuck: bullshit
I actually live in Indiana, General, and I’ll submit you don’t know my state at all. Indiana went blue in 2008 and has a growing Latino population, which trends very Democratic. So much so, that Marion County, the last major wingnut run in America is, short of a major tax revolt, a Dem bastion. Democrats control the population centers in Indiana. Republicans run the exburbs and rural areas. It’s 50/50
Nick
@Xecky Gilchrist: 2006 and 2008 were flukes…we won because of Bush…Bush got our voters to the polls.
There’s no more Bush.
timb
@Velvet Elvis: you mean, like Obama would never win there?
General Winfield Stuck
@timb:
I hope you are right. I doubt it as other Hoosiers have commented today on BJ that Indiana is still as wingnutty as it’s ever been. Maybe more so. And I really don’t think one election in 2008 proves a trend. Historic low ebb for GOP support, bad economy, and Obama waking up some liberals that haven’t voted for a long time were more likely the cause of it voting for a dem president in like forever. But you could be right, I hope so.
Joe Bauers
@rootless_e:
I don’t know, it sounds like a pretty sensible life strategy to me. And I don’t have any crystals or aromatherapy anythings. What I have got is anywhere from two minutes to maybe 40 years left before I either die or get too old to do anything but lie there and wait for death. I can choose how to spend the time I’ve got. Plowing it into things that are both unpleasant and unlikely to change anything isn’t very appealing.
2009 was the absolute high water mark for Democrats in this country. How frequently does one party get a popular new president, huge majorities in Congress, and a thoroughly disgraced opposition? The Republicans got that in ’94 (they didn’t even have the presidency) and made hay for 12 years. Tax cuts and war, war and tax cuts. The Dems had it in ’09 and, well… For reasons including a majority population of stupid, easily distracted people who’d rather watch Dancing With The Stars than pay attention to politics, a media comprised of Villagers who’d rather cover the horse race than anything substantive (when they’re not outright in the bag for the other side), a Senate caucus that included Lieberman, Bayh, Nelson, et. al., an insane Republican party determined to destroy the Dems at all costs, a President who doesn’t seem to want to fight for anything, etc. – the Dems had lost all forward momentum within six months of Obama’s inauguration.
When Obama was elected it felt to me like real change was possible, that maybe we really could make a go at solving some of the enormous problems we face. But does anybody still believe that any action on climate change is possible, to take just one example? We’d all better hope that the know-nothing denialists are right and thousands of climate scientists are wrong, because otherwise we’re screwed. Climate change, peak oil, health care reform, financial industry reform, the house of cards that is the international consumer economy – is anybody talking about these things? No. The national discussion is about the 2010 horse race and how Obama created this huge deficit, all by himself and for no apparent reason. Nothing will change and no problems will be solved because the Republicans will prevent it. And they will be rewarded with electoral success for their actions. Because we are a nation of idiots, which is the real root cause of our problems.
So if change isn’t possible in this best of all possible worlds (for Democrats), it just isn’t possible. Voting for Democrats might smooth some of the bumps in the road, a little, but we’re still going to go hurtling off the cliff because the Republicans are driving even when they’re in the back seat and they want us to go over. So why not sit back, relax, and enjoy the show?
Joe Bauers
@Joe Bauers:
I gave the Republicans too much credit, the Democrats weren’t even particularly disgraced in ’94. But as Jonah Goldberg might say, this is actually central to my point…
Nick
@Joe Bauers: Look, I’m not surprised change isn’t happening at breakneck speed…if you had asked me where we’d be two years ago, I’d tell you we’d be lucky to even be where we are now.
But for many people, this was the last or only chance. The country just may not be worth fighting for anymore.
rootless_e
@Joe Bauers: Beats me. I mean the department of labor is defending the weakest and most defenseless workers, going after employers who steal tips and rip off pension funds, the Department of Justice is prosecuting cops who beat prisoners, the US government is not actively expanding a torture archipelago – why should we care?
Joe Bauers
@rootless_e:
These are all good things, and I’m grateful that we have them, however briefly. I don’t mean to denigrate those things. I just think that the preservation and expansion of those things would require a massive civic awakening on the part of a public not at all like the one that we actually have, and is in no real way contingent on anything I do or say.
rootless_e
@Joe Bauers: i think that just as a large part of republican bs is excuse for selfishness and brutality, a large part of “progressive” bs is excuse for passivity and inaction.
danimal
In a world in which Congress can pass meaningful health care reform, a liberal priority for 40+ years within 24 hours, I can’t get excited about the loss of a Dem seat. These folks need to stuff their egos and start getting the job done. If there were some actual progressive legislation to point to, a lot of the apathy would go away. But for now, Bye Bayh.
merrinc
@timb:
Unlike his useless son, Birch Bayh did have some significant accomplishments; DH just thought he was a prick. I think anyone who reaches that level has crunched some heads to get there.
Thanks for the update about changing demographics. I don’t think we should write the state off as a lost cause, either.
KCinDC
Tamyra for Senate on Facebook:
Buckle up!
boonagain
I’m from Indiana and haven’t posted here since shortly after Obama’s election , but I thought I’d add my two cents about Bayh.
Coincidentally, yesterday I had a couple of encounters which touched on Bayh and his possible successor. Yesterday morning, I was talking with a gay friend and he asked if I had heard anything about Evan Bayh and the homosex??? I said ‘no, not really’ He then proceeded to tell me about a friend who alleged to have had sex with him. I sorta laughed it off as rumors like that are IMO usually fantasies and Evan is a good looking guy. I wouldn’t have given it another thought except I heard about Bayh’s retirement about two hour’s later!! So, just thought I’d share. I normally wouldn’t give a rumor of this kind any traction, but the timing of it make it fall into the category of ‘things that make you go hmmmm!’.
Unbelievably, my second encounter was a Town Hall Meeting with Brad Ellsworth in my home town , also yesterday. Our local progressive group had sorta stacked the deck there and were actually the only ones who showed up. Going in, none of us were at all happy with Ellsworth and his Blue Dog ways. After spending an hour with him and his staff, we all were Ellsworth backers!! He was very sensible and , while I certainly don’t agree with all his decisions, I really believe he is a sincere person who puts a lot of thought in the votes he makes. Again, I am not in lock step with him politically, but I realize that he does have to be elected in Indiana and I don’t. He was very charming, is totally for HCR, and did not in any way throw Obama under the bus and pretend he wasn’t a total Obama supporter. Just because he is a little more (OK, a LOT more) conservative than I am, doesn’t make him evil. I came out of there thinking with Ellsworth, Democrats may have a chance of holding onto that Senate seat.
After the meeting, I asked him if he were running. He didn’t deny it, said he was thinking about it and was very self effacing about the number of Senators and Congressmen (who normally didn’t give him the time of day) who had called him personally since the Bayh news broke. Our whole group was unanimous in thinking what a pleasant surprise Ellsworth was and that he was not at all the person we were expecting.
To link the two stories, I know it sounds like I have a total mancrush on Ellsworth (well, maybe a little LOL), but actually it was heartening to meet a politician who seemed to actually listen to us, to have the respect to disagree with us and give reasons why he disagreed and to think we might have a candidate who could keep the Senate Seat in the D coumn.
timb
@General Winfield Stuck: Well, it won’t happen this year. The people who voted last time, won’t vote this election. But, they’ll be in 2012. Point remains, like America itself, Indiana is becoming less white, less old, and less the current coalition of Limbaugh-esque Republicans.
True, Wingnuts abound in Indiana, but 2.4 million votes were cast in 2004 (1.4 million for Bush) and 2.7 million were cast in 2008 (1.34 million for McCain).
The difference in those elections is the 500,000 people who voted for Obama. Those people still live here and the local Republicans do everything they can to discourage them from voting, but they can be tapped.
At any rate, Indiana will elect a kook this year to US Senate, because turnout will be low, but it is not Mississippi. And, when Lugar retires (2012?), there is a real chance that seat will go to a democrat