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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / How Washington works

How Washington works

by DougJ|  June 7, 201112:02 pm| 58 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., We Are All Mayans Now

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No one could have predicted (via Atrios):

As iWatch News’ Peter Stone reports, (former Senator Evan) Bayh has signed on with one of the most corporate-friendly, anti-environment shops in all of Washington, DC: the US Chamber of Commerce. According to an internal memo penned by Chamber president Tom Donohue, Bayh, along with former Bush White House chief of staff Andy Card, are now part of the Chamber’s anti-regulation messaging team, doing “speeches, events, and media appearances at local venues.”

Who can forget David Broder’s love letters to the honest Hoosier himbo?

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Reader Interactions

58Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    June 7, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    What the ‘eff is wrong with the Midwest? Michigan, Ohio, Indiana – some of the absolutely worst conservatives come out of these states.

  2. 2.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    June 7, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    Anthony Weiner’s career is circling the drain because he showed his banana hammock and bare chest over twitter.

    Meanwhile, the true whores of Washington continue to prostitute themselves to the tune of the greenback and worship at the altar of Galt, to the applause of the Village.

    Life is not fair.

  3. 3.

    stuckinred

    June 7, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    @Zifnab: Haven’t figured it out yet? Stupidity doesn’t recognize state borders.

  4. 4.

    arguingwithsignposts

    June 7, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    @Zifnab: Assholism knows no geographic boundaries.

    ETA: stuckinred was much kinder than I was.

  5. 5.

    kgc16

    June 7, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    Yuck. Just yuck. Anyone else suffering from disgust fatigue?

  6. 6.

    Valdivia

    June 7, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    Today I am just freaking despondent about everything. ugh.
    BTW my own anti-Wiener thing is that he was opposed to the nyc bike lanes. But that’s just me.

  7. 7.

    Violet

    June 7, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    @kgc16:

    Anyone else suffering from disgust fatigue?

    Yes. It’s so disheartening even to turn on the news. News like this just kind of makes you wish Even Bayh’s house (houses?) would get completely destroyed in a tornado or flood or something, and he’d be denied help from FEMA because, well, he doesn’t like government interference.

    EDIT: To be clear, I’m NOT wishing something like this on him. I just can’t figure out why people like this get rewarded and good people seem to get screwed over and over again. Wish there were a way to get Bayh what he deserved.

    And:

    “speeches, events, and media appearances at local venues.”

    Bayh is like a slightly better looking Pawlenty. Dull, dull, dull. Why would anyone hire him to speak at an event? Yawn.

  8. 8.

    alwhite

    June 7, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    And this flaming shit bag was running for the Democratic Presidential nomination just a few years ago. Obabma may not be much of a Democrat but he is 100 times better than what we could have been stuck with.

    I hope Bayh chokes out on his rubber chicken & peas at one of the events he whores himself out at.

  9. 9.

    PurpleGirl

    June 7, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    What a disappointment Evan must be to his father.

  10. 10.

    Violet

    June 7, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    @PurpleGirl:
    Isn’t his dad really the only reason Evan got elected in the first place?

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    June 7, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    Evan Bayh is a real disappointment.

  12. 12.

    beltane

    June 7, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    This is what happens when you have an overlord class that behaves like crack addicts selling their children to human traffickers. These people truly do not care about anything but getting their next cash fix.

  13. 13.

    Chris

    June 7, 2011 at 12:30 pm

    @kgc16:

    Anyone else suffering from disgust fatigue?

    Since early 2009 at least and the beginnings of the Tea Party Movement. The Bush era provided a ton of opportunities for disgust, but starting about halfway through the decade public opinion had turned enough against him that one could hope for a light at the end of the tunnel.

    Then, the black Democratic man gets into office. The right wing decides that the real problem with the Bush years was that Bush wasn’t conservative enough, and plunges headfirst into all-out psychopathy that literally made Bush look sane. And the national discourse has been hung up on that ever since. Yeah, it’s exhausting, all right.

    Of course, I’m only in my early twenties. I can only imagine what it’s like for people old enough to remember Nixon, or McCarthy.

  14. 14.

    Suffern ACE

    June 7, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    No labels!

  15. 15.

    RobNYNY1957

    June 7, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    I attended a lecture by a leading Democratic campaign consultant in 2007 (Hank Sheinkopf) who stated with pontifically certainty that a Democratic presidental candidate could never win Florida, and that the only way a Democrat could win at all was to recruit someone like Evan Bayh to “electrify the base.” What a nitwit, but people pay him for his advice.

  16. 16.

    Citizen Alan

    June 7, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    Was there ever a day — even one day — when Evan Bayh wasn’t betraying the Democratic Party and the United States of America?

  17. 17.

    BGinCHI

    June 7, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    Paul Revere warned us this would happen, with his bells and shoutings and arms bearing.

  18. 18.

    Bex

    June 7, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    @Violet: A lot of people like Evan Bayh get rewarded because, in the words of the late, great Molly Ivins, they were born on third base and think they hit a triple. Any problems they have that involve spending money to fix are quite manageable. Healthcare problems are well-covered by generous insurance. It’s only when money and influence can’t or won’t fix the problem that they (might) begin to understand what “ordinary” people’s lives are like.

  19. 19.

    beltane

    June 7, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    @Chris: At least with Nixon and McCarthy there was the sense that they received their just desserts. Richard Nixon will go down in history as the last Republican who paid a price for his behavior. Isn’t that a cheery thought.

  20. 20.

    Suffern ACE

    June 7, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    @RobNYNY1957: Yeah. I can understand the whole “the netroots aren’t the real base” sentiment since the progressive interests they claim to represent aren’t always the majority view of regular Democratic party voters. But Evan Bayah just doesn’t say “Electrifying.” Maybe like a wet electric blanket may be considered “electrifying” to some.

  21. 21.

    Yutsano

    June 7, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    @Bex: Mingle with proles? Are ye daft? Next you’ll have them (shudder) GROCERY SHOPPING for themselves!

  22. 22.

    Valdivia

    June 7, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    I should add, on topic, that I find Bayh totally despicable. His political strategy guru is Mark Penn, what else do you need to know?

  23. 23.

    Ash Can

    June 7, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    @PurpleGirl: I feel the same way. I recall Birch being an outstanding statesman, nothing like his feckless creep son. Looks like Birch needs to put someone over his knee.

  24. 24.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    June 7, 2011 at 12:43 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    Was there ever a day—even one day—when Evan Bayh wasn’t betraying the Democratic Party and the United States of America?

    Probably when he was a blastocyst since we all know life begins at conception.

    I’m guessing that right around the 3rd trimester, he was figuring out his life’s work as being A Shitty Democrat.

  25. 25.

    eemom

    June 7, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:

    it would be nice if every despicable thing every other politician does from here to the end of eternity ISN’T used as an excuse to feel sorry for po’ widdle Anthony Weiner.

    Just a thought.

  26. 26.

    eemom

    June 7, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    lolz. Now that’s more like it.

  27. 27.

    Culture of Truth

    June 7, 2011 at 12:47 pm

    Wait a minute – I get Bayh AND Card??

    Does the excitement ever stop?!?

  28. 28.

    Yutsano

    June 7, 2011 at 12:48 pm

    @Culture of Truth: You keep this up mister and we’ll unleash some Ben Stein on your ass. The dull will have you screaming for ages.

  29. 29.

    jeffreyw

    June 7, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    @Yutsano: Damn, that reminds me…I am out of Shiitake mushrooms..

  30. 30.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    June 7, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    @Zifnab:

    What the ‘eff is wrong with the Midwest? Michigan, Ohio, Indiana – some of the absolutely worst conservatives come out of these states.

    What several others said above. Here in Misery we have plenty of batshit insane wingnuts to rival the best of *any* from the Confederacy. I mean compare Roy Blount and Saxby Chambliss. Ain’t much difference there that I can see.

    That’s because the Repups grow these clones in axlotl tanks, it’s why a wingnut from Idaho is virtually identical to one from the Deeeep South. Only the voice is different and they probably breed them that way to hide their true origins.

  31. 31.

    Shalimar

    June 7, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    @eemom: We only feel sorry for Weiner because he was trying so hard to electrify the base. One woman at a time.

  32. 32.

    Tim, Interrupted

    June 7, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    @eemom:

    it would be nice if every despicable thing every other politician does from here to the end of eternity ISN’T used as an excuse to feel sorry for po’ widdle Anthony Weiner.

    eesmarm, why don’t you…and take your time, honey…tell the group the name of the man who so badly did you wrong once upon a time? Take your time, now…

    Perhaps then we can begin to get a handle on why it is that you feel that John Edwards jilted YOU and that Anthony’s “schlong hammock” (love that!) pic was a personal affront to YOU. If we can begin to travel down a road toward an understanding that neither drama has anything at all to do with your personal feelings or your life, then maybe, just maybe, you can begin to…let go and love again.

    Especially yourself.

    Now off to the cafeteria, sweetie, it’t time for lunch.

  33. 33.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    June 7, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    @eemom:

    I’m not feeling sorry for Weiner.

    I’m feeling sorry for a discourse that chases dickshots over the internet and gives rounds of applause for blatant sychohancy that is of more consequence than some dipshit aiming for hookups over Twitter.

  34. 34.

    piratedan

    June 7, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    @eemom: aye…Bayh being a turncoat sellout to corporate interests is disgusting enough unto itself. The guy took his father’s legacy and turned it into a business model for himself instead of one of public service. Nice gig if you can sell it. Obviously the folks of Indiana bought it.

  35. 35.

    bkny

    June 7, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    and andrew card does know about selling:

    “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”

  36. 36.

    Yutsano

    June 7, 2011 at 12:58 pm

    @jeffreyw: Yeah, that line came to me as I was mulling the shopping list in my brain. I have to make a late night store run here myself. I might just get extreme basics tonight and save the hardcore store run for the weekend.

  37. 37.

    Poopyman

    June 7, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    @beltane:

    Richard Nixon will go down in history as the last Republican who paid a price for his behavior. Isn’t that a cheery thought.

    No he didn’t, or at least not much. Jerry Ford made a deal not to prosecute him when he came in as VP. Leaving the WH after 6 years was a pretty light punishment compared to what should have been.

    And to round out the circle, Ford was another mid-westerner, from Michigan.

  38. 38.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 7, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    sigh
    Last night I caught the re-run of the Bill Maher show. Maher and Melissa Harris Perry were agreeing that Obama blew his chance to pass much tougher finance reform (among other things) when he had “all those Democrats”. The first thought that popped into my mind was “Evan Bayh”. I don’t expect much more from Maher, whose heart is in the right place if his brain isn’t. I was a little disappointed in MHP.

  39. 39.

    eemom

    June 7, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    @Tim, Interrupted:

    looky here, ladies and gentlemen…I gotz me my very own stalker troll, and I izn’t even a FPer!

    Maybe I’ll change my name to eeAllan, and watch lil timmeh’s head ‘splode….

  40. 40.

    eemom

    June 7, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:

    fair nuff.

  41. 41.

    Citizen_X

    June 7, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    OT: Here’s something to cheer people up: Weiner’s speech as delivered by guilty-looking dachsunds. (You know: weiner dogs!)

    Sorry, that’s the best I can do right now.

  42. 42.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    June 7, 2011 at 1:06 pm

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik: The Villagers don’t do numbers.

  43. 43.

    Daddy-O

    June 7, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    @kgc16: Yes. I am overwhelmed by disgust fatigue. So much, in fact, that my stock answer is thus:

    We’re doomed.

    No need for any further speculation or reasoning.

  44. 44.

    Yutsano

    June 7, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    @Citizen_X: So…many…cones…of…shame…

    Well I only counted two but still poor little guys. I didn’t even bother with the text speech.

  45. 45.

    Lol

    June 7, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    That’s the infuriating thing: lefties will correctly complain about shitstains like Bayh, Lieberman, Lincoln, etc but then they turn around and wonder why Obama couldn’t just pass everything he wanted.

    There wasn’t 50 votes for the public option much less 60 but it’s Obama’s fault he didn’t use the bully pulpit or fight harder or whatever. Because Lieberman et al were just waiting for Obama to give a speech before they would sign on for the PO.

  46. 46.

    Chris

    June 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    What several others said above. Here in Misery we have plenty of batshit insane wingnuts to rival the best of any from the Confederacy. I mean compare Roy Blount and Saxby Chambliss. Ain’t much difference there that I can see.

    I’ve never actually been to the Midwest, but from my reading of history, I understand it’s always been a mixed bag, even more so than most regions.

    You guys were the breeding ground for abolitionism and the original Republican Party, a stronghold of labor activism, the source of some hardcore populist and even Soshulist politicians, and of strong support for the Progressive and New Deal eras. At the same time, Ku Klux Klan recruitment there was through the roof in the 1920s, and religious fundamentalist movements also have a history in the region. (Also too, Charles Coughlin, Gerald L. K. Smith, Joe McCarthy – easily as crazy as Bachmann or Walker).

    I just like to remember that it was the Midwest (Illinois) that gave us William Jennings Bryan. Big antitrust populist who realigned the Democratic Party and sort of kicked off the Progressive Era, also a Bible thumper who went down fighting the theory of evolution.

  47. 47.

    Tim, Interrupted

    June 7, 2011 at 1:26 pm

    @eemom:

    looky here, ladies and gentlemen…I gotz me my very own stalker troll, and I izn’t even a FPer!

    Please just answer the questions for the group, dear…

    As for stalking, well…the odor you bring with you everytime you enter a thread does turn my head. No one else seems willing to acknowledge the unpleasantness so I thought I’d reach out.

    How are you feeling about yourself today?

  48. 48.

    merrinc

    June 7, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    @beltane:

    Richard Nixon will go down in history as the last Republican who paid a price for his behavior.

    Ha! Given the propensity of Republicans to re-write history/create their own reality, it seems more likely that Nixon will go down in history as the last Republican to be unfairly forced out of office by the mean old Democrats.

  49. 49.

    Kirbster

    June 7, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    I’ve never been a big fan of P.J. O’Rourke, but you have to admit that Parliament of Whores was an inspired title for a book about Beltway politics. The “revolving door” has been operating for a very long time. The difference these days is the unseemly haste with which ex-pols sell out to lobbying houses and corporate boards.

  50. 50.

    Chris

    June 7, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    @merrinc:

    Ha! Given the propensity of Republicans to re-write history/create their own reality, it seems more likely that Nixon will go down in history as the last Republican to be unfairly forced out of office by the mean old Democrats.

    Nah.

    Nixon wasn’t their man. Too liberal. I read somewhere that he increased the size of government more than any president since FDR: whether or not it’s true, he was, still, one hell of a Keynesian. That, plus the fact that he’s so despised in pop culture, means he’s not worth saving, IMO.

  51. 51.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    June 7, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    @Kirbster: I think Confederacy of Dunces is a more apt title to consider, given that the almost* relentlessly phony Deficit Peacock Bayh has been constantly held up by the Beltway as a model for Very Serious People who want to get past partisan sniping and Get Things Done.

    *almost because unlike fellow Deficit Peacocks like Feinstein, NElson, Baucus, Landrieu and Johnson (just to name those still in the Senate) Bayh did at least vote against the 2001 Bush tax-cuts

  52. 52.

    Peter J

    June 7, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Not on topic, but I think it’s very off topic:

    Erick, son of Erick, is whoring out for a measly $500.

  53. 53.

    Peter J

    June 7, 2011 at 2:01 pm

    Not on topic, but I don’t think it’s very off topic:

    When in doubt, add a don’t.

  54. 54.

    Tim, Interrupted

    June 7, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    All of the above is of course why this amoral corporatist sellout grifter was included on the 9/11 Whore Commission.

    This new gig is likely an indirect or direct payoff for his going along with the cover up.

  55. 55.

    becca

    June 7, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    @Ash Can:

    Statesman. What a quaint word one seldom hears anymore.

  56. 56.

    Ruckus

    June 7, 2011 at 3:41 pm

    @becca:
    Of course that’s because it’s an extinct species.

  57. 57.

    burnspbesq

    June 7, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    Evan Bayh kept Mike Pence out of the Senate. That’s worth something.

  58. 58.

    DanielX

    June 7, 2011 at 6:06 pm

    @burnspbesq: Yeah, thanks a bunch, Evan – now we have the possibility of Mike Pence as governor of Indiana next time around. A governor, generally speaking, can make people’s lives a lot more miserable in a lot shorter time than a junior wingnut senator – just ask the citizens of Florida, who were so misguided as to elect Rick Scott, or the citizens of Wisconsin with Governor Deadeyes. Evan is pretty much a standard issue corporate financed/purchased politician/whore/pimp, in which he has much in common with his successor Mitch Daniels (former great white hope of David Brooks and his ilk). To do him justice, he’s a very smart politician, although of the variety that no decent person would want as a house guest or for that matter as a dinner guest. As governor he never took a leak in the morning without checking an opinion poll, which is why he got two terms as a Democratic governor in a VERY conservative state and could have been reelected as senator. Instead, since he figured out he isn’t presidential timber, he decided it was time to REALLY cash in, since the millions his wife has earned from sitting on corporate boards (Emmis, Wellpoint, various pharma companies) clearly isn’t sufficient to meet their needs.

    What I fail to understand is why anyone would think this is shocking. Disgusting, yes, shocking, no. When congressmen and senators leave office for the last time, this is what they do – start pimping their contacts for big bucks, as witness Judd Gregg, Billy Tauzin, etc etc. After x years in DC, you really think these people are interested in going back to Indianapolis or Cedar Rapids or Baton Rouge and practicing law for a miserable $250k a year? How the hell is one supposed to maintain two or three homes, keep kids in private schools, etc, on that kind of money? No, Evan is just doing what ex-pols do to keep up with other ex-pols – cashing in so that he can get and keep a better lifestyle, since he no longer has the public power.

    Also, too – back to that disgusting part. Fuck him and all the others like him, sideways and without lubricant.

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