Evan Bayh was probably as secure as a Democrat incumbent could be in this environment. He comes from a well-respected name in Indiana politics and was sensible and well thought of enough to get elected to two terms in a deep Red state. He was outpolling both of his two chief GOP rivals, former Senator Dan Coats and former congressman John Hostettler and he had a campaign war chest of $13 million socked away.
The seat was seen by every major polling outfit as a safe Democrat retention.
And then, out of the blue, Bayh announced his retirement:
Bayh, who served two terms as governor of Indiana, said he was concerned about the excessive partisanship in national politics.
There is "too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem solving," Bayh said today, surrounded by his wife and two sons. "People's business is not getting done."
Bayh gave glaring examples of where things have fallen apart -- the failure of the deficit reduction commission after seven co-sponsors of the bill voted No, and the failure of the bipartisan job creation bill that had Republican support but was torpedoed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Bayh, 54, said Congress is in "need of significant reform," but he praised some of his colleagues, including his fellow senator from Indiana, Republican Dick Lugar.
"If Washington, D.C. could be more like Indiana, Washington would be a better place," Bayh said. {....}
Bayh made the decision not to run on Friday, telling a small group of senior staff, but he did not tell President Obama or Reid until today.
Even better, Bayh's bombshell had the Democrats scrambling to find a candidate.According to Indiana law, you need 4,500 signatures that include at least 500 signatures form each of the state's nine congressional districts in order to run..and those signatures have to be delivered to the Indiana Secretary of State's office by noon tomorrow, February 16th.
Since Bayh faced no primary opposition, that leaves the Democrat Senate slate blank, unless party leaders come together in the proverbial smoke filled room to select a candidate on their own as per state law.
So...what was really going on here?
By not telling Reid or Obama and announcing this so close to the deadline, Senator Bayh was essentially giving them an upraised middle finger, the way I see it.
Bayh was the epitome of the Blue Dog Democrat, and a relatively sane and sensible one at that, frequently voting against Obama's positions. More importantly, his family goes way back in Indiana politics, he has two sons who may want to trade on the family name to run for something someday and odds are he simply had enough of the Obama Administration's amateur hour shenanigans.
Remember, Bayh was the one last month who warned the Democrats that they were becoming a train wreck, saying, that if the Democrats ignored the result of the Massachusetts Senate race it would "lead to even further catastrophe" for the party.
"There's going to be a tendency on the part of our people to be in denial about all this," Bayh said, but "if you lose Massachusetts and that's not a wake-up call, there's no hope of waking up."
With Bayh off the field, the seat has gone overnight from safe Democrat to likely Republican...and the Senate majority is now officially in play.
2 comments:
that sound you hear in the background is acorn running off the ballots as we speak.
i predict the democrat, whomever they nominate will win, 54% to 52%.
The primaries approach. Please ask your primary party candidates what department, agency, ministry, or bureau they would abolish. To abolish departments, agencies, ministries, or bureaux, you do NOT have to pass a separate bill for the explicit, sole purpose of abolition. You don't. All you need do is what I term ' zero - line ' the entity in question in the annual appropriations bill for the federal budget -- that's it. That's all you need do. Simply write zero, zilch, nil, nothing, nada, naught, nought, no thanks, no way, no, 0, $0, $00.00. ( Or, simply don't mention it : the question of filibusters need not arise. )
Abolish, not ' cut ', ' rationalise ', ' reform ', or any of that other codswallop !
Please corner the candidates & ask for specifics.
Some examples : they could abolish the unconstitutional federal DEA & all that failed drugs-prohibition socialist tripe ; they could abolish the unconstitutional, immoral, anti-Christian Jimmy Carter crap military slavery sign-up on the kids ; they could abolish the FCC ( at least the nepotistic censorship board with former members & chairmen with names like Powell ) ; how about the Department Of Education ? Seriously, the feds do not educate a single kid in this country -- what on Earth do we need a whole bureau for that ?
Thus endeth my annual plea for some fiscal sanity.
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