Bayh's additional gift to the GOP
Posted: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:57 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: Congress, Democrats, Republicans
From NBC's Luke Russert
The GOP message machine is aggressively sending around this quote from outgoing Sen. Evan Bayh (D) from an interview he did on CBS this morning:
[I]f I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.
Tomorrow just happens to be the one-year anniversary of the stimulus being signed into law, so expect the GOP to play up this quote.
Not His Fathers Son
Steve Kornacki ,Salon
Funny that he mentioned jobs. After all, it was Bayh and fellow moderate Senate Democrats who insisted last year that President Obama's first major initiative as president -- the stimulus bill -- be pared by about $100 billion, depriving the economy of hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Not that it mattered much to Bayh, who showed far more concern last year in the GOP's new pet issue: government spending and the federal deficit.
This has always been Bayh's way -- to position himself as every Republican's favorite Democrat.
John Nichols, The Nation:
In The Nations "2010ElectionPrimer",
As an example of the sort of senator that progressives ought not worry about losing, I cited Bayh, a longtime leader of the pro-corporate Democratic Leadership Council, which has for the better part of a quarter century worked to turn the Democratic Party into a kinder, gentler version of the GOP.
"Don't fret too much about the fate of Southern and border-state compromisers (Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln, Indiana's Evan Bayh)," the primer suggested. "Worry about re-electing progressives like California's Barbara Boxer and Wisconsin's Russ Feingold. Think about helping progressive, or at least mainstream, Democrats win seats vacated by GOP incumbents in Missouri, New Hampshire and Ohio. The point is not merely to elect Democrats but to forge a caucus that is less tied to the old ways of doing things and more inclined to scrap antidemocratic Senate rules and start governing."
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19 comments:
Let's see now. Evan Bayh. Holding $13 million in campaign contributions. Wife on multiple corporate boards. Corporations can now give unlimited campaign contributions.
He is taking the money and running...for Corporate President of the United States in 2016 (if not in 2012).
I see LOBBYIST in his future?
One of Bayh's last hurrahs was standing next to Mc Cain, and Kyl beating the war drums to pass major sanctions against Iran.
Good F'ing riddance to this clown. How soon before he joins Sarah palin making speeches to tea baggers? He's no Democrat. Indiana knew that.
10 to 1 says he becomes a lobbyist. Any takers?
my peeps have arrived, thanks guys! I knew I could not be alone in my opinion of this "democrat". We will be no better or worse if a repub takes the seat. Same thing.
The worst part about this is his timing. Could it have been any worse for his "alleged" party? Talk about not even giving a 2 week notice. There's more I have to bitch about, but DAMN!
i'm with cdm. i'm not particularly sad to see him go, but his timing really pisses me off. what a self-centered prick to quit so close to the filing deadline, thereby denying indiana democrats a primary.
What he has done is take the Democratic choice for a candidate out of the hands of the people and put in into the hands of the Democratic Party.
Kind of makes Democratic an oxymoron and probably assures another Corporatist as the Democratic candidate.
I love your response to trolls at the top of the sidebar!
Since Republicans do everything in unison, we can count on hearing that Evan Bayh quote over and over, until we're sick to death of it.
"Self-centered prick" is exactly what Bayh is. He didn't even tell Harry Reid about his plan to quit; Reid heard about it on the news.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-sledge/evan-bayhs-very-long-2009_b_462736.html
Bayhs wife serves on the board of WellPoint. Between '06 and '08 she made 2.1 million from health insurers.
Glenn Greenwald called Bayh the perfectly representative face for the rotted Washington establishment.
Matt Yglesias said Bayh was acting to entrench the culture of narcissism and hypocrisy that's killing the US Congress.
I said he was an asshole and I stand by that.
I agree, Sue. He is an asshole and more of a republican than a Democrat anyway. It is no great loss. He was just another politician sucking on the corporate tit...rather than our tits. (I mean that figuratively, not literally.)
He's either going to become a lobbyist or switch parties, which was my first thought. He really shafted the Democratic Party - and the people - by waiting so late. Maybe he and Lieberman can crawl in the closet together.
Bayh will probably reincarnate himself into a tea bagging lobbyist. He will follow the money I assure you.
go here and read all about Bayh, the conservadem, it's all quite fascinating! Bayh and the rest of the bluedogs he gathered together are no different then the obstructionist rethugs.
http://thinkprogress.org/tag/bayh/
How quickly the public forgets.
Remember Bayh was on Obama's and Hillary's short list for V.P.
So, does that tell you something about him, or does it tell you something about Obama, and Shillary?
It tells me Bayh is a sleazebag and is punishing Obama, well trying to, he'll be the loser in the end.
He will be back.
It is not in his make up to go into the wilderness.
I just hope he dos not get a position on the O Team.
Nothing surprises me any more when it comes to politics.
Bill Maher has an excellent take on Bayh, saying that by quitting to become a lobbyist (but of course), he's not really changing jobs, just his office.
It's a great system, isn't it (snicker).
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