Indiana Dem Sen. Evan Bayh To Retire

He wants to start spending that bribe money in the numbered account he got for dropping out.

Well, dems are going to lose both houses in november. This is kafkaesque. Dems haven't done shit for a year and repukes have been successful in blocking everything AND dems will get destroyed in November for doing NOTHING. Un-f*cking-believable.

I got $100 that says Mike Pence waits a week to announce he'll seek this seat. Of course, he'll be sure to mention that the recent Obama Administration actions have pushed him towards this move, NOTHING to do with Sen. Bayh retiring...

In his comments to the local Indiana papers he bemoaned the lack of success in getting bipartisan measures through Congress. Of course, since he's a two-faced political hack of the highest order, he was careful to blame Democrats and Republicans equally. I guess he thinks Obama has been to partisan. Losing him as a Democratic vote isn't going to be much of a loss since he spent most of his time cozying up to the GOP and stabbing Obama in the back anyhow.

However, the cynic in me wonders at the suddenness of this, and I find myself thinking about Spitzer, Vitter, Sanford, and Edwards.

damn: I should have written, "too partisan."

Is it possible that Dems lose the Senate?

He obstructed the Dem agenda and now he's looking to cash-in.

Mission accomplished, Evan!

Sounds like he's found working in the senate to be difficult, and feels he can do more for the country by not having to work so hard.

This is about bi-partisanship for Bayh. He couldn't seek another term so that he could run on the Palin-Bayh ticket in 2012.

He's mot quitting, he's his Country First can't you see?????

Palin-Byah 12' Just what America needs next...

Bayh is a small loss in the larger scheme of things.

Progressives got rolled by the whole Road to 60 movement. All it meant is that Progressives had to surrender every bit of their agenda to keep the four most Right Dems on board. Frankly under the new rules of the game the Party would be more effective with a 55 vote majority in the Senate.

If we were tough minded we would be hoping that Blanche Lincoln would rethink whether she wants to spend more time with her family. And while I certainly am not hoping Reid loses it would be far from a tragedy.

Look the chances of losing the Senate are miniscule, the Republicans need to pick up 10 net seats and so far this year they haven't shown any signs of having a coherent campaign message, demonizing Obama is not going to cut it.

If Progressives are going to ever get the Party back on the track it was on during the New Deal and Great Society days it needs to move the gravity center of the Party away from the DLC types and back to the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party (thank you Dr. Dean) and accept the fact that the way to do that is Addition by Subtraction.

Primarying incumbents is tough to impossible given the money games, from that perspective what Bayh did is a free gift.

Here’s what we need for 2010 and 2012:

Democratic Candidates representing the Democratic Party. Out with Obama and friends and in with a Democrat !

The Democrat with the courage will have the backing.

Not like Bayh was a Dem in any sense - Good Riddance, One down about 5 more to go.

Wow. Hard to believe that this self-serving, double-talker has managed to bring down the walls of Jericho with cutthroat politics at it's worst. Bayh is an example of the apple falling lightyears away from the tree...he ain't his father.
Who gets jockeyed in to run by Friday?

He's better than a republican but not all that much. SO it's no great loss and who's to say another Democrat might win anyway? After all the only thing worse than being a Democrat right now, is being a Republican.

The Democrats are the new 'AINTS. (The New Orleans Saints are now champs.)

The Republicans are the party of NO.

The American people are trapped between the 'AINTS and the NOS.

Instead of fighting for his own previously stated principles and his party, Bayh is a quitter and has surrendered to the Republicans. This, no doubt, will create a bi-partisan congress, closer to 50-50 than the 60-40 advantage the Democrats had, and which they completely wasted.

Besides, there probably is a nice pharmaceutical industry job waiting for Bayh!

I'd like to think this means we won't have to hear from this douchenozzle anymore. Unfortunately, he will probably be offered a perch on one of the cable networks, where he will be called the representative voice of the Democrats.

Actually given the date is tomorrow nobody on the Dem side will be able to get the signatures meaning there will be a vacancy which allows other means to fill the slot. Basically the party can name somebody in.

However if Coats is the only GOP in and Pence and others can't get the signatures than it will be Coats vs the handpicked Dem candidate.

If that is the case, then Bayh might have did the Dems a favor. However I don't think it's too hard to get 500 signatures from each district in two days (ie all of today and by the close of business tomorrow) for a House Rep like Pence. However given that the Dems could handpick their candidate Pence might not want to risk giving up his House seat and have to run a tight campaign against Ellsworth.

Bayh was annoying and certainly disappointing from a progressive viewpoint. In that sense, I would be happy to see the back of him. Unfortunately, he WAS undeniably more Democrat than Republican, for all his bipartisanship crapola, so the likely successor is going to be much worse - a Republican; which is as much of an epithet as I can think to call anyone in polite society.

This is all the more reason to promote the "upperdown" vote principle! Rachel Maddow wants a word to replace filibuster, based on her theory that it's the boringness of the word that defeats us. I nominate an old and surprisingly simple term: Majority Rule. It seems clear the "super majority" shibboleth is finally dead. Good riddance! It was a great tool for the terminally venal in the Senate.

Bayh will probably be making news pretty soon. Either he wants to spend more (jail?) time with his family or he is going to cash in on his services rendered to some corporation.

I can't see him challenging Obama in 2012. Perhaps 2016?

He is my chickensh*t coward representative. Not only does he sell himself to corporations, but now he is willing throw away a solid Dem seat because he doesn't want to help out Obama or any of the progressive causes.
The Indiana Dems better have something planned ahead!

Bellantoni from TPM just reported to MSNBC that Reid didn't know but possibly Obama did? That Bayh had already gathered all the petitions necessary to run again This is bizarre

Lot of speculation it is a scandal. Ellworth anti-choice: bad news.

...and why is it that this is a huge blow to Democrats again? This worthless, corrupt piece of crap has been an active and malignant enabler of Republican obstruction and corporate cronyism. He's one of the worst so-called Democrats in the Senate.

According to one of the linked articles, Bayh cited recent stalemates in Congress and politicians voting down critical legislation for political reasons. This is rich--Bayh himself is a big part of that problem.

I'm not happy about the risk of losing this seat to a Republican, but if it means we have a chance to get a real Democrat in the seat instead of this corporate whore, let's go.

What's most striking is the hypocrisy. Bayh claims he's sickened by the "partisanship" that is
making the Senate dysfunctional. Then he goes and does his best to give his seat to the GOP so that Repubs can be even more effective in blocking any significant legislation.

Sorry, I sure don't see any moral courage at work here.

OOPS!!!!

Indiana + Arkansas + Nevada + North Dakota + Colorado + Delaware = Rep

Dems struggling in California + Illinois + Pennsylvania

Gonna be an interesting fall