Memo To Progressives: If You Disliked Bayh Just Wait Til You See Ellsworth

I'm not from Indian - rather I live "out west" so please excuse me sticking my nose in other folks business but I have to ask - are lesbians and gays so hated in Indian that the Democratic Party would actually nominate someone like Ellsworth for the Senate? His voting record on this issue is horrible - actually worse than Republican Richard Lugar and puts him in the 10 worst Democrats in the House. Here we aren't talking about something controversial like marriage but Ellsworth actually voted against the Hate Crimes Bill. I'm trying to avoid using the world "homophobe" here but the question must be asked. Does Rep Ellsworth believe that gays and lesbians have any human rights at all?

My view on Dems from red states is that I don't care where they stand on social issues as long as they are economic populists and vote the right way on issues like job creation, health care reform (obviously abortion has wormed its way into this debate in a way it shouldn't have), workers' rights, financial reform, progressive taxation and so on. Not sure how Ellsworth compares to Bayh on these issues -- will have to do some research -- but it's hard for me to imagine he would be any worse than Bayh.

I'll grant that this guy seems pretty notably rightward of GIllibrand when she was a rep, but when she shifted to the Senate (and started representing a more liberal constituency overall), she trended left.

Anyone think there's half a chance Ellsworth would do that to try to court Gary, Indy, and Monroe County? Not saying he'd turn into a Kennedy here, but I half-wonder if he might moderate to about Bayh's level.

Mind you, I'd prefer that the candidate be Baron HIll - my experience with him suggests that he's far saner than Ellsworth, but that's just my take. Hoping others with more knowledge about em pipe up.

No one ever cared about Evan Bayh's ideology it was the fact that he was a wanker. I have nothing against senators who vote their conscience- what bothers me is when they worship at the alter of centrism, which is really just thinly veiled corporatism. The best mix is having an ideologically diverse but maintain party discipline. TO the extent Ellsworth is on board with that, welcome. To the extent he wants to posture and make himself look good at the extent of the party, then yeah, he's just as bad or worse than Bayh.

I think this article is misleading and misses that crucial distinction between ideology and party loyalty. I strongly disagree with Arlen Specter's ideology, but he has been a team player in the party's legislative strategies. I'd take Arlen Specter any day of the weak over an Evan Bayh or Ben Nelson.

Sorry guys, I live in Indiana and I know that the chance of my choice of a Bernie Sanders or at least a Sherrod Brown or Sheldon Whitehouse won't happen here. The way the country is nowadays, the hypocrites blame Obama for everything around here and it will be an uphill battle for even Ellsworth (DINO-IN) to win. That's the way it is for right now at least.

The reason Obama did well here this last time is because of the people were tired of the Bush government (which many want back again) and because of us (as in us unemployed, not us "Hoosiers") being out of work and need help real bad.

People in Indiana want something real but GOP obstruction has stopped anything real from happening and so people here and in other places will take it out on the Democrats.

Insane and don't make sense? Who ever said that Americans were the brightest bunch?

If people are ready to write off Ellsworth and write off Indiana, then Democrats are going to get slaughtered this fall.

He's a conservative Democrat and it's Indiana. What do you expect. Our choices are: support the Democrat and try to keep our majorities; or, call the candidate a whack-job and the state a "cesspool of humanity."

This "cesspool of humanity" was paying enough attention in the last election to swing 20 points from its vote in 2004. But, no, they're fat and we didn't like Bayh. Fuck 'em.

And we wonder why we can't get healthcare passed.

I'm a nearly lifelong resident of Northwest Indiana and I can tell you that the taint of corruption attached to Lake County Democrats makes them virtually unelectable in the state as a whole.

East Chicago's mayor just got indicted by the feds for using city workers to rehab his house in Gary. And that's just the latest in a long line. "The Region" as we're known, is a bit of a red-headed step child.

Like it or not, Ellsberg is probably the Democrats' only chance of holding on to the seat.

I would really like to see the Mellencamp effort take off in Indiana. Just shaking up the entrenched ideas about who votes Republican and who votes Democrat, especially if the discussion can get some traction nationally, will be good for the whole country.

My guess is that Ellsworth is a weak Republican fish who came to the smaller Democratic pond because he knew it would be hard to get noticed over in the Republican party. If the Dems run him, it'll be because they're using their endlessly frustrating strategy of trying to get elected by Republicans while ignoring their base.

A populist like Mellencamp could ask Republicans to vote Democrat by voting their true interests--which is different from pretending not to be a Democrat....

Yes but his smirk is not nearly as galling.

OK, cry-baby liberals. Sit home and don't vote and you'll end up with a GOP Senator who will be way, way, WAY worse than Brad Ellsworth might be. This is not Berkeley or Seattle or San Francisco. We need to nominate the kind of Democrats who can....get elected. And to answer your other question, cry-baby liberals...YES..any Dem is better than any GOP. You want to "educate" the voters of Indiana to think like you do? Good luck...