How the hell did Birch Bayh raise Evan Bayh

[AllentownJake]

Bayh was also the principal Senate sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment, which passed both Houses of Congress, but was not ratified by the states. The proposed constitutional change with which he was most closely associated in his final years in the Senate was his attempt to eliminate the Electoral College (the method of electing the President of the United States) and replace it with a popular vote in the 1960s and 70s. One of Bayh's proposals passed the House easily but was filibustered in the Senate. In 1977 he introduced reform legislation into the Senate <1>, but it never achieved the required two-thirds vote in either house of Congress. In 2006, he joined the National Popular Vote Inc. coalition, which aims to effect Electoral College reform through an interstate compact, and wrote a foreword to the book Every Vote Equal.

He also pulled Ted Kennedy from a crashed plane in 1964.

How the hell did this man produce such a piece of a shit of a son?

[CreekDog]

1. Birch Bayh stood for and worked for many great things

Evan Bayh stands for and works for nothing in particular.

[Solomon]

2. As someone else here said, "they say that the apple

doesn't fall too far from the tree. But unfortunately, this apple rolled all the way down the hill and out of town."

[AllentownJake]

3. I think that was me

:rofl:

[Solomon]

6. That thing cracked me up when you said it.

I spit on my keyboard at work.




:rofl:

[AllentownJake]

10. I stole it from my Dad

when he was talking about one of his friends kid a few years ago.

[rwheeler31]

11. Indiana

The guy went to school with the gop.

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. Maybe somebody switched babies with the Reagans?

Ron Jr. ain't much like his dad either. Thank God.

[Hippo_Tron]

5. Evan Bayh's right leanings made sense pre 2008

Birch Bayh was a Senator in the 70's, right before the religious right organized as a political force and an especially dominant one in places like Indiana. He lost in 1980 to Dan Quayle due to Raygun's landslide and conservative backlash.

Evan Bayh's right leaning tendencies could be excused before 2008 because he has been a senator in an era with a much stronger right wing presence. But Obama and his massive organization turned the state from a 15-20 point red state to a very purple state. Bayh, of course, repays the favor by being an ass and stalling Obama's agenda.

My suggestion is that Rahm Emanuel or David Axelrod has a meeting with Bayh that is similar to this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXmRYJwK3wM

Bayh, like most Senators is in it for himself. He figures he can maximize his chances for re-election by running as far to the center as possible. Light some fire under his ass from the left and he won't be able to do that anymore.

[AllentownJake]

8. The answer is campaign contributions

Rachel had it on her show...

The guy is a total fucking piece of shit. His father must watch him and think I saved the lion of the Senate...my ass hat son stands in the way of Barack Obama what the hell did I do wrong.

[Hippo_Tron]

14. Birch has been interviewed about his son several times, says he's very proud of him

Again, I think it's different pre-2008. Birch lost his seat for being too liberal and so you could justify Evan's behavior by saying that he didn't want to make his father's mistake. But that's not the case post 2008. It is campaign contributions and it's also that he has no pressure from the left. I'm not one who believes that we should threaten primary challenges for every Senator/Congressman who vote in the center. Some legitimately represent in districts/states that are so red that they have to vote that way to stay in office. But with Indiana's blue trend, I think that Bayh needs to show some god-damn loyalty to his party and the President.

[depakid]

21. That's exactly what it is- a sense of being entitled to his position AND the money

AND the perks.

[avaistheone1]

40. I always enjoyed Birch Bayh. I admired his courage and politics.

As far as Evan Bayh - yuck. If his father were not Birch Bayh, Evan Bayh would be busy working as a Walmart greeter.

[Barack_America]

7. Children born into privilege often turn out to be assholes.

This realization is part of my daily experience.

Come and visit me at Penn one day if you don't believe this. We'll hang out at the Wharton building (that Dick Cheney dedicated) and you can experience it for yourself. Did you know that it's possible to dress head-to-toe in Burberry? It is.

[AllentownJake]

9. I'm well aware of the Penn kids

I went to Temple...I enjoyed watching us beating their asses in basketball every year than stealing their coach :-)

[Barack_America]

15. Ah yes, I had forgotten that.

I've long considered Penn undergrad to essentially be a breeding ground for future New York assholes. Between the financial sector meltdown and Wharton slipping to #3 in the business school rankings, they must really be freaking out.

Ha.

[AllentownJake]

18. One of my best friends went there

but she was a liberal arts major.

I'm sure they are panicking and worrying about socialism over there right now.

[Hippo_Tron]

31. Wharton undergrad most likely is...

But Penn from what I've heard it has a stellar liberal arts undergraduate program as well. And IMO, in general I think it takes a really particular type of person to want to go to Wharton for undergrad. I think it shows that the person has no interest in getting a well rounded education and is only concerned about making as much money as fast as they possibly can. I'm sure that's not the case always but it seems like it is quite often (at least with the people I know, who went there). I don't have a problem with people who want to get an MBA, but for god's sake, use your undergraduate time to gain exposure to other disciplines. If your grades are good, MBA programs will probably look at you even more favorably than some guy who will probably think he knows everything already because he went to Wharton for undergrad.

[AllentownJake]

35. Always exceptions

Another friend I have went to Wharton Undergrad and he works for an NGO in the third world now :shrug:

[babylonsister]

12. I'm sure you're right, but there were and are selfless

people despite their backgrounds. Kennedys and Gore come to mind, for starters. Roosevelt?

[Barack_America]

17. Oh sure. It certainly works both ways (with regards to the apple and the tree).

And there are great Penn kids too. They ran a hell of a campaign for Obama here.

[burning rain]

13. I think Evan noticed how his solidly liberal dad...

got defeated for reelection in 1980, by Dan Quayle.

[AllentownJake]

16. I'd rather serve than go down in defeat fighting for something

than have a senate seat and mean nothing.

[Hippo_Tron]

23. That was a good excuse pre-2008

But Indiana voted Democratic in 2008. That happened once in Birch Bayh's career, 1964 when LBJ defeated Goldwater 60/40. Indiana has been red ever since until 2008. And the state didn't turn by magic. It turned because Obama's organization spent millions of dollars registering new voters and getting them out to the polls. Bayh is now running for re-election that votes right in the middle of the political spectrum whereas before he was running in a state that went to Republican presidential candidates by 15 points or more. That is entirely thanks to Obama and his 50 state strategy. Bayh owes Obama big time and he repays the favor by stalling his agenda. The man has no sense that he is a member of the Democratic Party and in the long run, we win as a party and lose as a party. His stalling the President's agenda is hurting other Democrats who will probably have tougher races than he will in 2010 not to mention how it is hurting the President.

[burning rain]

30. I mostly agree... I was just trying to explain Evan Bayh...

at least in part -- not justify his rotten behavior. Given that he's from a marginal state at best, I think it's inevitable that he's going to trim on issues some, but not nearly as much as he does.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

19. And here I kept reading that it would be those horrible leftists that would

sabotage Obama. I knew these center right snakes would try to stick the knife in his back first chance they got.

[Berry Cool]

20. I wonder whether he would have been different if his mother had lived.

Granted, she didn't die until he was in college, but she still died young. She was a staunch feminist and I don't think she'd have put up with crap from her son.

[AllentownJake]

22. What the hell happened to Indiana

Where Birch Bayh could serve there for 3 terms...to the darkness that was just broken this year.

[Hippo_Tron]

24. Raygun and the religious wrong

The 60's and the 70's were a unique era where you could get liberal Governors and Senators from otherwise red states, particularly in the post-watergate era. 9 Democratic Senators lost re-election in 1980 amongst them: Frank Church (Idaho), Birch Bayh (Indiana), George McGovern (South Dakota), and Mike Gravel (Alaska, he lost in the primary). All of those four were about as liberal as they come and were from Republican states. The religious right polarized politics and made that impossible.

[PVnRT]

38. abortionabortionabortion

That was Quayle's campaign in 1980.

Vance Hartke once another solid liberal from the state in the 1960's, until Lugar took his seat.

[Rowdyboy]

25. Marvella Bayh was a class act....she would not be impressed with Evan today....

[JI7]

26. both Gore and Bayh were more conservative as Senators than their dad

and it has to do with their dad losing in Senate re-elections.

Gore is clearly more liberal than he was as Senator. i wonder how Bayh would be. but at least Gore still focused on environment and yes, he did have a big role in the internet being widely used.

but Bayh doesn't have anything like that.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. Gore wasn't really more conservative than his dad

The south has produced very few progressive (by national standards) politicians at least at the time in which they held office in the south especially in the civil rights era and immediately afterward. Most notable are probably Ralph Yarborough and Jimmy Carter. Gore Sr. was progressive by southern standards but not by national standards. He didn't sign the southern manifesto and voted against the Civil Rights Act of '64 but did vote for the Voting Rights Act of '65, the latter of which cost him his re-election in 1970. The other two not to sign the southern manifesto were LBJ and Estes Kefauver (the other Senator from Tennessee). Kefauver died before the Civil Rights Act vote and LBJ was in the White House at that point.

Gore Jr. was pretty conservative as a senator but certainly no more conservative than his father.

[kas125]

28. Everyone says he was the best governor we've ever had, too.

As for what the hell is wrong with Evan,(whose real name is Birch, too) I have been trying to figure that one out for years!

[Hutzpa]

29. Answer to your question

it could be the mothers' line, not that I have anything against her but
her son has turn out to be a big sissy (which could be a disappointment
to her) that sucks up to special interest.

[AllentownJake]

36. Said up thread his Mother

Was one hell of a strong willed and tough women.

[SpartanDem]

32. Let's look at record

Progressive Punch give Bayh 78% which isn't terrible, but not that great

http://www.progressivepunch.org/members.jsp?search=selectName&member=INIII&chamber=Senate&zip=&x=21&y=2

As for the notion that this election signaled a dramatic shift in Indiana politics is reading far too much into the 2008 results. It took one of the most unpopular Republican presidents in history in order for it to go blue I think it at its core IN is still a red leaning state.

[FrenchieCat]

33. A core that has been buried.

[AllentownJake]

37. Yes

If you look at the down ticket races...we still got creamed in the red areas. I looked up Fort Wayne where I lived last night. Barack got withing 6000 in that hell hole, but other democrats still got their ass kicked.

[cooolandrew]

34. As with most gangs you vote off the leader and the rest fall away. So who we got to oppse him down >

the line next time he's up in a primary..

[Robbins]

39. Dems

It's amazing how dems coming from states Obama won are not supporting his agenda.I can understand landeru from Lousiana,the
Arkansas Dems,Nelson from Nebraska,Byrd from West Virginia not supporting his agenda since Mccain won those states.But Obama won
Indiana.Bayh has reason to support him.And Obama won Wisconsin,PA,and Delaware In landslides so they should be supporting him.

Bayh often votes as he does because he IS afaird of suffering his father's fate(who got elected In 1962 In part because of support
from John F Kennedy who activly supported him) but If anything the Democrats are In the postion now Republicans were In the early 1980's.Bayh doesn't realize times change,and can you believe he was considered for Vice President?