A good friend explains why Bayh is really quitting

[BurtWorm]

He's a greedy, whiney wienie. Digby explains:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/with-friends-like-this-by-digby-i.html


With Friends Like This

by digby

I suppose it's inevitable that everyone in the Village would have an orgasm when Evan Bayh announced that the horrible partisanship is running him out of politics. But as with the other famous quitter, Sarah Palin, it's very convenient to ignore the most likely reason.

Howard Fineman, who is evidently a good friend of Bayh's, spells out why he thinks he quit, and I think he also inadvertently spells out exactly what a callow, petulant fellow his good friend actually is. First, he says that he didn't have the stomach for a tough Senate race and that he doesn't much like Obama, who he sees as a mushy liberal naif. Then he says that Bayh doesn't like politics anymore because centrists aren't popular and that he's really too lazy to run for president but is pissed that nobody made it easy for him by anointing him Vice President.

Finally he gets to the nub of it, although hints of this are woven throughout the piece. Bayh, like Palin, realizes that this is his chance to cash in and he's going for it. He's still young enough to "reinvent himself" (as a millionaire) and he has two young sons who he wants to spend more time with so he wants to "change the mix" and become the major breadwinner.

I suspect this is correct. He doesn't see himself inheriting the presidency while he's still relatively young anymore, doesn't want to run himself because it's too hard, and so he might as well make the big bucks now. And lord knows there's no better time to do it. In this age of rank plutocracy, political players are among the most valuable commodities out there. A "Democrat" with a reputation for deficit hawkishness and corporate friendly centrist bonafides is worth his weight in gold.

I would guess that quite a few of our "retiring centrists" are actually simple opportunists. With all the government activity surrounding economics, these people finally have something valuable to sell: themselves.

[T Wolf]

1. Slight narrowing of the asset they are selling. It is not themselves, per se.

It is their access to Congress to sell, not any expertise.

As with that "class" of people - it is who you know, not what you know.

[WI_DEM]

2. Wasn't Bayh's dad a great liberal? what happened?

[Captain Hilts]

4. Financially too privileged and comfortable. nt

[hlthe2b]

9. I think it is not uncommon for liberalism to skip generations...

and yes, I agree-- the children of privilege are probably less likely to grow up as progressives/liberals (the venerable Kennedy family being one major exception)

[monmouth]

14. I believe diabetes skips a generation also....n/t

[bobbolink]

19. Isn't that interesting about the Kennedys? I think they were really embued with public service.

Not that they were/are perfect....not by any means.

But they all seem to put the country FIRST, when it comes to their activism and their politics.

Wish other rich families could manage to do the same!

:patriot: for the Kennedy family

[wilt the stilt]

37. Old money and most Rich people

are only patriotic to the almighty dollar. They have no interest in helping the country.

[bobbolink]

52. Dismissing the whole Kennedy family, and what they have done for us?

ABsolutely amazing.... hope you feel better....

[conscious evolution]

5. The children of great people

seldom come close to filing their parents shoes.The only reason he was elected in the first place was because of his fathers name and not because of his own accmplishments.

[unblock]

8. one could argue whether albert gore sr. was "great", but i certainly think jr. earned his greatness.

even though he obviously benefitted from his father's name.

[quiller4]

47. Gore Sr. was the first white southern politician to take a strong pro civil rights stand.

I think that marks him as both great and brave.

[arthritisR_US]

7. the apple fell from the tree and kept on rolling, all the way down to the sludge pond ;-) n/t

[Solomon]

25. I was about to quote this, except I would have said the apple

rolled down the hill and all the way out of town.

[roguevalley]

12. I remember Birch Bayh with great admiration. He had guts and brains.

[lunatica]

32. It gives pause to the theory that Conservatism may be a mental disorder

Whereupon there is a key factor missing. The ability to put oneself in the shoes of another. Empathy. Without it it's impossible to be anything but self-serving and selfish.

[pattmarty]

35. I believe he was born with the "stupid" gene. Of all the things he is................

(corporate whore, lazy and conservative) the most stunning is stupidity. He ain't the brightest guy in the Senate by a long shot.

[Slit Skirt]

3. good riddens to bahy...he is a jerk for what he has done

...and yes he pulled a Palin

only thinking of himself........that usually puts an "R" by your name doesn't it?

[blue neen]

6. Excellent analysis.

k&r.

[unblock]

10. i would think that the vast majority of "centrist" dems and virtually all republicans are whores

sure, some of them might actually BELIEVE that they earned their bribe money and deserve a cushy retirement, and they might BELIEVE that it's proper and just to take money from the constituents they served most lucratively.

but the only staunch pro-corporate types i can actually give credit for being clean in that respect are the supremos (of all people). scum that they are, at least you can't really accuse them of raking in the millions, at least not as flagrantly as other politicians can and do. they can at best carefully steer money to family members, e.g., but there's far less latitude than, say, a president taking a $2mm fee for a single speech just after leaving office....

[smoogatz]

11. I think it's generally true that centrist Democrats are ambivalent

about winning, especially if it means getting dirty in a close race, and once they're in they're ambivalent about governing--fighting over matters of principle is ever so slightly unseemly, or something. We need down and dirty brawlers, not privileged pantywaists like Bayh.

[SoCalDem]

13. I think he wants to be governor again.. His little speech the other day

was all about things he did as an "executive" for the state of Indiana.

[AwakeAtLast]

15. If he is able to get rid of Daniels I will kiss the ground he walks on

if he becomes another Daniels I will spit on it. :D

[SoCalDem]

18. Daniels is term-limited and Bayh was already governor once

but he can run again..and I think he will

[AwakeAtLast]

16. This makes him sound like "Waahh! Public service is so hard!"

Only the possibility of lots of money will make it better. x(

[lunatica]

34. Like Bush said, "It's hard werk to be Presdent"

[undeterred]

17. A country that doesn't appreciate me doesn't deserve me.

[Mopar151]

39. How'd you get my picture?

:hi: :fistbump:

[Vidar]

20. K&R.

[marshall]

21. He's not a quitter on par with Palin

He isn't quitting, he just isn't running again. Palin quit.

[otohara]

23. The Way He Quit

doing it on purpose so a progressive wouldn't be able to run in a primary.

Yes, he's like Palin - selfish and greedy.

[marshall]

24. That is true

It's worse on a sociao/party level, but totally different on a personal level.

Palin's rash decision to quit from my observation primarily hurt herself (unless one believes the people of Alaska were better off with her as a leader). She damaged her reputation. Bayh also damaged his reputation, but mainly he just screwed the party. Palin can at least claim (with arguable trutfulness) that she threw away the governorship in order to fight for the national party, but what can Bayh say other than he did it for self interest?

[autorank]

22. Shows how dumb he is. He could get major rake offs while in office!

Guy isn't even good at being greedy;) Getting paid for what he does, in real time, would be very
lucrative. He's going for the deferred payoff, some fat job to reward him for his obedience to
the Wall Street friendly line. Then he'll get some other easy ass job and make more money. But,
hey Evan, study the great political crooks from the past. They got it six ways from Sunday every
day.

[Scruffy1]

27. He gets thr rakeoff through his wife

She sits on the board of five health care related companies and collected about 770,000 from them in 2008. This sob should be behind bars. Of course this anti-labor pro free trade criminal is getting out while the getting is good and now that he's padded his resume he'll get a lot more. What a piece of shit and good riddance. Check it out at WWW.opensecrets.org.

[Bettie]

44. Or he'll run for President with the new corporate backing rules

DH's theory on this is that he'll be a corporate candidate with huge funding by corporations, the ones his wife sits on chief among them.

Then the ads will be less about politics and more consumer oriented. Basically, instead of being about issues, it will be about attention grabbing and selling the candidate like beer. Yes, T&A and all that stuff.

I hope my beloved is totally wrong about this.

[saltpoint]

26. Possibly. I can get that conclusion when I add it up with Evan Bayh.

At the same time he still looks like he is shaking with ambition.

[penndragon69]

28. I always knew he was like this.

He's been my senator for 12 years, and he's done nothing but fight against progress and side
with the refugs on most issues, unless his vote would not make a difference, then he'd make
a symbolic vote just to say he voted aginit.

Goodbye looser!

But at least the party has until june 30th to choose someone to run for his seat, and i'll be voting for Whomever that is!

[saltpoint]

30. Hi, penndragon. What are your thoughts on the nominee?

I've heard a few names kicked around -- Ellsworth, Hill, Jill Long, Joe Hogsett, John Mellencamp...

Do you have any insider's scoop for us?

[Dr.Phool]

29. I think the shit is about to hit his fan.

His wife is on the board of Wellpoint, who just tried to raise premiums by up to 39%. She received over $800k in compensation from them last year, and he's been stonewalling health care reform.

Lucy, you got a lot of 'splainin' to do.

[HughBeaumont]

31. That sounds really complex and involved for a person no one really cares about.

"mushy liberal naif". Dolt. Probably considers Sherrod Brown a Communist.

[TexasObserver]

33. He's a loafer who makes George W. Bush look like a Rhodes scholar.

Bayh has always been worthless. He couldn't be counted on for anything important. If his dad had not been a successful politician, we would never had heard of this guy.

[Mopar151]

40. Sounds like several politicans NH is getting rid of n/t

[Swamp Rat]

36. k&r

[DainBramaged]

38. "he doesn't much like Obama, who he sees as a mushy liberal naif"

Smells like a closet racist to me.....

[EmeraldCityGrl]

41. Wonder if he left for security reasons. The fringe are making some

seriously scary threats like this one made toward Patty Murray...http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/02/17/2204884.aspx



"As the Republican Party and establishment conservative groups court and co-opt the Tea Party's message and grassroots energy, one risk is that they get identified with some of the Tea Party's more impolitic statements and protests.

Here's one example from KLEW-TV in Idaho that a Democrat forwarded to First Read:

They say it's all about traditional values and pushing back against the government.

And there were some strong words spoken at Saturday's Tea Party in Asotin .

"How many of you have watched the movie Lonesome Dove?," asked one speaker from the podium. "What happened to Jake when he ran with the wrong crowd? What happened to Jake when he ran with the wrong crowd. He got hung. And that's what I want to do with Patty Murray."

[joeybee12]

42. Was there ever a time when politicians were in it for the public service?

That they thought they might make a difference rather than enrich themselves?

[erpowers]

43. Thought There Was Another Reason

I always thought Bayh was leaving for reasons he was not saying. I just did not see why someone in Bayh's position of leading in a Senate race and have millions of dollar in the bank would leave the race just because of too much partisanship in the Senate. From the beginning I thought there was something else there. I wondered if he had done something wrong and was leaving Congress before it could come out or as a way to keep it quite.

[DirtyDawg]

45. I'm sure others have been saying....

...the thing about Palin's having 'quit' on the Guv's job for the money, but frankly I haven't seen or heard it...except for my own comments. I've said all along that the woman saw her chance - probably her only, or at least best, chance to cash-in on her notoriety. No way she was gonna have the flexibility to make this money as Guv, so why not?

As for Byah, it's very likely that he's in it for the money as well. After all, it's The American Way, ain't it? I just hope he fucks-up somewhere along the way to the point that he's poison to anybody with money. I agree that he's probably too lazy to run for Pres - but then so was George until that damn Rove got to him and made him mad enough at his Daddy that he could be prodded into 'showing up'. Of course gettin' elected Governor of Texas doesn't, apparently, take much work - just a few bribes and blackmail here and there and you're in.

To hell with 'em both, or all three, or whatever.

[CoffeeCat]

46. I don't understand why Bayh could do...

...he's been a Senator. How is he going to "cash in" like Palin did?

I doubt he could get his own news show or anything similar.

I think his star rose and peaked.

[yurbud]

48. Daschle cashed in when he was booted

[southernyankeebelle]

49. Yay, I wrote him an e-mail and told him not to let the door hit him on the

way out. I blame him and the rest of the blue dogs for not passing a healthcare bill. I am so glad the prick is leaving.

[quiet.american]

50. Makes sense. My own theory is that it has a lot to do with him being eaten alive with envy.

Granted, this is a sitting-in-the-bar-on-my-second-bourbon-type theory, but I'll never forget the expression on Bayh's face at the 2004 Dem Convention as he watched Obama hit it out of the park giving the keynote speech. It was an expression that said, "Damn, this guy is good. Everybody yawned when I gave my speech. There goes 2008 for my presidential run."

I can't help but think he hates it that he now has to address Obama as "Mr. President." How is it that this junior senator came from nowhere to hit a homerun to the Oval Office on the first try, when Bayh's been trying to get there for how many years?

I wouldn't be surprised if we see Bayh try to show up as the *GOP* candidate for prez down the road.

(Plus all the stuff that Fineman said.)

[SemperEadem]

51. he's getting out because he cannot distance himself from his wife

who sits on the board of Wellpoint and draws a very handsome salary for it.

He can't get away from literally screwing the insurance company.

[Raster]

53. SNAP!

:evilgrin:

[Jakes Progress]

54. PHRMA beckons and the rat smells cheese. nt