Why Bayh Is Quitting the Senate

WSJ Online ^ | 2-16-10 | John Fund

[chickadee]

"Mr. Bayh knows something about high-water political floods. As a 24-year-old law student he helped run his father's 1980 Senate re-election and saw him go down to defeat under the Reagan landslide. In 1994, Mr. Bayh was governor of Indiana and thankful he wasn't before the voters when they revolted against Bill Clinton. "Every 14 or 16 years we seem to have to relearn this lesson," Mr. Bayh said. "I do have a sense of deja vu, and the movie doesn't have a happy ending."

He isn't the first observer to note the misfortune that befalls modern Democrats when they gain control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. After Jimmy Carter won the White House, Ronald Reagan assembled a group of his former aides in Los Angeles in early 1977 for a pep talk about how the GOP loss would only be temporary if they learned from the party's mistakes and returned to first principles. He quoted from a John Dryden ballad memorized as a youth: "I'm a little wounded, but I am not slain. I will lay me down for to bleed a while. Then I'll rise and fight again."

[redangus]

The problem for Evan is while he decries his party’s turn to the Left he voted for everyone of O’Bama’s bills. As Ross used to say talk is cheap, deeds are precious. Evans deeds were getting ready to catch up with him, and his words were not going to save him this year.

[chickadee]

I agree with what you have to say. Even now, there are those voices, both on conservative radio and in the GOP (Michael Steele jumps to mind), willing to defend the need to elect RINOs. A quisling is a quisling, no matter if it wears a D or an R behind his/her name.

[madamemayhem]

actually there is evidence that he truly understood that there was not a chance in hell of him getting re-elected. does that count? ;)

[TruthHound]

[GLDNGUN]

What is the point of linking to an article that requires a subscription to read??? How are we supposed to comment on an article that the vast majority of us can’t read?

[chickadee]

Gee, I don’t have a subscription and I can read it. It was the top article on Google news.

[GLDNGUN]

When I click on your link I get the following:

Before Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh suddenly announced he will not seek re-election in November he had issued several warnings to fellow Democrats. Last month, for example, he told Gerald Seib of this newspaper that his party's liberals were "tone deaf" to the fact that they'd "overreached" in their agenda. "For those people," he said, "it may take a political catastrophe of biblical proportions before they get it."

Mr. Bayh knows something about high-water political floods. As a 24-year-old law student he helped run his father's 1980 Senate re-election and saw him go down to defeat under the Reagan landslide. In ...

TO CONTINUE READING, SUBSCRIBE NOW

Am I the only one getting this message? Everyone else can click on the link and read the entire story?

[kanawa]

I’m getting what you got.

[chickadee]

When I clicked on my link, I got the abbreviated version of the article that you mentioned.

I went to google news and typed in Bayh and got the article again, but, it may have just been in my cache. I cannot ‘splain what is going on. Sorry.

[DmBarch]

Bayh left angry - he announced his retirement without allowing his party to be able to have a viable primary contest for his replacement and didn’t warn any of the ‘rat leaders of his intentions - he was probably frustrated and resentful about some of the votes he’d been forced into making - such as for healthcare and the “stimulus” - in support of his party......

No - he purposely waited until now - though events like Brown in Mass helped make up his mind for sure. If the wacko feminist doesn't get enough signatures, them the IN Dem Party gets to pick someone. There will be no primary, no bashing each other, or $$ spent fighting one another.

[Secret Agent Man]

This could just be him distancing himself from blame from the batch of dems who are going to lose in 2010, so he can make a run for the presidency in 2012.

I have read in a number of stories he’s been considered by some on the left to be a presidential contender/material.

It would be perfect timing, he’s already said he’s pissed off at the current leadership (distancing) and isn’t running again (distancing, not risking losing) and has 13 million he sure as hell isn’t going to pump into the dems he thinks are losing big this election cycle, so he’s going to sit on that for his presidential run. Going up against Obama will be another act of distancing himself from what the loser dems and leadership are doing.

[Frantzie]

One of two things or maybe a few others:

1. His internal polls not seen by the public after Scott Brown’s win are very bad.

2. He knows the USA is going to go bankrupt fairly soon. No joke. He does not want to be in office or town when it implodes.

[Enchante]

Knowing what we know of the ‘Rat leadership, Bayh had surely been bullied and treated like garbage many times -— he used the timing of his retirement to send a loud “screw you” to Dingbat Harry and the cabal of leftists

[Enchante]

since when does anyone on FR need to read an article to comment on it? (kidding)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Looks like they have modified it and chopped it in mid sentence....no word about ....to read further you must subscribe...

[chickadee]

:)

(shhhhhh)

[GLDNGUN]

I finally found a link of the entire article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704804204575069383425796398.html?mod=rss_Today's_Most_Popular

I have no idea why it's a subscription-only article in 1 spot, but available to all in other spot.

Anyway, it's basically saying that the democrats over-reached under Carter and the early Clinton years and paid at the ballot box, and they are about to see it happen again, which is all true. Bayh says the left-wingers in his party have to re-learn their lesson every 14-16 years and that he's been warning the democrats about this in recent months. Perhaps if Bayh spoke with action instead of just moving his lips they would have listened. Did he tell them, "slow down on stimulus?" If so, why did he vote for it? Did he tell them, "slow down on health care?" If so, why did he vote for it? They wanted to cram as much down our throats as quickly as they could. Why would they give him a second thought about slowing down if he told them "please slow down...but if you don't I'll still vote with the party"? What a wuss. In other words, Bayh agrees completely with the Socialist agenda (otherwise, he wouldn't vote for it, right?), he just was in favor of implementing it a little slower.

And he's a "moderate"? I guess that means the difference between a liberal democrat and "moderate" democrat has nothing to do with political philosophy, but only how fast it should be jammed down our throats.

[LostInBayport]

If the wacko feminist doesn't get enough signatures, them the IN Dem Party gets to pick someone. There will be no primary, no bashing each other, or $$ spent fighting one another.

If I heard Carl Cameron right on Special Report tonight, the wacko feminazi was telling people she had 4,500 signatures this morning. When she showed up to register them, she had....112.

Liberals were never very good with math.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I don’t get the message on subscribing...also the comments won’t come up...

I think they have some malfunctions going on!

[Persevero]

Old school democrats had some patriotism and some foreign policy sense, too.