We Don't Need Him

Indiana's Evan Bayh pisses me off. Here's a Democratic senator who thinks he's a "bipartisan statesman," some kind of Republican-lite asshole who can't decide where he stands. Why he thinks that "working" with Republicans who use him and his "bipartisanship" as a tool to oppose and obstruct the President is a good thing, is beyond me. When in this Congress have the Republicans responded in kind, and reached across the aisle to help Democrats? Never! Now, when I reach out to someone and they spit on my hand, I usually make that hand into a fist and apply it upside their head. But Bayh seems to think that he's accomplishing something--but for whom?

Now, it seems that there has been, at least in the recent past, a method to his madness. Ezra Klein charts Evan Bayh's inconsistent conservatism:

The two really interesting data points, however, are the 109th Congress, which stretched from 2005 to 2007, and the 110th Congress, which ended in January of this year. In the 109th Congress, Bayh's voting pattern suddenly develops an uncharacteristic liberalism. He becomes the 19th most conservative member, with a record more liberal than, among others, Joe Biden. As context, there were also the years when Bayh was preparing for the presidential run that he eventually aborted.

I've thought for a while that Bayh was posturing with his Blue Dog Democrats for a reason, but now I really don't understand what he's doing. Did he not notice that his state, Indiana, went for Obama last year? What's he after?

No matter--Bayh is an opportunistic weasel, and the voters of Indiana need to give Bayh the boot, and put in a truly progressive Democrat when he's up for reelection.