Breaking: Sen Evan Bayh to Retire....

... according to TPM. Developing...

http://twitter.com/tpmmedia/status/9144796947

And also according to CNN...
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/15/bayh-expected-to-announce-retirement/?fbid=FIK4gPKmci8

Much as progressives might feel some schadenfreude over Evan Bayh's retirement, this is really bad news for the Democrats. ~ Nate Silver

http://twitter.com/fivethirtyeight

REALLY REALLY bad news IMO.

Any Dem is better than any Republican.

.... is cheering for the GOP. It's not like there was a more progressive candidate waiting in the wings.

This is INDIANA we're talking about.

Crappy Dems (like Bayh and the rest of the DLCers) diminish
our brand to the point where average voters can't distinguish
between Dems and Repubs except that the Repubs are willing
to cut more taxes.

Why do you think so few people understand what our party
stands for these days?

Tesha

You want to have another John Roberts on the Supreme Court?

Maybe they can deregulate the financial market a little further -- you know, to help the finanical markets "cope."

Clean energy and the environment? Forget it.

Stem cell research. They'll be reserving that executive order.

Spare me your progressive whine. I've heard enough of it over the last year.

claiming there's NO difference between Conservadems and Repubs. It doesn't seem to bother them that we will lose our majority.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

voting records, proving Bayh was better than the Repub., at least. You ignored it and instead threw out petty insults. Sorry to say, but you won't get a liberal Dem. in your state.

:hug:

Would your prefer repukes to DLCers?

The party wins when we hold the center of the electorate. It is the price for the big tent. A liberal can not win the General election in am off year election in Indian. I am not even sure a liberal can win a primary. It takes lots or money and an 80# turnout from normal constituencies to compete in a state like Indiana as a liberal.

...our own party. We're afraid to tell the working folks the
truth about people like Bayh and Landreiu because they
have a "D" after their names, but we'd have no problem
telling the truth about a Republican with *IDENTICAL*
anti-populist, anti-worker, anti-Democratic positions.

For about twenty-five years now, the DLC has been a
cancer within our party, killing us from within while turning
our ever-hollower shell into an adjunct of the Republican
party. And as I said earlier, that's why no one can tell
any more what the Democratic Party stand for.

And, BTW, Bayh would probably have been toast in
November anyway, along with much of the Blue Damned
coalition.

Tesha


Tesha

And Coats has a ton of baggage.

...we're talking about, say, women's rights, there are "Democrats"
who don't believe in improving women's rights.

Same thing for gay rights.

Abortion? We're chock full of "Democrats" who want to remove
women's rights to choose abortion.

War? Many "Democrats" are all for it.

Health care? Well, we've seen how that debacle is playing out.

Our tent is so big that every polarity of every position is
represented including positions that only Republicans would
have held a very few years ago.

Tesha

Maybe with him gone we can have a better top leader.

I didn't like Bayh but I didn't want him out. I wanted him to at least have to work to win the election this time around. Bayh just doesn't have any integrity.

That smarmy mofo always bugged the hell out of me.

for Bayh back.

and make the Democrats seem to stand for nothing.

Bayh and Blanche are two the party's better off without.

<on edit- Bayh has voted against Obama's policies more often than Ben Nelson>

because if they do, you can be sure they will do anything to keep from losing it again.

just wait till the GOPers get back in charge.

I was going to make a snarky comment, like "good riddance," but then it struck me that we are not likely (at all!) to get someone less conservative in Indiana and I'd rather have Bayh than a Republican.

Hopefully, a strong moderate Dem will run for his seat.

More retirements are probably on the way.

... we're gonna be WISHING there were more Blue Dogs in Congress this time next year.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/commitforhealthreform

This is strange.

IN is not a liberal state, this will probably be a pick-up senate seat for the Republicans.

:(

IN ain't CA........

:shrug:

We have many good Democrats in Indiana that would have represented the PEOPLE rather than the corporations like Bayh did.

There is only one candidate on the May ballot running against Bayh, a Bloomington restauranteur, and the deadline to file candidacy is this coming Friday.

I think Bayh is stepping down in order to replace outgoing head of PhRMA, Bill Tauzin.

Apparantly...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2010/02/indianas_evan_bayh_to_retire.html

Update 1: Thoughts on who will run. I think Indiana Democrats best bet would be Congressman Brad Ellsworth. The Conservative Democrat from the 'bloody eighth district,' and is the former Vanderburgh County Sheriff. He would be the most electable in the state with his blue dog credentials. I have met him quite a few times and he is a great guy, even if I don't always agree with his stances on the issues.

Another great candidate would be Congressman Andre Carson. With him on the ballot, Progressives would be fired up to hit the polls helping the Party in other tough Election races. It would open up a can of worms in the 7th District for a potential successor.

Via Facebook, Jon is tossing out the idea of Joe Hogsett for Senate. Others are also mentioning Baron Hill, who was tossing around the idea of running for governor in 2012.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 2: Also, don't forget the filing deadline is this FRIDAY! That's alot of signatures to gather in a very short amount of time!

And a source of mine thinks that there is more to this than what we are being let onto. Without naming my source(s), there could be a potential 'statement' from the White House following Bayh's press conference.

http://indydemocrat.blogspot.com/2010/02/evan-bayh-to-retire.html

Is there a Hoosier in the White House who might run>?

I sat on a couple of boards with him when he was Vanderburgh Co. Sheriff. Great guy...and workable.

He could pull it off.

Who would you suggest? Not a dream candidate, but someone who has a realistic chance of getting elected.

Peterson is highly competent, but there is a built in bias against politicians from Marion County.

He has gone all the way in the tank with Lilly. Capable man, but he won't give that up for the Senate. Orenlichter? Simpson? They are the only two progressives I know in this STATE. Baron Hill might be the savviest to wage a campaign, I suppose he'd be better than nothing.

I'm going to have to read up on both.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is utterly naive.

Also makes me wonder what Bayh is up to.

.... BLESS him for that! According to MSNBC, he will cite "excessive partisanship making it difficult for legislative efforts" (paraphrased) as his reason.

In other words, he's BLAMING it on the GOP. GOOD!

Bayh is doing this for some personal financial gain.

Time to take his well-earned seat at the lobbyist firm earning his gift-wrapped 7 figure salary....well done sir, you earned it!

Bayh's exit just means it stays red.

This is nothing to cheer about, in my opinion. Yeah Bayh was a POS smarmy blue dog centrist but he could be counted on to do the right thing from time to time and he added to the Dem majority in numbers, if nothing else.

This surprises me because polls were showing him way ahead of any repug challenger.

I wish this loser had announced this last year to give Indiana Democrats time to find a replacement, and to give us time with fundraising.

Bayh's retirement (no great loss) will scramble Indiana Democratic politics.

Look I am not no great fan of of Bayh's and he is an ass for waiting so late. But I would rather have Bayh than a Repuke which is what this means.

Great, another Republican pickup. Thanks, jerk.

To those who have insisted over the years that Bayh should be targeted, primaried, and a "real progressive" should take his seat, now is your chance to prove such a political animal can accomplish that. Good luck. If I lived in Indiana, I would work for and donate to whichever candidate gets the (D) next to his name. But if I had to bet, I'd say this seat now goes GOP.

but fail to see that in many states a snowman would get elected before a liberal. Yeah, let's all have a party because another Democrat in a center-right state is leaving Congress.

:eyes:

Bayh consistently voted against Hoosiers in favour of the corporations, such as his recent vote against the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada.

One can be a political centrist without becoming an arm of Wall Street.

Hence this move.

Why would he?

being a senator is not the place you want to be to start a run on bipartisanship and debt relief.

This is the only reason I see for this move. He is starting to have seniority in the Senate and was on the way to win his race, contrarily to Dorgan.

But it is bad news for the Dems, even if I disagree a lot with Bayh, because it was a relatively secure seat that comes into play.

Bayh may want that job and the money that goes with it.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/health-reform-in-limbo-top-drug-lobbyist-quits/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Bayh just handed his seat to the GOP.

Rat Bastard.

Bayh could have been working withe the state Democratic Party on a succession plan. But no. This really does hand his seat over to the Republicans.

It's deliberate. It's descpicable. All of those good Democrats in Indiana who supported him all these years were just given the shaft.

Fuck him.

Very out of left field, and very bad news.

Thanks a lot Bayh. He must have a more lucrative job lined up.

173 comments and counting.......

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2451747/posts

Damn it!!!!

x(

Kind of a crappy thing to do, don't you think?

but par for the course with him, he's a selfish bastard.

He must have known the consequences of his resignation.

:-(

that he was really a RepubliCON..

I wonder if anyone, including anyone from the WH knew he would do this.

but it ain't no lie baby, bye bye Bayh

from N'Sync but I had to post it :D

in the midterms. Sad

Not much of a fight there. Something else caused this.

that seems to be the word on the ground here. Wonder if this has been in the works for some time now? It would make some sense:

- Coats hears the rumor and decides to jump in, seeing a big opportunity
- Bayh waits until the last minute, thus giving the state party the power to choose his replacement rather than throw the primary open

Any scandals brewing?

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

He once spent the night in Indianapolis so he is more than qualified

Seriously.

As much as i despise the man, from his voting record ( http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=22418 ) it's better to have him in office than a repub replacement. Ideally an Al Franken like individual from Indiana(?) would be better.