If Evan Bayh had died, I guess I could understand this piece in the Seattle Times (and similar pieces throughout the print media and cable). But this seems pretty overwrought for someone who is going to retire to a nice corporate gig, and then maybe run for president in 6 years.
Democrat Bayh has politics in his bones. He was 6 when his father, Birch Bayh, was first elected to the Senate from Indiana. The younger Bayh served two terms and was twice on a shortlist of potential vice-presidential nominees. He is the ultimate moderate who aimed to work with Republicans and Democrats.
Yet the harsh partisanship of the Senate wore him down — a strong signal our country is at the low ebb of its politics.
It’s a strange definition of moderate that includes war monger, corporate lackey who literally was in bed with lobbyists but was willing to throw regular people to the wolves. Of course, that’s the kind of thing we’ve been hearing from a media that has long confused moderation with capitulation.
The most extreme version of this in recent times was when Bush was in charge and making war for no reason, “moderates” like Bayh helped him and “extremists” were for peace. But even under Obama, it’s extreme to want single payer health care, but moderate to be fine with a status quo that results in over 44,000 adult deaths and all sorts of other nasty complications.
If that’s moderate, call me extreme any day.
Love it! ;-)
All this talk about partisanship ignores history. During the Civil War, the Democrats made it damned hard for Lincoln to govern by voting against him at every turn. And that was while a war was being fought to split the country.
The partisanship of today is pretty lightweight. If Bayh couldln’t stand this, he is a fucking lightweight.
STOP already with the 44,000 death lie.
I have catastrophic care insurance that doesn’t cover physicals dental etc. Does this stop me getting a yearly physical. No, it’s a damned sight cheaper to pay for this out of pocket then to pay monthly premiums on a type of insurance my age and health make unneccessary.
ANYONE can get a yearly physical and pay cash. Not having insurance doensn’t make this illegal or impossible. Anyone having kids they can’t afford-that’s their problem, not mine. Anyone who won’t work and plan for the future- same deal.
Maybe if liberals stopped lying and started presenting real arguments with real evidence you would have had some of your goals met in a year when Congress and the presidency were in your hands.
How about some balance?
The dreadful thing about Carl’s post is where it leads.
Will Carl feel better if Dan Quayle decides to run for Bayh’s seat?
The Democratic party is a mess. Nice folks, good beer biddies but unable to govern even with a majority. The Republican party is a disciplined crew of fanatics.
HGelluva choice!
I’d put the cash bet on him quitting because he’s having some nasty affair that is gonna bit him in the ass if he doesn’t quit now. When politicians tell you they “want to spend more time with their family” it’s an age old euphemism that means they’ve done something wrong and are trying to sneak out without anyone noticing.
Everyone’s mad at Congress right now. The ‘real’ Republicans (if there are any left) are mad because their last couple Presidents and runs of Congress just made government bigger, more complex, spent more, and gave the Fed more power. The liberals are mad because the Democrats are cowards and can’t push gays in the military (even with 75% public support), ENDA, public health option, get us out of Iraq, or anything else. Is it a wonder everything thinks Congress sucks…NO ONE (except Wall Street) is getting what they want.
@3: Great idea. How much does a full physical cost?
So let me get this straight. Susan Bayh sits on Wellpoint’s board. Wellpoint is the parent of Anthem Blue Cross, now infamous for the rate hikes after posting record profits. (I know this is lost on free-market righties, but how much profit is enough? At what point does the revolution come? When to the torches and pitchforks bust down the HQ doors?) Bayh does his best to scuttle HC reform…conflict of interest maybe? Bayh, a safe incumbant with a huge war chest, waits until the last possible moment to retire pretty much insuring that no quality candidate Dem can be found in time. That’s a giant middle finger to the party.
I only bring it up ’cause the speculation of a Democratic presedential run in the press needs to stop. Bayh can win among Dem primary voters? You know, the radicals who actually WANT a public option? I can think of no better response to the Bayh as Dem. Presidential hopeful….Bitch, please!
@4: So if a partisan group has “real arguments” and “real evidence”, then they will prevail if they have even the slimmest of majorities?
I, for one, am skeptical of the underlying assumption you are making here mr/mrs Lost. Please explain. I mean, the GOP has promised less government and lower taxes for years, but when they have a majority they fail wrt their basic platform as much as the dems. How is this so?
@4
You mean like winding down the war in Iraq? We’re doing that. Re-regulating the finical sector, doing it. Putting suspected terrorist on trial, doing it. Ending mountain removal mining, doing it.
@3: “STOP already with the 44,000 death lie.”
Could you explain how this is a lie? The number is based upon a study. How is that study flawed? Can you present a study that counters this study? Do you have any verifiable data to show the study is erroneous?
It strikes me that if you make such claims you should back up your base assertion with some evidence. This should not be asking too much, would you not agree?
Claim: “ANYONE can get a yearly physical and pay cash.”
People on food stamps?
Homeless people?
If you have employer paid health insurance, does it make sense to pay for your annual physical with cash?
If you “go your own way” are you willing to sign a waver stating that care shall stop if you can’t pay for it?
If you show up at the emergency room with acute appendicitis, can the hospital rightfully turn you away if you don’t bring a big wad of cash or a credit card?
@3
We are working and planing for the future and having health insurance is part of that plan. Just like in the rest of the developed world.
Lost is simply selfish, an affliction shared by all of these faux-libertarian wingnuts. They’d gladly shred any social contract for a buck. This guy Lost quotes Rousseau while doing it.
“that’s their problem, not mine”
Wingnuttia in a nutshell.
@14
Yeah, he’s pretty much a waste of time. Not sure why I bother.
@12 “People on food stamps?
Homeless people?”
“that’s their problem, not mine”
Nothing new here. That’s the stock wingnut answer for victims of natural disasters, casualties of war, the denial of human rights and the suffering of children – just about any human condition where any decent person would show compassion and seek a better world for all of us. And all they have to say is,
“that’s their problem, not mine”
@16 Yeah, there are better trolls around, even here.
Goldy, mark this quote…Bayh will run against Obama in 2012!
I am sure that in this case “moderate” means fringe socialist. I mean let’s be objective he has a “D” next to his name when I watched the story on Fox & Friends.
Yes, it is. That’s because I want a society of adults. I don’t want the society of perpetual children liberal policies lead to over the long term.
Compassion can consist of planning a society for the long term, not just for immediate benefits. It can mean we socially engineer for competency and wise choices, not stupidity and poor ones. It can mean that we plan for generations not for the coming week.
Re 11 and 12
Most of the people you mention go to the doctor all the time, and I pay for it with my tax dollars. I believe the term is ‘red herring?’ Anyone else can pay the $300 or #400 for a yearly physical much less expensively than the $800 or so a month for premiums. Dental cleanings can be gotten at medical trade schools at a much reduced rate.
In short anyone with half a brain would plan, anyone else deserves what they get and no, they aren’t my problem.
Michael in general-
Really, you really think Congress and Obama are pulling out of Iraq? Cleaning up the financial sector? You seem an intelligent person and must see that the democrats in charge are as much into corporate welfare as their republican predecessors.
Steve,
Yes I quote Rousseau, and I’ve actually read the Social Contract. Government is a necessary evil, with the emphasis on evil. We need it, but don’t have to like it and should be very much on our gaurd against it gaining too much power or influence on our lives.
Re 14
I’m honest, which is more than most liberals. I want good government policy because it serves my interests. I want it because it makes a better country for my children, and for theirs when they have them. I want the whole society to improve and know the way to accomplish this is by enabling the individual. Individuals should have the right to succeed without having the fruits of their labor stolen. They should be able to enjoy the money they earned and all that it can buy them.
Any philosophy which purports to raise society as a whole to benefit the individual is naive or stupid. It flies in the face of everything that any idiot could tell you about human nature.
He’s just another corporatist. They come with D’s after their names as well as R’s. After they’re done trashing this country they’re probably all moving to Dubai. We should slit their throats now before they get away.
“I’ve actually read the Social Contract”
Who hasn’t? You should try a second book. Maybe get a little perspective.
Re 17
It’s been shown over and over again that conservatives give to charity at a rate double or more that of their equally wealthy liberal peers. We just don’t believe government to be a good vehicle for charity.
“I’m honest, which is more than most liberals.”
Liar.
Yeah, we see your compassion here all the time.
Steve,
You mean like the Leviathan? Common Sense? The Republic? Das Kapital? Yeah, I did study political philosophy and have kept up the interest in the 20 years since college. It is that study that indicates that all government is bad, some less so, and all need careful control by the citizens.
You have a touchingly childlike faith in government that my experience doesn’t justify. Any government capable of taking care of all its’ citizens wants is capable of taking all of their rights.
“We need it, but don’t have to like it and should be very much on our gaurd against it gaining too much power or influence on our lives.”
Um, sure thing. It’s not like we slept through the last wingnut administration. This one goes back to your being a liar.
Re 27
Is it compassion to remove the consequences of their actions from my kids? I don’t think so. I want them to be capable responsible adults and make them accept the results of poor choices commensurate with their ages.
Liberal thought is the opposite. Remove all consequences for poor choices and you have a society of village idiots incapable of doing anything for themselves.
“You have a touchingly childlike faith in government that my experience doesn’t justify.”
You haven’t a fucking clue what I believe. Well, other than my belief that you’re a lying piece of shit.
Re 29
Umm, read my posts. I didn’t support Bush bailouts of the financial sector. I didn’t support Bush invasions of civil liberties or Bush defictis.
If you want hypocrisy look elsewhere, and calling me a liar only works if I care about your opinion.
Re 31
Well, it’s good to see you’re infantile argument style is back, and I need not respond to your posts any more.
I’ve got actual work to do tomorrow so am off. Have a good evening.
Consequences for your kids? Fine, if I see them being murdered in a park they shouldn’t have been in, “that’s their problem”. Tear up social contracts at your own risk. It could be your throat being slit in the dark of night. And that would be your problem.
Yeah, so you hang out here, never trashing Republicans. Get lost.
Infantile? Whatever. Here’s the way it is – I don’t cotton to shits like you and I don’t play your stupid games. Don’t like it? That’s your fucking problem.
Aaah, Puddy, I’m getting back into the swing of things.
@3 So you believe in punishing kids because their parents were unwise or just plain unlucky?
It must be nice to live on a planet where everything is so simple, so easy, and so black-and-white as you make it.
@20 Uh….no. “Moderate” in this context amounts to “mainstream” media-speak for “gutless turd”.
@21 “That’s because I want a society of adults.”
That’s a strange request coming from a juvenile.
@21 “Compassion can consist of planning a society for the long term, not just for immediate benefits. It can mean we socially engineer for competency and wise choices, not stupidity and poor ones. It can mean that we plan for generations not for the coming week.”
And suppose we don’t? Suppose human nature is the same next week or next month as it has been for a million years? Suppose humans continue to be fallible, to make mistakes, to make unwise choices? What then? How do your theories pan out then?
I’m a pragmatist. I look for things that work, not pie-in-sky horsepucky from idealists who live in dream worlds.
@21 “Dental cleanings can be gotten at medical trade schools at a much reduced rate.”
Boy is that ever a great plan for our nation’s health care needs — send everyone to medical trade schools for dental care.
If everyone did that, there wouldn’t be enough medical trade schools to go around. In fact, there wouldn’t be any at all, because nobody would become a dentist if there were no paying customers for dentists.
@22 “I’m honest, which is more than most liberals.”
Bullshit on both counts.
@25 “It’s been shown over and over again that conservatives give to charity at a rate double or more that of their equally wealthy liberal peers. We just don’t believe government to be a good vehicle for charity.”
Why should victims of outsourcing or bad economic policy depend on charity? For those who play by the rules, and become unemployed through no fault of their own, why shouldn’t the necessities of life be a matter of right?
@28 You sure as hell don’t get trustworthy government by voting Republican. Every GOP president since Nixon has violated the Constitution. When Democrats run government they at least try to help citizens. When Republicans run government they help themselves — oink oink.
@30 “society of village idiots”
We already have a society of village idiots who glory in their own stupidity. You know who I’m talking about.
@32 “I didn’t support Bush bailouts of the financial sector.”
So you’d let the banking system fail and plunge the world into another Great Depression? See #47 above.
Smart people — guys with Nobel Prizes — agree the bank bailouts were necessary to prevent economic collapse. And if Congress passes Obama’s tax on banks, they’ll cost taxpayers nothing.
You are anything but smart; and under no circumstances would I trust you to make public policy.
I think today’s Rasmussen Poll pretty much somes up why Bayh is throwing in the towel.
And remember, this is a reflection on the DEMOCRATS who are in control!
5. SJ spews:
Republicans disciplined? You’ve got to be kidding. Fanatics? You don’t think the Progressive lunatics who falsify climate data to promote a big government agenda are fanatics SJ??
The Republican Party is finally waking up to the fact that Americans are by & large CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVES. Is that fanatical? Methinks not.
HOWEVER, if the Republican’s go back to their old big government ways, the Tea Partiers will dump them like a steaming sack of poop!
I only support Constitutional Conservatives.
Period.
Steve is legally insane.
By his infantile words and chronic vulgarity, he is a drunk who cannot complete a cogent thought or make an argument.
He just spews hot rhetoric and vulgarity.
Steve is a posterchild for the angry whiteguy Progressive…who is angry because his ilk cannot control all of our daily actions.
It’s David Broder’s legacy to the world: moderation that shifts rightward as the opposition party drifts.
re 51: Steve says you are a goatfuckker — and I believe him.
@51 Good grief! What are you babbling about now?
“Steve is legally insane.”
More projection. It’s getting to be really tiresome.
Why does our KLOWN want to kill one our Senators? Even for a America-hating extremist that seems just a little bit, um, extreme.
Hmm, maybe the KLOWN is simply upset that even his favorite Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows our president trending upwards in approval over the last few weeks. His approval is yet higher again today. The trend is real. And it sucks for the America-hating KLOWN.
The rich are getting richer and they pay lower taxes too!
16.62 percent??? C’mon right wingers. What’s wrong with this picture?
http://www.taxanalysts.com/
(behind a paywall).
@52 & @53:
PacMan left due to your racism and Puddy believes him!
Steve,
You seem to have reverted to your goat sex attack meme. I am saddened by this. I thought you would leave that infantile attack in the past. I thought you gave up your elixir. Am I wrong?
@29 Why should be give up our infantile attacks when you guys don’t? Why should your side have a monopoly on infantile attacks?
The fallacy of your thinking is that you believe nice begets nice. That’s bullshit. What begets nice is a stick. The NRA puts it a slightly different way: “An armed society is a polite society.” The underlying principle of Cold War policy was mutually assured destruction.
The problem is righties didn’t know where to stop. When you guys pushed the button, so did we. Hence, the hyperpartisanship, name-calling, ad hominem attacks, and so forth. We’ll stop when your side stops, but your side has to stop first, because your side started it. Until you do, don’t expect us to deal with thuggery with politeness. We’re going to use axe handles as long as you do.
@59 not @29
@59 “Am I wrong?”
Yes and no, Puddy. I believe Mr. Cynical started it. However, I should have ignored his comment. I assure you, next time I will. I’m quite tired of this stuff and really don’t want to go there anymore. Next time I’ll handle it differently. I really don’t intend to post in the manner that I have in the past. So I really can’t say that I’m pleased with my own reaction to his comment.
In the past I’ve sided strictly with the leftist commenters here and gave a pass to comments that have offended me. No more. My intent now is to confront racism and religious intolerance no matter who’s doing the spewing. You’ve seen me do this. Now you’ve seen me slip up. I’m not perfect and I might need another reminder now and then of why I’m here. I think I can count on you to do that for me. So I thank you for your comment.
via Politico
Mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm. NPR gave O-bah-ma/Biden all that free publicity this week, uncritically accepting their assertions about all the jobs they’ve “saved” or created with slush-fund stimulus, and along comes Bayh to poop on their propaganda parade. And along goes Bayh. Bye-bye.
The stimulus fund was sold to us a year ago as the One Best Way to prevent unemployment from going over 8%. Worked great. Future’s so bright. I’m wearin’ shades.
And I’m swearing off predictions. For two years here I said the Republican Party is shovel ready, ready to be shoveled six feet under. We’re looking amazingly spry for a corpse, and you Crats are looking amazingly stupid. We didn’t croak and you choked. We’ll send you dead flowers.
re 58:
Are you sure it wasn’t copyright infringement?
re 58: Good thing for the civil rights movement that James Meredith was not as easily intimidated as PacMan.
No one’s buying your drivel.
Golly headless windows xp lucy,
You are the progressives version of HMNT, the peep “we ylb arschloch” loves to the core of his being.
PacMan came to a drinking libtardos one night and explained himself. He’s moved on from fools like you. Puddy loves to remind the brainless about fools like you.
Steve,
No worries dude.
@60..spoken like a true Goebbels…
Pudless lucy is the progressive HNMT? Say what?
re 69: For that guy, that’s a position paper.