It’s always interesting to speculate about politicians who have a ‘moderate’ profile. The vast majority of them represent swing districts or states, and while their votes and positions may reflect their constituencies, you can’t help but wonder if their principles lie further to one side or the other. For example, Evan Bayh represents historically conservative Indiana. If he voted like Bernie Sanders, it’s quite likely that his supporters would evaporate. I remember that when Al Gore was representing Tennessee, we has anti-choice, but when he decided to run for president, he became pro-choice. The same thing happened with Dennis Kucinich. Meanwhile, Poppy Bush was pro-choice when he ran for president in 1980, but flipped completely in his 1988 run. Times had changed for the Republican party. Do these politicians have real enduring values or just blind ambition?
One time that you can test a politician’s true principles is when they announce their retirement. Freed from the need to curry favor with their voters, they can vote any way they want. In Evan Bayh’s case, there was some reason to believe that he might be a bit more liberal than he let on. After all, his father Birch was a staunch liberal. But, it turns out that Evan Bayh is more conservative than he’s let on. Not only did he cast liberal votes with an eye towards pleasing the Senate leadership, but he also wanted to stay viable in the presidential primaries and keep his name in the mix for vice-president. When Obama was choosing his running mate, Bayh made the final cut along with Tim Kaine of Virginia and Joe Biden of Delaware.
Yet, once Bayh announced his retirement, he moved to the right, as could be seen last week with the votes on reconciliation.
During the two-day voting marathon on amendments to the healthcare reconciliation bill, the three Democratic centrists bucked their party more than any other of their 56 colleagues in the upper chamber. Out of 42 votes over 14 hours, Bayh (Ind.) defected 17 times, Lincoln (Ark.) strayed 12 times and Nelson (Neb.) crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans 25 times.
To his credit, Bayh did ultimately vote for reconciliation, but he voted on a number of poison pill amendments that were designed to embarrass Democrats who are seeking reelection. There was no coherent reason to vote for these amendments on the merits. But Bayh did.
Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise us since Bayh was a former head of the Democratic Leadeship Committee, but so were Sens. Carper and Lieberman, and they didn’t fall for the baloney even though they are seeking reelection.
It seems that Bayh was mainly a stalking horse for the right. Good thing that Obama passed him over for Joe ‘Big Fucking Deal’ Biden.
