Free Republic

"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...

Tamyra d’Ippolito, looks like she didn't get enough signatures....

Interesting about Sarah Palin: She simply refuses to go away and die. She refuses to get out of politics. She refuses to accept the view of the political establishment, or much of it, that she’s a joke, a moron, a laughingstock. I think she has a keen sense of her own worth: of her talents and abilities, which are considerable. They are not total. But whose are? Churchill’s? Maybe. Bear with me while I tell a little story. Some years ago, I was in Davos, for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. John Ashcroft was a lunchtime speaker....

VIDEO

It is white-rhino rare for a politician who is in the prime of his life (or for that matter at the end of his life), and who is still popular with his constituents, to quit without an ulterior motive. Bob Dole quit in order to focus on a Presidential run. Sarah Pailin quit in order to spend time in the lower 48 states, promote a book and perhaps run for the White House. Even politicians near death tend to keep running. Senator Byrd (D-Living) and Strom Thurmond (R-Dead) have been prime examples of this phenomenon. Moderate Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN),...

President Barack Obama branded Republicans last week as 'electoral opportunists' more concerned about their own interests than the people's, taking a political risk by escalating criticism of the very lawmakers he's urging to work with him. Are you kidding me? This is a man that ran for President after serving 180 days as junior Senator from Illinois. He barely got used to his Senate office before he headed off to New Hampshire and Iowa. This is President who ignored the minority party for one year, because he had the majority and didn't care. He loafed around Washington as a virtual...

The media, liberal Republicans like David Frum, and every left-winger out there has for a year decried, bemoaned, ridiculed, and laughed at conservatives for an alleged “purity test” for candidates. I have been a chief target of those attacks from the Republican establishment, pundits, the left, and the media. Never mind that is was never true. I’ve always said the GOP should go right where it can go right. That’s not everywhere. Unperturbed, folks from the GOP establishment and Republican pay-to-play organizations to your friendly national news correspondent, have gone after me and conservatives for our alleged purity test. Charlie...

You can almost hear the beat of that old rock song: “Dum, dum, dum… Another one bites the dust.” Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democratic Senator, has announced that he too is quaking in his boots and suddenly deciding not to run as beleaguered Democrats are quickly realizing their arrogant posturing this past year has stirred up a political hornet’s nest that is likely to bring most of them down. While Bayh is only the latest and certainly not the last to realize that America’s anger is real, some Democrats continue their Little Big Horn mentality in holding high the liberal...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama suffered another setback Monday as a fifth Democratic senator, centrist heavyweight Evan Bayh, decided not to run for re-election in dismay at the bitter political climate. Obama, who reportedly tried to talk Bayh out of retiring, faces a looming Republican resurgence and risks watching strong majorities in Congress crumble in November mid-term elections, and with them his ambitious reform agenda. With his tearful wife and two sons at his side, Bayh, 54, expressed disenchantment with excessive partisanship in the Congress as he announced his decision at a press conference in the state capital...

Millions of Americans long to tell their bosses “take this job and shove it.” Hardly any have the power and money to do so, especially in these recessionary times. Sen. Evan Bayh (D) of Indiana, however, is the exception. His stunning retirement from the Senate is essentially a loud and emphatic “screw you” to President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. For months now, Bayh has been screaming at the top of his voice that the party needs to reorient toward a more popular, centrist agenda -- one that emphasizes jobs and fiscal responsibility over health care and cap...

FORT WAYNE, IN (Indiana's NewsCenter) - Former U.S. Senator Dan Coats confirmed this morning that he will run for U.S. Senate. During a live interview with Charly Butcher on WOWO radio Coats said his campaign is "up and running, with thousands of volunteers on the ground". Multimedia Watch The Video The campaign is still collecting the necessary signatures to enter the Republican primary in May. The former 4th District Congressman said he never expected to be back in politics, but the recent turn the country has taken concerned him, leading him to enter the race. Since word of a possible...

Formally, it is known as H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But this week, it has acquired an unhelpful nickname: "Cash for Cloture." As Senate Democrats finally complete their health-care legislation, those combing through the bill have uncovered many backroom deals that were made to buy, er, secure the 60 votes needed to "invoke cloture" -- the legislative term for cutting off debate and holding a final vote. It will take years to see how well the measure reduces costs and expands insurance coverage. But already, the bill has been a bonanza for wordsmiths. First there was...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzpRZnnrjrs An empty suit? A Republican who hopes to prevent Democrat Evan Bayh from winning his third U.S. Senate term in 2010 is running his first commercial. The ad features Marlin Stutzman, a state senator from Howe, standing next to a suit on a hanger. "I don't approve of sending empty suits to Washington," he says, an implication that the moderate Bayh shifts with political winds. Stutzman is emerging as the front-runner among three Republicans who have entered the race. The empty suit commercial is running only on cable channels right now. Political observers think that to seriously challenge Bayh,...

Do you want President Barack Obama to succeed? Rush Limbaugh would IF ONLY he instituted rational policies. Since it looks like that won't be happening, then Rush wants him to fail because of his errant policies. And it is those very policies that will ultimately cause Obama to fail which is why I am glad that the DUmmies refuse to listen to the one bit of rational advice from one of their own in this THREAD, "Evan Bayh steps up, Good for Him." Yes, good for Evan Bayh since he might force Barack to not cater to the looney...

Here is video of Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh on Great Van Susteren last night where he strongly made the case for voting "no" on the $410 Billion Omnibus Spending Bill that contains 9,000 earmarks, and that President Obama should veto it. Bayh has broken ranks with the Democratic leadership in Congress, and with Obama who said he would sign the bill. Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, also a Democrat, is reportedly planning to vote against the bill too. . . . . . . (Watch Video)

THIS WEEK, THE UNITED STATES SENATE WILL VOTE ON A SPENDING PACKAGE TO FUND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS FISCAL YEAR THE SENATE SHOULD REJECT THIS BILL. IF WE DO NOT, PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SHOULD VETO IT. THE OMNIBUS INCREASES DISCRETIONARY SPENDING BY 8% OVER LAST FISCAL YEAR'S LEVELS, DWARFING THE RATE OF INFLATION ACROSS A BROAD SWATH OF ISSUES…APPROPRIATE FOR A NATION FLUSH WITH CASH OR UNCONCERNED WITH FISCAL PRUDENCE, BUT AMERICA IS NEITHER. OUR NATION'S CURRENT FISCAL IMBALANCE IS UNPRECEDENTED, UNSUSTAINABLE AND, IF UNADDRESSED, A MAJOR THREAT TO OUR CURRENCY AND OUR ECONOMIC VITALITY. THE...

NashvillePost.com has learned that senior campaign officials from the Barack Obama Presidential campaign are being dispatched from various locations around the country and are converging in Indianapolis for a “major event” to take place on Saturday. Saturday is the same day that Obama is expected to make his first public appearance with his yet to be announced vice presidential running mate. Indiana is the home state of Democratic Senator Evan Bayh, widely considered to be on the short list of Democratic vice presidential contenders. Sources in Denver, the site of next week's Democratic National Convention, say that individuals responsible for...

Senator Barack Obama fought back Saturday against accusations from his rivals that he had displayed a profound misunderstanding of small-town values, in a flare-up that left him on the defensive before a series of primaries that could test his ability to win over white voters in economically distressed communities. For a second day, Mr. Obama sought to explain his remarks at a recent San Francisco fund-raiser that small-town Pennsylvania voters, bitter over their economic circumstances, “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” as a way to explain their frustrations. Acknowledging Saturday that “I didn’t...

Over the past few years, the mainstream media has tried to dismiss bloggers and other emerging media outlets as rank amateurs. It's claimed that our sources are unreliable, our investigation methods are shaky, and all in all, bloggers are considered to be an unprofessional lot who serve no useful purpose in the reporting process. Unfortunately, these same words can easily be used to describe the mainstream media. One need only to look to the story of John Mark Karr to see a vivid example of how the media runs with a story with little or no merit. As you probably...

Those Clinton campaigners sure know how to slip the "subliminable" shiv in. During a Hardball appearance yesterday, chief strategist Mark Penn managed to work the phrase "cocaine use" into his comments supposedly disassociating the campaign from charges of Obama drug use made by Hillary's New Hampshire chairman. See video of Penn in action here. Today, it was the turn of Hillary supporter Evan Bayh to take a whack at Barack, all while pretending to take the high road. A bit after 3 PM ET this afternoon, the Dem senator from Indiana with the Eagle Scout aura [who might well have...