Being a politician isn't easy, for a lot of reasons. For me, the toughest thing would be the need to be nice to everybody and pretend to every constituent that their particular complaint is really, really important to you, and you'll be getting right on it as soon as you get back to Washington.
You also have to present yourself as someone of the purest heart, always driven by the noblest of intentions. Do it long enough, and you end up saying things like, when I cheated on my first two wives, it only happened because I love my country so damn much. And when you do things that are less than admirable -- even if they're not violating your marriage vows -- you do it in front of everybody. Which brings us to Evan Bayh:
Fox News officially announced on Monday afternoon that former Democratic Senator Evan Bayh is becoming a contributor to the network.
Michael Clemente, the network's senior vice president for news, announced the move in a statement. He said that "Senator Bayh's decades of experience in the political arena and his participation in key decisions in Washington will lend a valuable point of view to the entire Fox News lineup."
"I'm pleased to offer analysis of public policy and politics to the millions of Americans who get their news from Fox," Bayh said in the statement.
I'm guessing that whenever he gets asked about it, Bayh will say that what really drew him to the Fox gig was the opportunity to educate the public and enhance the national debate, or something. He'll also probably say that the lobbying job he also took is about...um...creating jobs for hardworking Americans.
Does cashing in make you a bad person? Not really. The fact is that very few of us spend our days working in homeless shelters or going from one disaster area to another for Doctors Without Borders. But then again, most of us don't spend years explaining to people how morally superior and full of integrity we are, which a lot of politicians do.
