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- I'm of the opinion that while Evan Bayh provided a crucial vote on the two biggest accomplishments of the 111th Congress extant (the stimulus and health care -- pending completion of a lengthy game of 11-dimensional chess), he was only a crucial vote because the game is now "majority rule = 60 percent." So yes, he was a vote that could be bought and that was all he was. He could have emulated his father and actually fought for and accomplished something. Instead, the lesson Bayh the younger learned from his father was to emulate this guy, leading to a cynical and empty political career devoid of any substance whatsoever, a coward who has the nerve to question his colleagues' ability to get anything done, secure in the knowledge that his fellow centrists will martyr him. Good riddance.
- I'm happy to be wrong about this, but I doubt the Obama administration's plan to send out Cabinet members around the country to tout the benefits of the stimulus on its one-year anniversary is going to do much in a country where most Americans aren't even aware that tax cuts made up one-third of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This is part of a larger effort to regain control of the narrative -- the preferred prognosis of Washington insiders sympathetic to the administration -- but the fundamental problem is that the White House has very few substantive accomplishments to show off that are visibly reversing the economic plight of the country. This isn't because they attempted to impose a radical agenda; rather the Senate has failed to move decisively on pressing issues.
- The picture that emerges from this lengthy look at some of the rank-and-file who have aligned themselves with the tea party movement is that of previously apolitical Americans who, after personally experiencing economic calamity, underwent a political self-education that resulted in becoming involved with America's long tradition of political cranks. The real shame is that by ceding the populist ground to the tea partiers, liberal Democrats lost an opportunity to put forward a governing vision that doesn't rely upon hatred of the federal government, even if the fruits of that labor are dependent on stronger economic conditions. But I'm sure a hopelessly inadequate jobs bill will turn things around.
- Remainders: Elections used to have consequences; Harry Reid (maybe) catches a break in Nevada; the only thing I'd note about Ned Lamont's gubernatorial campaign at this time is that he isn't running away from the Democratic Party label; how soon we forget that Republicans are running for re-election, too; Utah Republicans contribute to the conspiracy theory that the GOP is deliberately creating an undereducated voter base for their own electoral benefit; it's more of a libertarian than a conservative thing these days, but the timelessness of the quote stands; Joe Lieberman would like to let you know that you should feel bad that mean Democrats snubbed him in '08; and will nonprofits take greater advantage of the Citizens United decision than for-profit corporations?
--Mori Dinauer
