Bayh To Retire
by Brien Jackson
I don’t have a whole lot of original things to say about the news that Evan Bayh is going to retire rather than seek re-election this year. Yes Bayh was facing a tougher challenger than he’s used to, but Coats is a flawed candidate, and given Bayh’s stature in the state I have a hard time imagining him losing to Coats, even in a Republican year. And in any event, I don’t think Bayh would retire rather than face a difficult election. Rather, I think the most cynical answer is also the most obviously correct one; realizing that he’s never going to be President, Bayh simply has no interest in government anymore. He doesn’t particularly care for the rigors of being a member of Congress, especially one with so little institutional clout. He’s always wanted to be President, but unfortunately for him he never realized that positioning yourself as far away from your party’s national median voter isn’t a good way to do that. To say nothing of routinely insulting your own party. And in quintessential Bayh fashion, he lashed out at the party who denied him a chance at the Presidency by announcin his retirement a day before the deadline to file for the state primary, more or less guaranteeing they won’t have a chance to hold the seat. Stay classy Evan.
As for Bayh’s legacy, well, what can you say about the guy? He spent a lot of time talking about the deficit, while favoring a lot of budget policies like the Iraq war and large tax cuts (he was especially disdainful of the estate tax). In 12 years of being in the Senate he managed to go without a single major accomplishment, even though he was regularly close to the chamber’s pivot point. I think Matt has exactly the right way of looking at it; Bayh spent his formative years watching his dad be a truly dedicated Senator working dilligently on policy issues and amassing a record of legislative accomplishments, only to have it ultimately come back to cost him his seat, losing to Dan Quayle of all people. Evan clearly concluded that the way to go about life as a Senator was to do nothing more than rhetorically positioning yourself in the middle of every debate while echoing the favored platitudes of Washington Post editorial writers. And to some extent it worked; Bayh was always presented as a Congressional centrist, made lots of Sunday show appearances, and was beloved by the Washington Post. But it had a downside as well, alienating him from his national party, more or less eliminating any chance he had of ever becoming more than a marginal Senator from a red state. And now, he’s leaving the Senate after serving fewer terms than his father, so in the end, although if he weren’t so clearly disinterested in it all it’s possible he could have had more.
In the end, however, I imagine Evan will wind up as little more than a historical footnote in his father’s biography, and future generations of political scientists and observers will note that Birch Bayh was such a respected political figure with such a force of reputation that his coattails even managed to create a political career for his useless, vapid son. And a fitting legacy (for Evan), it will be. Good-riddance.
Tags: Evan Bayh