by H. N. Burdett
It's not exactly panic time for the Democratic contingent in the United States Senate. But that seems to be the attitude among party insiders, and it so happens to be smart thinking
Too often these days, the old verities are cast aside and sometimes that's just plain dumb. The verity that once applied to political officeholders and needs to be chiseled in stone is: Always run scared.
The permanence of incumbency is at the very root of much that is wrong with contemporary politics. And at the very root of incumbency permanence is the same as the root of all evil: the long green, dolares, big bucks, filty lucre.
If you woke up this morning from a Van Winklian snooze, you should know that the driving force behind most officeholders, the game-changer between success and failure is the same as when you tucked yourself in and gently rested your head on your favorite pillow to sleep off whatever hangover might have prolonged your slumber: the mother's milk of politics, sadly enough, is still money. Obscene amounts of it.
As the ancient saying goes, "Those who raiseth filthy lucre in sufficent supply will findeth themselves snugly ensconced in city halls, governor's mansions, state legislatures, the United States Congress and the White House." Okay, so that's not such an ancient statement, I came up with it five minutes ago, but it has a nice ring.
Special attention should be given to the emphasis on the adverb snugly, which is informed by the stupendous advantage those in office maintain and retain when they are savvy enough to keep their money machines grinding away in operative mode around the clock and fulltime, rather than consigning them to the fate of collecting dust and rust in the basement alongside all of those bumper stickers, buttons, car-tops and other campaign goodies.
More than a few clever students of the body politic feel that term limitations are the one and only answer to the problem of incumbency permanence. Indeed any number of governors, mayors and county executives are subjected to this restriction, all the way up the President of the United States in this land of the spree and home of the knave.
But it is the proverbial two-edge rapier. I can still think of a few in public office I'd feel comfortable with representing me forever and others that have me reaching for my pen and searching for a recall petition before they have raised their right hand and placed their left on an ecumenical book of the word.
It is a quandary all right, one that got ample ink only a few days ago when Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana had his "no mas" moment. The same Evan Bayh whose thoughtful centrism appeals to that all but extinct species still considering themselves to be middle-of-the-road voters. The same Evan Bayh who was short-listed for the Vice President slot on Barack Obama's ticket before Joe Biden, an outspoken liberal, was anointed.
Of equal interest, it is the same Evan Bayh who had collected the necessary petitions to have his name placed on the Indiana ballot for a third term quest in the Senate; had compiled opposition research information on Daniel R. Coats, the erstwhile U.S. Senator who once again figures to be the GOP nominee; and the same Evan Bayh who had hired core campaign workers and reportedly had more than $13 million drawing interest in his campaign bank account.
Bayh had so much going for him that it's only logical to ask just what was it that had the Indiana senator squirming in his seat? Apparently he had been concerned about the current entrenched partisanship culture of the United States Senate for a long while before reaching the decision he so clearly and concisely articulated in the statement he released to the press a few days back:
"There is too much partisanshp and not enough progress -- too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-saving. Even at this time of enormous challenge, the people's business is not being done."
In that gripping 33-word indictment, the Indiana senator both nailed what other members of Congress moan and groan about every day in the hallways of Capitol Hill and perhaps chiseled the epitaph for any slim hope that partisanship will self-destruct in Washington any time soon. Indeed Evan Bayh may go down in history as a curious relic to be assiduously examined by political science graduate students well into the future: the last American bipartisan.
Bayh's departure does not mean that his Senate seat will be all but gift-wrapped for Dan Coats. There's the matter of the campaign infrastructure Bayh had begun to assemble and the opposition research, to say nothing of those 13 million big ones.
Though Indiana has long been seen as a Republican-leaning state, it is also one with a deep strain of midwestern practicality. The Hoosier state not only elected Evan Bayh to a second term, it also gave its 11 electoral votes in the last presidential race to Barack Obama.
Giddy though the GOP rank-and-file party faithful may be regarding the prospects for a reversal of fortunes based on the turn of events in both Massachusetts and Indiana, the pros in the backroom at the Republican National Committee aren't quite ready to break out the Dom Perignon. The cold reality is embedded in the numbers. And the numbers remain daunting: Democrats still hold a commanding 59-41 lead in U.S. Senate seats.
No matter how the numbers play out through a combination of retirements and shifts of seats controled by the two major parties, clearly there will be an overhaul in the makeup of the United States Senate. Would that the same could be said of the culture of partisanship in that same august body.
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the Indiana Senator squirming in his seat in recent months as though he
couldn't wait to depart the Capitol and get to his kid's ball game?
Disturbed about the locked in place polarization of Congress, Bayh had long been
contemplating leaving the current culture of the U.S. Senate, which he so clearly and concisely articulated in a statement to the press:
"There is too much partisanship and not enough progress
-- too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous challenge, the people's business is not being
done. "
In that gripping, 33-word
indictment the Indiana senator both nailed down what other members of Congress moan and groan about every day in the hallways and lounges of Capitol Hill, and pronounced the epitaph for any hope that either centrism or bipartisanship will soon emerge as a meaningful force in American politics. Indeed, Evan Bayh may have been the last hope, the last bipartisan.
But Bayh's departure does not necessarily mean that Coats will have a clear path to Indiana's open seat in the upper chamber. Though the state is by tradition Republican-leaning, it is also known for deeply ingrained midwestern practicality: not only did its voters elect centrist Democrat Bayh to a second term, it gave its 11 electoral votes in 2008 to Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Coming on the heels of Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts special election for liberal lion Senator Edward Kennedy's seat, Bayh's retirement announcement was not a happy day for Democratic party campers. But it is still not panic time for Democrats, who continue to hold a commanding 59-41 margin in the U.S. Senate.
It is true that Democrats may have uphill battles ahead to keep Senate seats in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, North Dakota, Arkansas, Nevada and now Indiana. But retirements have raised questions regarding the ability of Republicans to retain seats in Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire and Ohio.
Even so, it is clear that the Senate lineup can be expected to undergo a long overdue relative overhaul. Would that the same could be said for the culture of polarization pervading that august body.
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