A Novel Idea

I'm sure you had to have seen the shocking news out of Washington D.C. in the past week: Indiana's Democratic Senator, Evan Bayh, announced that he would not be seeking reelection in this fall's elections. Bayh has served two terms as Indiana's junior Senator (Republican Dick Lugar being the senior Senator) after being a highly successful two term Governor in the Hoosier state.

What made Bayh's decision all the more mind boggling is that, unlike so many of the other Democrats running for the hills, he had a pretty simple road to reelection. Sure, he might have had to spend some money on his reelection campaign, unlike the 2004 steamrolling of Marvin Scott, or 1998's equally impressive bludgeoning of Paul Helmke. Bayh had not faced an election where he garnered less than 60% of the vote since his first Gubernatorial foray back in 1988; then he managed only a meager 53.2% of the vote. Still, this year would have likely been somewhere between 1988's election and 2004's 61.6%, and there is little doubt that Bayh would have been able to win.

So if he wasn't running from defeat, as so many other Dems seem to be, what was he running from? If you believe the man himself he will tell you that he simply is tired of the partisan bickering in Washington. His logic, as presented in the past week, is pretty simple: he can't get anything done in Washington due to partisan gridlock, so he is going to go into the private sector and make a difference there. He has presented himself as the consummate public servant who wants nothing more than to make a difference for the people of his state, but who also can't stand being a public servant anymore because he can't seem to find a way to make a difference.

Of course, we all know better: Bayh took to the Senate in a singular attempt to find a way into the White House. He was briefly flirted with by Al Gore in 2000, then more seriously by John Kerry in 2004. Bayh probably felt fortunate to avoid the humiliation of defeat in both of those instances, but he also must have felt it was his turn in 2008 when he made it to Barack Obama's "short list" of Veep candidates. Even when Joe Biden was picked instead Bayh had to figure that a cabinet post was his, and when he was passed over even for that I suspect he began to have doubts about his future in Washington that were much deeper than before.

One final piece to the puzzle is almost certainly his failed bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination, a bid which was quite literally dead upon birth. Taking that experience into account Bayh must have come to grips with the fact that his only chance to end up in the West Wing was via the Vice-Presidential door, and then he made the mistake of backing Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, backing the wrong horse, and leading to him looking hypocritical when he quickly jumped ship hoping Obama would save him. Add all this together and it seems painfully obvious that Bayh was less upset by the partisan gridlock, and more upset with the simple fact that he was an Executive style leader who seemed permanently locked in the Legislative branch. There was no way to the White House there for him, and with that dream squashed the Senate held less allure than before. Sure, he could serve as Indiana's senator for the next few decades without really struggling to stay in office. But why would he when his dreams had been quashed?

And so we find ourselves here, with contradicting images of the man. On the one hand we have the image he has sought to project: that of the humble civil servant who wants nothing but the best for the state, who just can't continue to be a part of the very government that is failing us. On the other we have the spited politician, who's aims and dreams have been stomped on and turned into a cold reality where he begins to understand that there is no upward mobility in the way he hoped.

But which of these images is most accurate? I say "most" because, as is usually the case, this situation probably encompasses both of these realities. I believe in Bayh the man who wants to help the people of his state, but I also know the reality of Bayh the personally driven politician because all people who reach the levels he attained have a good portion of personal drive behind them. Still, there is something that Evan could do which would, in my mind, swing things back towards the first image and away from the second: announce, with little delay, that he is going to fight for the rights of the citizens of this state in the manner he is most effective and capable at. Announce his candidacy for Governor of Indiana in 2012.

Bayh's terms, from 1988 to 1996, were highly successful times for this state, and it is because of those years that his popularity has remained so high in this state. The state constitution states that a person is limited to two terms in a twelve year period, a period which has long since passed. Bayh could, constitutionally, serve another two terms from 2012 to 2020. He could come back to the state, to the position he was most successful, to the position he was most comfortable with, and help get the state back on track. He could circumvent Washington's partisan gridlock by dealing with matters at the state level, and by railing against Washington from the Governor's mansion.

Of course Bayh would never do this for the same reason that everyone avoids these things: moving backwards is always seen as a sign of weakness in politics. The days of John Quincy Adams being voted out of the highest office of the land, only to humbly return to Congress to serve the best he could, are long since past. Once a politician moves up the ladder he or she rarely moves back down it. Bayh would be doing just that. But if he did make this move, if he were to put his money where his mouth was, he could accomplish his biggest stated goals: helping Hoosiers while also avoiding Washington's gridlock. A novel idea. But one he should consider.