Evan Bayh is not the Joe Lieberman of 2008. Kos quoted an article that misconstrued Bayh's point, and then he started blasting him. Maybe Bayh did not provide enough of his Senate account to Senate races. I don't know. I will defer to Schumer on that score. But I do know that Bayh is not anything like Lieberman. He voted against cloture (and confirmation) for Alito. He voted against Roberts. He voted against Ashcroft, and he certainly voted against Bolton. He voted against tax cuts. He voted for the war, and he knows he was a sucker for that. But he is not to this day in a spiderhole of denial regarding Iraq, and he and Chuck Hagel are not. The difference between Lieberman and Bayh is Lieberman has his enormous head up his own ass. Bayh can think of something better to use his head for. Kos is insightful a lot of the time, but he missed this one. More after the jump.
Here is Lieberman and Hagel on CBS (damn, I wish we had Ned):
LIEBERMAN: I believe that America is a mighty enough nation that we should never fear to talk to anyone. But anyone who believes that Iran and Syria really want to help us to succeed in Iraq, I just is missing the reality. Asking Iran and Syria to help us succeed in Iraq is like your local fire department asking a couple of arsonists to help put out the fire. These people are flaming the fire. They are the extremists. They are supporting terrorists in Iraq, in Lebanon and of course in the Palestinian areas.
SCHIEFFER: Senator Hagel is shaking his head.
HAGEL: That’s not the point. Of course the Iranians and Syrians are not going to come to our assistance. Of course not. But they are going to respond in their own self-interest. All nations respond in their own self-interests. Tallyrand once said that nations don’t have friends. They have interests. He was right. It’s not in the interest of Syria or Jordan or Iran to have a failed state that would be a complete mess for the middle east.
Why did the Iranians help us in Afghanistan? Why did they cooperate with us in Afghanistan on intelligence matters and other issues? Because they didn’t want a failed state next to them which comes with all the problems. They didn’t want heroin moving into their borders. What we’re not getting here, is we’re not getting a full and comprehensive wide-lens appreciation of interests.
Hagel is telling Lieberman to cut the ideology, and start recognizing American interests, and they do not include getting a hundred soldiers a month blown up, and many more maimed, in Iraq.
Bayh was saying the same thing, and Kos (and the writer of the article, Ron Glover) turns it into an attack on Democratic Values. Here is what Bayh actually said, from the same article:
"We cannot be as partisan as the other side," Bayh said. "We cannot be as ideologically extreme as the other side."
Bayh said the lesson from the Nov. 7 elections were simple.
"My observation was that most of the American people voted against — they voted against the mess in
Iraq, they voted against the president personally, they voted against the dysfunction and gridlock in Washington," he said. "They voted for something different and they wanted to give us a chance."
First, take the statement, "We cannot be as partisan as the other side. If you think about it, that statement is categorically true. If we want to prevent Bush from vetoing good Democratic ideas that help the American people, we need Republicans to come along to override the veto. If we have to have Bush's consent, we need to work with him to push our agenda. The Republican MO of getting their policies rammed through with a unified party and a handful of turncoats will not work anymore. Also, if it becomes clear through vigorous investigations that high crimes and misdemeanors were committed, we need Republicans on board if we are going to do something to save the country on that front.
Second, take the statement "We cannot be ideologically extreme as the other side." Bayh did not say Democrats should not have values, nor attempt to enact those Democratic values into policy. Mike Glover (the AP writer) is an asshat. Bayh just said that we should not be ideologically extremists, like some Republicans (and Lieberman), who completely disregard facts and evidence and pursue policy based "gut instinct," greed and cynicism.
Kos, if you want to criticize Bayh or any Democratic presidential candidate, at least have some evidence and not the opinion, presented as fact, of an AP writer. The same goes for the bandwagon, knee-jerk vultures here. Bayh was actually criticizing those outside of the reality-based community. He said the American people rejected ideology over fact, and that Democrats can build a lasting majority based on the truth instead of ideological extremism. Hear, hear.
Kos is right about Biden though. Biden has chronic verborrhea. Couple of states in the way? Biden makes himself look stupid while pandering. What a dumbass. Maryland is the only state between Delaware and Virginia. Virginia had Richmond, the second capital of the Confederacy. You're a senator, Joe. Quit competing with Trent Lott for the love of Strom Thurmond's eternal Dixiecrat soul.