Hey, have you heard that Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) is forming a new, supposedly "moderate" Democratic voting bloc in the Senate?
You have?
Did you hear it today in The Fix?
Evan Bayh's announcement this morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he and 14 other Democratic senators had begun to meet weekly....
Or last week in Roll Call ($)?
Senate Moderates Forming New Bloc
Or the week before that in Politico?
A group of 14 Senate Democrats and one independent huddled behind closed doors on Tuesday, discussing how centrists in that chamber can assert more leverage on the major policy debates that will dominate this Congress. [...]
Sen. Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat who assembled Tuesday’s skull session....
Or last year in Roll Call ($)?
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is trying to mobilize moderate Democratic Senators to form a group based loosely on the House Blue Dog Coalition.
Or was it seven years ago from the DLC?
Senators Evan Bayh (IN), Bob Graham (FL), Mary Landrieu (LA), Joe Lieberman (CT) and Blanche Lincoln (AR) founded the Senate New Democrat Coalition (SNDC) in the spring of 2000 to provide a unified voice in the U.S. Senate for progressive ideas, mainstream values, and innovative, market-based policy solutions.
Yawn. Sun rises in East, Evan Bayh forms "moderate coalition."
Too bad he's not as moderate in the amount of time he dedicates to making sure people hear how "moderate" he is.
Anyway, here's the thing to remember about what's up here, from The Fix:
A quick examination of the early days of the Obama administration reveals that Bayh has backed up that rhetoric with action.
True, if holding your breath and stomping your feet counts as "action."
Not so much if you allow time for a deeper examination, though. Of if the "action" you're looking for is the actual manifestation of this much-ballyhooed (and that's just by Bayh himself) "coalition's" cohesion. No doubt Bayh has convened such a group. Thing is, though, they're not voting with him.
But as long as Bayh can dine out on just the value of the press conferences, and the stories subsequently generated claiming that his deviancy is "moderate" when it often actually defies strong public opinion keep flowing, I'm sure he couldn't care less whether anything actually happens or not.
