Eugene Robinson:
Anyone who wonders why there is such anti-incumbent fervor in the land ought to have a chat with Evan Bayh. I didn’t agree with him on every issue, but on the dysfunction in Washington he’s absolutely right. This city is broken because too many of our leaders confuse politics with service. Americans know the difference.
Charles Lane:
And don’t get him started on the Republicans! I think we have to take Bayh at his word when he quite justifiably expressed disgust not only with the jobs bill fiasco, but also when he lashed out at the Senate Republicans who opportunistically voted down a bipartisan budget-balancing commission they had previously endorsed.
Quitting the Senate was a no-lose move for the presidentially ambitious Bayh, since he can now crawl away from the political wreckage for a couple of years, plausibly alleging that he tried to steer the party in a different direction -- and then be perfectly positioned to mount a centrist primary challenge to Obama in 2012, depending on circumstances.
EJ Dionne:
Why did Bayh do this? He spoke in his statement of his frustration over ideological and partisan polarization in the Senate. The truth is that Bayh has not seemed very happy in his work for quite a while. I think he believed (and with some reason) that he had a good chance of being picked as Barack Obama's running mate in 2008. I can't help but think that this disappointment has played a role in his mood and in his thinking about his long-term political prospects. More generally, I think he liked being governor much more than he liked being a senator. As for what else is going on here, we'll need more reporting. The timing of his decision, so close to the filing deadline, does seem odd, and will require some explanation.
Steve Kornacki:
Good riddance to Evan Bayh, who set out to be every Republican's favorite Democrat -- and mostly succeeded
NY Times on Tea Parties:
These people are part of a significant undercurrent within the Tea Party movement that has less in common with the Republican Party than with the Patriot movement, a brand of politics historically associated with libertarians, militia groups, anti-immigration advocates and those who argue for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.
Urged on by conservative commentators, waves of newly minted activists are turning to once-obscure books and Web sites and discovering a set of ideas long dismissed as the preserve of conspiracy theorists, interviews conducted across the country over several months show. In this view, Mr. Obama and many of his predecessors (including George W. Bush) have deliberately undermined the Constitution and free enterprise for the benefit of a shadowy international network of wealthy elites.
And yes, some of them are complete loony toons and conspiracy mongers (or both.) And proud of it.
Politico:
This week, progressive groups that ran ads pushing Democratic moderates to embrace sweeping reform efforts are expected to launch a new round of ads that are likely to target the party’s already vulnerable incumbents.
They won’t disclose many details such as who the targets will be, or the size of the buys, but they do say they will release new polling that shows support for including a government-run insurance plan, the so-called public option, in health care reform — an idea left for dead in Congress some months ago.
Wow. Not everyone accepts conventional wisdom, as distilled by the pundits. Fancy that.
Bob Herbert:
Ignoring the nation’s infrastructure problems imperils public safety, diminishes our competitiveness and results in missed opportunities to create jobs.
Henry M. Paulson Jr.: Reform the banksters! Heck of a job, Henry.
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