Former IN Senator Evan Bayh...Monday, May 21, 2012 5:23 PM

...on soon-to-be former IN Senator Richard Lugar:

Chicago PM Monday 21 May 2012

Voice of the People, Chicago Tribune

Gentlepeople:

In a Tuesday 15 May Tribune article one time Indiana Senator Evan Bayh writes that “No matter what happens in 2012, neither party will likely have the power to unilaterally ram through its agenda in the near future, but both parties will retain enough power to obstruct the other side — especially with 60 votes becoming the de facto threshold for most anything passing the Senate.” Ex-senator Bayh certainly knows that the sixty vote rule is a Senate rule, that can be suspended anytime 51 Senators decide it's inconvenient.

Bayh continues: “Staunch partisans... seem to think that if they are uncompromising enough... they'll eventually get enough power to do what they want.... This... not only prevents progress, it makes matters worse. For example, ideologues on the right object to any increase in government revenue.” In his first 6 years in office President George W Bush had an average monthly federal deficit of $20 billion. In his first 31 months, President Obama's average monthly federal deficit has been $120 billion. The economy is crashing, and Senator Bayh thinks we ought to raise taxes?

Bayh writes that the departing Senator Lugar  “is a proud conservative — with a 77 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union....” How proud can he be when that figure shows he is less conservative than 41 of the Senate's 47 Republicans?

Bayh further writes  that Lugar “worked with Democrats to safeguard loose nuclear materials in post-Soviet Russia.” Sure, everyone remembers when the dirty Republicans wanted every Soviet household to have its own personal stash of nuclear material.

It's encouraging to know that Bayh is no longer a US Senator. Even better when Lugar joins him.

Arnold H Nelson  ah_nelson@yahoo.com