Evan Bayh: The face of rotted Washington

[IndianaGreen]

Monday, Nov 30, 2009 03:31 PST

The face of rotted Washington

By Glenn Greenwald

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh -- who was one of the most vocal cheerleaders for the invasion of Iraq, talks excitedly about punishing, and even bombing, Iran, and is now demanding full-scale escalation in Afghanistan -- was on Fox News yesterday and highlighted what a fraud most so-called "fiscal conservatives" and "deficit hawks" like him really are:

WALLACE: Senator Bayh, you brought up the question of cost, and the administration has put the cost -- and this is kind of astonishing to, I think, a lot of people -- $1 million per soldier per year, so if you sent 30,000 soldiers, that would be a $30 billion price tag.

Now, some top Democrats are talking about the idea -- the new idea of a war tax to pay for the escalation in Afghanistan. Good idea?

BAYH: No, I don't think it's a good idea, not at this point, Chris. First of all, you need to provide for the nation's security regardless of your financial situation, and there's no bigger deficit hawk in Congress than I am.

I think we need to start coming to grips with this. We're going to have a big vote coming up on the debt ceiling. I don't think we should vote to raise the debt ceiling until we have a strategy in place to get our deficits down.

So we've got to take the fiscal situation seriously, but, number one, national security comes first.

Number two, we've got to look at cutting spending in other parts of the budget before we even talk about raising taxes.

It's impossible to find a more perfectly representative face for the rotted Washington establishment than Evan Bayh. He is the pure expression of virtually every attribute that makes the Beltway so dysfunctional, deceitful and corrupt.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/30/bayh/index.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Why is ity so easy and permissable to go into debt for war..but not for health care

for those very same people that the wars are supposed to protect??

What does it matter if the "country" is protected, if the citizens are dying from preventable diseases??


This is so much BS, military/industrial complex, $$$$, war-profiteering..that I am getting nauseous just reading about it.

[Atticus]

2. And, remember, this lame-ass idjit was actually mentioned as a possible presidential candidate

for "our" party in 2008!

Who knew he was such an enema substitute?

Anyone with a pulse who was marginally interested.

[kas125]

3. Believe me, anyone who lives in Indiana and has tried to

meet with that asshat, knew exactly what he was and is.

[WCGreen]

5. Feeding off the good name of his father...

[kas125]

6. Exactly! His father was a good guy, he is an ass who doesn't

reply to letters or emails and makes promises that he doesn't keep when he's finally FORCED to meet with his constituents. I have more respect for Lugar than I do Bayh, and that's pretty sad.

[IndianaGreen]

9. I loved Birch Bayh, one of the earliest oponents of the Vietnam War

when it wasn't popular to oppose a Democratic President.

[WCGreen]

4. It okay to kill but not to heal....

[roguevalley]

10. he is such a shit head even hearing his voice makes me sick. I want

to hit him with a hammer. he's covered.

[IrateCitizen]

7. But IG, tell us how you REALLY feel about him

I wholeheartedly agree, BTW. It also confirms Kathy McMahon's recent article from Peak Oil Blues, Ordinary Fears/Extraordinary Times: Fifty-Five (real) Things to Worry About (if you must…), in particular, this item:

35. Our military budget will continue to increase, while our domestic budget will continue to decrease.

It's happening right now, perfectly evidenced by this exchange from Senator Evan Bayh (Asshat-Bizarro World).

[bertman]

8. The son of a bitch should be voted out of the Senate, but good luck with that given the

propensity of the DLC and DCCC to field "centrist" candidates.

Recommend.

[tomm2thumbs]

11. Bayh is so bitter about the VP loss, he makes vinegar look sweet

but he's not so good at hiding it. To think we almost had a blue dog dimwit as VP - talk about dodging one.

[LittleGirl]

12. change parties already

Why doesn't he just change parties and become a left leaning conservative...that's all he is?

Trust me, now that I live in Indy, I will make it my mission to get him replaced. Time for Pretty Boy to go home.

democrat my ass.

[yurbud]

13. blue dogs have one master, and it aint us

he lives on Wall Street