{"id":323187,"date":"2010-02-15T16:15:29","date_gmt":"2010-02-15T21:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=67418"},"modified":"2010-02-15T16:15:29","modified_gmt":"2010-02-15T21:15:29","slug":"if-only-there-were-an-outlet-for-bayh%e2%80%99s-sadness-at-excessive-partisanship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/323187","title":{"rendered":"If Only There Were an Outlet for Bayh\u2019s Sadness at Excessive Partisanship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class='hitEmbed_right'><object width=\"320\" height=\"265\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/-gdfBJcUjD4&#038;hl=en_US&#038;fs=1&#038;\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/-gdfBJcUjD4&#038;hl=en_US&#038;fs=1&#038;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"320\" height=\"265\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<p>Evan Bayh&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/news.firedoglake.com\/2010\/02\/15\/evan-bayh-to-retire\/\">retirement announcement<\/a> blamed excessive partisan gridlock for his stepping down:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class='wbq'>\n<p>\u201cTwo weeks ago, the Senate voted down a bipartisan commission to deal with one of the greatest threats facing our nation: our exploding deficits and debt. The measure would have passed, but seven members who had endorsed the idea instead voted \u2018no\u2019 for short-term political reasons,\u201d he said. \u201cJust last week, a major piece of legislation to create jobs \u2014 the public\u2019s top priority \u2014 fell apart amid complaints from both the left and right. All of this and much more has led me to believe that there are better ways to serve my fellow citizens, my beloved state and our nation than continued service in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The shorter version of this is &#8220;Every Senator wasn&#8217;t willing to do exactly what I wanted, so I&#8217;m leaving because this is too hard.&#8221;  But the subtext is that partisan gridlock frustrates Congress, particularly the Senate, from getting things done.  If there only were some quirk in the Senate rules that added additional veto points, in many cases causing the gridlock of which Bayh speaks.  I wonder what he <a href=\"http:\/\/theplumline.whorunsgov.com\/senate-republicans\/evan-bayh-procedural-and-straight-up-or-down-health-care-votes-are-one-and-the-same\/\">had to say<\/a> about those Senate rules:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class='wbq'>\n<p>Democratic leaders should be able to tell where Bayh is headed based on his vote on whether to move to a debate. The Indiana Democrat said Tuesday that he doesn\u2019t see \u201cmuch difference between process and policy at this particular juncture,\u201d and that he\u2019ll be \u201clooking at those two things as one and the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, Bayh sees procedural votes that block a final vote as the same as the final vote, essentially installing an artificial 60-vote supermajority on the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>But see, he&#8217;s retiring because he&#8217;s really concerned about partisan gridlock.  Presumably while he contributes to it.<\/p>\n<p>Senators who actually want to get something done in Washington are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.openleft.com\/diary\/17393\/filibuster-reform-whip-count-senator-tim-johnson-signs-on\">signing on to the effort<\/a> to change the Senate rules.  Those like Evan Bayh, who don&#8217;t, whimper and whine and leave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.firedoglake.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/share-this\/share-icon-16x16.gif\" alt=\"Share This icon\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/firedoglake.com\/?p=67418&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"Email, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_67418\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"noindex nofollow\">&nbsp;<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><br style='clear:none' \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evan Bayh&#8217;s retirement announcement blamed excessive partisan gridlock for his stepping down: \u201cTwo weeks ago, the Senate voted down a bipartisan commission to deal with one of the greatest threats facing our nation: our exploding deficits and debt. The measure would have passed, but seven members who had endorsed the idea instead voted \u2018no\u2019 for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4406,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}