TERRE HAUTE — Hoosiers, no doubt, have many ideas about ways in which their junior U.S. senator could make them happy. But their wish lists probably don’t include what Cosmopolitan editor Kate White would like from Evan Bayh.
After Scott Brown, the new U.S. senator from Massachusetts, politely rebuffed White’s request for an encore nude centerfold in Cosmo, the editor said her next choice for birthday suit modeling was Indiana’s Democratic senator.
Bayh struck exactly the right tone with his brief response: “I’m all for full disclosure, but not the full monty.”
We congratulate and thank him for choosing to reveal only his sense of humor.
Speaking of Evan Bayh, our former governor and two-term U.S. senator has to be somewhat amused at the circus that has erupted in the Republican ranks of those who’d like to oppose him in this fall’s general election.
Up until about a week ago, the main GOP primary challengers were former 8th District Rep. John Hostettler and state Sen. Marlin Stutzman. But then former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats emerged on the scene. It was Coats who bailed on a political battle with the popular Bayh in 1998. He retired from his Senate post rather than risk losing his seat to Bayh, who went ahead and won the seat over Republican Paul Helmke of Fort Wayne.
But Coats is having all kinds of problems gaining traction back home in Indiana. He’s lived in Virginia while working as a lobbyist the past 10 years, and he had been boasting recently about moving to his million-dollar retirement home in North Carolina.
Early polling suggests Coats may not be the answer to the GOP’s prayers of unseating Bayh this year. The Daily Kos, a left-leaning political blog, claims a recent poll shows Bayh at 55 percent and Coats at 35 percent. Meanwhile, in a faceoff with Hostettler, it’s Bayh with 53 percent and Hostettler at 37 percent.
There’s a long way to go in this campaign, but if the Kos poll is accurate, then both Coats and Hostettler have, well, a long way to go with Hoosier voters.








