TERRE HAUTE — It’s like being a nonsmoker in a smoky bar-and-grill.
You just like the house special — a sloppy cheeseburger, loaded with onions — and never light up a cigarette or swill a beer. Yet, you walk out smelling like Marlboros and Coors.
Evan Bayh is leaving politics with its toxic atmosphere sticking to his clothes, despite his best efforts to clear the air.
He obviously understands that reality. Halfway through Bayh’s announcement on Monday that he will not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate this fall, he delivered the line that is hardest for the public to accept.
“My decision should not be interpreted for more than it is: a very difficult, deeply personal one,” Bayh said, while explaining that his reason for bypassing a run for a third term is because Congress has become too polarized to accommodate a centrist, such as he. Voices of reason get shouted down. Campaigns turn uglier than WWE smackdowns. Bayh said he’s simply had enough.
Yet, we wait for the other shoe to drop. We assume it can’t be that simple, that something else must be up.
That skepticism is understandable. The smoke still lingers above the wreckage of other national political figures whose behind-the-scenes activities during the past couple years sent their careers tailspinning into a crash-and-burn finish. Even the most upstanding of senators can’t completely escape the stench left by others’ smoldering messes.
But isn’t it possible that Bayh is genuinely tired of the bloodsport, just as he says?
On Monday, he cited two recent examples that “the people’s business is not being done” by Congress. Two weeks earlier, a pack of seven senators withdrew their initial support for the creation of a bipartisan commission to corral the federal deficit and our national debt, thus killing the idea. A week later, a bipartisan job-creation bill unraveled “amid complaints from both the left and the right,” Bayh said.
The middle is lonesome in Washington.
Granted, it’s hard to not be cynical when a two-term senator (whose father served three U.S. Senate terms) makes the following statement: “I value my independence. I am not motivated by strident partisanship or ideology. These traits may be useful in many walks of life, but they are not highly valued in Congress.” And, to be sure, Bayh knows which way the winds of public opinion are blowing.
Still, his overall track record as Indiana’s governor and junior senator clearly shows Bayh’s distance from ideology and commitment to careful handling of taxpayers’ money and the economy. Some of his stances on education, defense and the prison system aren’t easily labeled as Democratic (his party) or Republican. The left cringed when Bayh made President Obama’s short list of vice presidential candidates. His objectiveness on the health care debate has been questioned because of the ties of Bayh and his wife, Susan, to that industry. Meanwhile, the far right paints his pragmatism as politically expedient and well-disguised liberalism.
That leaves the middle, which is essentially Indiana. Bayh, for all of his Washington experience and upbringing, is a Hoosier — talks like one, behaves like one, votes like one. That’s why he’s 5-for-5 in elections as a Democrat in a red-as-an-IU-sweater state.
Of course, it’s highly possible — perhaps a near certainty — that Bayh’s exit from politics is only temporary. Since his announcement Monday, he’s mentioned running a college, or a business or a charity organization. He could do that. He could also become Indiana’s governor again, and then pursue the presidency in 2016, just as he briefly attempted in the run-up to 2008.
For now, though, Bayh appears anxious to become a private citizen. He seems unfazed by the possibility that his exodus could topple the Democrats’ 59-41 Senate majority like an orange pulled from the bottom of the stack in a supermarket. The one thing he knows about the 2010 campaign is that he won’t be part of it. Though many will say the rising anti-incumbent anger scared off Bayh, it’s unlikely that any of the current Republican candidates could’ve beaten him in November.
His surprising move reminded me of a conversation I had with the senator inside Hulman Center in 2005. He was seriously mulling a run for the White House in 2008, at that time. He was 49 years old then. He’s 54 now.
In a small room — joined only by his press secretary, who quietly checked her text messages — I asked Bayh what advice his late mother, Marvella, would give him about running for such a high office, the same one his father, Birch, pursued unsuccessfully in 1976. He said he wasn’t sure, but gave it a few moments of thought. His mother was once governor of Hoosier Girls State, and an accomplished public speaker, who proudly understood the life of a public servant, he noted. “Then, after her cancer, she began to focus more on the loss of privacy and the time away from family, and all those kinds of things,” Bayh explained.
“I think she would say, ‘Make sure your children and your wife are taken care of. And once you do that, if you can serve your country, that would be a noble thing to do,’” he continued. “But as a parent, I can only imagine if one of my boys [Beau and Nick] came to me [and said he was running for president]. I’d be worried for him, because it’s hard. It’s tough in some ways. People say mean things. Politics has gotten to be too negative. That’s just a fact of life.”
Most moms would tell their children to get a good burger at a safe place that doesn’t leave them smelling funky.
Similarly, Evan Bayh simply appears ready to breathe — for however long — air that’s free of congressional politics.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Mark Bennett B-Sides
MARK BENNETT: Centrist Evan Bayh ready to re-center his life away from D.C.
- Mark Bennett B-Sides
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MARK BENNETT: Super Bowl luck? His is mostly bad
I’ve learned to take a Seinfeld approach to Super Bowls.
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For many Hoosiers, the date Nov. 2, 2010, probably fits that category. -
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Steve Witt fielded a jarring phone call in October 2007.
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MARK BENNETT: Rose professor’s bit part in classic holiday movie leaves a major memory
Most of us see a bit of ourselves in “A Christmas Story.” Mike Kukral does so, literally. The 1983 movie grew into a holiday classic because so many of its poignant, awkward and hilarious moments seem to have been pulled straight from our childhood memories.
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MARK BENNETT: Ferrell’s love of Old Milwaukee shines light on Old Terre Haute
Will Ferrell didn’t walk through traffic at Seventh and Wabash for nothing.
Well, actually it might have been for nothing. Apparently, the comedian just likes Old Milwaukee so much that he came to Terre Haute, unannounced, one morning last September to film wacky commercials for the beer. -
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The town should blush.
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MARK BENNETT: When it comes to retail, Thursday is the new Friday
The new Thanksgiving dinner tradition?
Turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie served at a family tailgating party in a big-box store parking lot on Black Thursday. -
MARK BENNETT: 'The Way We Worked' exhibit explains how work became a cornerstone of Americana
Young steelworkers, like Robert Bruno’s dad, often took dates to the railroad yards, watching train cars rumble past in blue-collar Youngstown, Ohio.
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MARK BENNETT: He told tales of great-uncle Mortecai Brown, but Fred Massey's story is worth hearing
Fred Massey loved to talk about his family.
His wife and daughters, his parents, his brothers and sisters. And, his great-uncle, Mort. Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, that is, the Hall of Fame pitcher who led the Chicago Cubs to their last World Series title in 1908 with an amazing curveball and without an index finger. -
MARK BENNETT: Guess where the newest THPD headquarters is?
The city election involved lots of debate over a new headquarters for the Terre Haute Police Department.
But is Raleigh, N.C., really a fitting location? The 750-mile commute for the cops would be dreadful.
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MARK BENNETT: Mayor’s progressive vision today has ties to leader long ago
Going backward rarely works as a leadership strategy.
Political groups often insist they’re primed to “take back America.” While their intent is to reclaim lost turf, the ultimate goal is to go backward — to a different time. Life isn’t “Back to the Future” or any other movie, though. The best policy for worthwhile living is to do things right today that make tomorrow better. -
MARK BENNETT: ‘It’s giving with care, and without judgment’
Let’s avoid the P-word today.
Just for some clarity, we’ll offer its dictionary definition: “The state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.” -
MARK BENNETT: Pull up a telescope and see a show at Rose-Hulman observatory
Once in a lifetime. The phrase gets uttered often. Sometimes, it’s an assumption, as in traveling to Europe or getting tickets to see the Cubs play in the World Series. Occasionally, it’s definite.
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MARK BENNETT: Year of the River inspiring new ideas
The Wabash River inspired the state song. That’s impressive.
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MARK BENNETT: The significance of writing: T-S columnist Mike Lunsford pens third book
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MARK BENNETT: Movie’s portrayal of fatherhood’s issues lives up to its name
For three summers, I had the good fortune to watch and listen to Tony Dungy day after day.
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MARK BENNETT: Could a new champion for public schools be emerging?
Deep down, millions of Hoosiers would wear the label “advocate for public schools.”
Yes, many have their complaints, criticisms and a few “you-know-what-they-really-need-is” suggestions. But, in their heart of hearts, they want to see their alma maters and hometown public schools succeed and progress. -
MARK BENNETT: In Prairieton, renovation gives new life to old park
There wasn’t much leg room in that Radio Flyer wagon.
Our sons — two years apart but squashed together inside its fading wooden rails — always fidgeted until the black wheels started rumbling over the uneven WPA-era sidewalks running through Prairieton. -
Rekindling a dream on the river
Mark Twain probably would grin at the sight of John Cornell, Jim Foster, Dan Remaly and their raft.
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MARK BENNETT: Just another Terre Haute celebrity sighting
At some point, this stuff becomes routine.
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MARK BENNETT: Everyone has a role in this American story (see VIDEO)
We stood atop a hill in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, and I do mean rural. Cars, trucks, SUVs and RVs kept pulling into the parking area. Groups of people climbed out of their vehicles and into the suffocating July heat. Then, they too stood on the hilltop, staring down at a grassy clearing in front of a woods.
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MARK BENNETT: It’s time for us to rekindle our volunteer spirit
Hoosiers exhibit generosity.
Terre Hauteans, in particular, displayed that virtue after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the local flooding in 2008. They donated blood, money, food, clothes and — most significantly — their own sweat and time. -
MARK BENNETT: What would Debs think?
Pretend it’s the year 2111.
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