No Politician Left Behind: A Few Reading Lists for Our Leaders

Indiana Drones and the Temples of Doom: The Hoosier War Machine

Barack Obama hasn’t reached that point yet. But it wouldn’t take very much.

All he has to do is to go along with his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, and he’ll drive us into a full-fledged depression with an increasingly shredded social safety net and a deeper hole to dig out of because the automatic stabilizers that both cause much of the “good deficits” we are now experiencing and contribute mightily to ending recessions will have gone the way of the safety net.

Bob Schieffer is sitting on a scoop he needs to share with the world, unless his rules for ‘off-the-record’ are the same as the late Tim Russert: everything is always off-the-record unless the newsmaker specifically grants ‘permission to use.’

“As heath care withers on the vine, what do you care, just go on and whine.”

Not content with his cable gasbag farewell tour, Evan Bayh parked his entitled, whining ass in the NYTimes’ Op-Ed page on Sunday to bemoan the Senate he’s leaving. You would never know from his criticism of the place that he’s been there for twelve years, making it only the worse for his presence.

So, Evan Bayh reached out to Uncle Howard Fineman in Argentina to correct several media myths about his retirement, and Uncle Howard obliged.

Lame duck Senator Evan Bayh pleads for job security on behalf of student loan finance firm Sallie Mae, in opposition to President Obama’s quest for student loan reform. Yet the actual number of Indiana-based Sallie Mae jobs at risk is questionable, while risks to Indiana’s students along with faculty and staff employed at Indiana schools is more readily quantifiable. What’s so special about Sallie Mae?

You will be shocked, shocked to hear that a Blue Dog Democrat who made a career out of undermining his own party is sucker-punching them on his way out. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana abruptly announced this week that he would not seek reelection in November. Bayh’s departure is ratcheting up insecurity in the Democratic caucus at the very moment they need to take decisive action to pass health care reform.

From leading the charge to authorize the War in Iraq to helping water down and stall health care reform, centrists like Evan Bayh seem to be causing more problems than they solve. Is it wise to say good riddance, and bring on the partisan battles?