Bayh Backs Out!

A Massachussetts shocker this weekend, now this. What's the Indiana Senator seeing? Well, yes he was known as a "moderate" Democrat, but that was shown to be a joke when he voted for the union boondoggle (you know, the unions who earn much more than the private sector workers who pay the bill, that is if they even have a job) stimulus last year (you know the stimulus that only 6% of Americans think has worked).

Oh yeah, it was a personal decision. NY Times front page story National Edition on Elkhart, Indiana, a big campaign stop for President Obama who promised nirvana then, remember?

More. Remember, this is a poll commissioned by liberals:

Just 8 percent of Americans want the members of Congress re-elected, according to a CBS News-New York Times poll taken nine months before roughly one-third of the Senate and the entire House face voters.

The Democrats are in charge of everything--they have NO EXCUSES.

More. RCP Politics Nation:

Bayh's decision is also stunning given how much money he had in the bank -- nearly $13 million after the latest fundraising period closed. Recent polling had shown Bayh ahead, though not necessarily comfortably.

To say that it will be a challenge for Democrats to hold the seat now is an understatement, and not just because of the political climate. According to the Indiana Secretary of State's Web site, the filing deadline for candidates to qualify for the primary ballot is this Friday. But to qualify, a candidate needed signed petitions from each of the state's Congressional Districts by tomorrow. That gives Democrats almost no time to find a replacement.

You know, he must really feel betrayed by his party--most notably our duplicitous President Barack Obama, because he's really sticking it to them.

All those lying chickens coming home to roost---right before the cheating "bipartisan" healthcare summit.

Related. Jennifer Rubin: What will they run on? The stimulus bust.

P.S. Good luck Dems, putting Baron Hill in there. Remember this outburst of his at a townhall meeting last summer? It will go viral. Finally. More. Via Memeorandum, Politico:

Senate Democratic leaders, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and DSCC Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) were not informed of Bayh's decision until Monday morning, according to several Democratic insiders. Bayh was even scheduled to appear on a CNN Sunday show, but canceled his appearance, said Democratic sources.

He may be disgusted as well by the adminstration's disgraceful performance on the treatment of the terror trials and Gitmo with the outburst of Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan accusing those who disagree with the administration's handling of the war on terror at home of helping Al Qaeda. It was just last Sunday that Bayh spoke up against those wrong-headed policies. Like most concerned Americans, he was most likely outraged by the politicized character assassination on a matter of national security.

More from Politico:

Surely not far from Bayh’s mind, however, was the fate of his father, Birch Bayh. Like his son, Birch Bayh was widely viewed as a comer in the 7os-era Democratic Party – somebody who had the potential to steer the often-fracitous party to the center.

But after running an unsuccessful bid for his party’s presidential nomination in 1976, Bayh was upset in the Reagan landslide year of 1980 by a young Republican named Dan Quayle.

As for Dan Quayle, he has resurfaced campaigning for his former staffer Robert Dold the eventual Republican primary winner of the suburban Chicago Illinois 10th Congressional District. Democrats had hoped to pick up this open seat which the GOP's independent Mark Kirk, now running for Senate, had held on to in spite of its trending Dem and going for Obama in 2008. But it looks like that might not work out so well for Dems either.

More. Mike Pence might run for Indiana Senate for GOP.