DAY 994 - A.B.B.

I forgot to trot out my Dick Cheney jokes yesterday. Here's a few:

Not sure if this has anything to do with anything, but on Friday, Halliburton was awarded a no-bid contract to run the trauma unit at that hospital in Corpus Christi.

Man, the initiation ceremony to become a Bush Pioneer is a real son-of-a-bitch.

The delay in reporting the incident was due to the fact that for the mandatory drug test, the Texas Wildlife Commission had to fly in a special kit for a Satan's Minion 1st Class.

Ok, enough of that. Today's profile is Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN). Birch Evans "Evan" Bayh (huh?) was born in Shirkieville, IN on December 26th (same day as my niece, Kim!), 1955. His father is former Indiana Senator Birch Bayh, also a Democrat. Evan graduated with a bachelor's degree in business, economics and public policy from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 1978, and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1981. I wonder if he ever ran into George Allen. Anyway, Bayh entered politics in 1986 after being elected Indiana's Secretary of State, and then Governor in 1988 (the nation's youngest Governor at 32). Bayh was re-elected to the statehouse in 1992. During his tenure, Bayh implemented a $1.6 billion tax cut and presided over a huge budget surplus. His initiatives included a welfare-to-work program, and a program to give students who are eligible for the free-lunch program, graduate high school with passing grades, and pledge not to experiment with illegal drugs full tuition to the public university of their choice. Damn, that could have saved me a fortune in student loans. Bayh became the junior Senator from Indiana in 1998, and was re-elected in 2004. His committee assignments are Banking Housing and Urban Affairs, on which he is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on International Trade and Finance; Armed Services; the Select Committee on Intelligence; the Special Committee on Aging; and the Small Business Committee.

Bayh's voting record in the Senate is liberal-to-moderate. He has a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, NAACP, National Education Association, various environmental groups, AFL-CIO and many other labor groups, and a zero rating from the National Right-to-Life Committee, Christian Coalition, Family Research Council, and the American Family Association. He voted for the war in Afghanistan and in Iraq, but has championed initiatives to better equip soldiers and to remove what he calls the "Patriot Penalty" pay cut that reservists experience when they leave their civilian jobs and go on active duty. Bayh does not believe that Iraq was re-constituting their WMD program and has been critical of the Bush Administration's use of pre-war intelligence. In other issues, Bayh is pro death penalty, anti Bush tax cuts, pro private accounts for Social Security, and pro alternative energy research.

As for where he gets the cash to run his campaigns, Bayh received about 63% of his 2004 Senate funds from individuals, about 29% from PACs, and 8% from others. His largest single contributors were the investment bank Goldman Sachs, and Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical giant based in Indianapolis. The former might give some insight into why he's for private accounts for Social Security, and the latter might explain his support of the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill.

After a brief yet cursory search, I have yet to uncover any notable gaffes or missteps in Bayh's political career.

Eli Lilly has also played a role in Bayh's personal life. His wife, Susan, now a law professor who serves on several corporate boards, was formerly an attorney with the firm. Evan and Susan have twin boys, Beau (you're kidding me, right?) and Nicholas.

Bayh and Allen are running aggressive but quiet campaigns outside the glare of McCain and Clinton, but I think they will be most likely be on top of their respective tickets come 2008. Bayh is an experienced and very successful politician who has won by record or near-record amounts in a relatively Republican state in every election he's entered. He clearly seems to have the mojo. He appeals to the pro-choice, pro-labor base, but can garner a lot of independent votes with his hawkish stands on the war and securing the homeland. He carries none of Hillary's considerable baggage, and he isn't an also-ran in previous elections like Al Gore, John Edwards, or John Kerry. One of the web sites I checked says he has a $9.5 million campaign fund already amassed. I doubt that he'll ultimately surpass Hillary in fund-raising prowess, but it's a pretty good start if it's true. The main thing keeping Bayh from the top spot is name recognition, but that usually takes care of itself in Iowa and New Hampshire. If you win there, the press has to start paying attention, and I can't see Iowa at least choosing Mrs. Clinton over a Midwestern populist like Bayh.