Bayh Bails

In keeping with his reputation as a Democratic "centrist," Sen. Evan Bayh didn't specifically blame the Obama administration's smash-mouth liberalism for bailing out of the Senate. Instead, he pointed to excessive "partisanship," as if Republicans and Democrats are equally to blame.

"For some time," Bayh said, "I've had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress; too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous national challenge, the people's business is not getting done."

If one party controls the White House and both houses of Congress, it's kind of hard to point to partisanship without specifically blaming Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. After all, partisanship works both ways. Have these three reached out to Republicans or simply tried to ram their agenda down our throats? The answer, as Bill Clinton once said, is "obvious."

And I'd be more inclined to believe Bayh's posturing as a shocked statesman if he had even once voted against Obama's big-spending, leftwing agenda. Perhaps that's the real reason he is getting while the getting is good. The people of Indiana apparently don't appreciate his lack of statesmanship within his own party.

A few weeks ago Bayh's real feelings slipped out, after Scott Brown won "Ted Kennedy's seat" after campaigning against Obamacare and the Mirandizing of terrorists. "If you lose Massachusetts and that's not a wake-up call," Bayh said candidly then, "then there's no hope of waking up."

Bayh has awakened to the fact that the American people are wise to what the increasingly partisan Democrats are up to. Reid, Pelosi, and Obama, however, continue to snooze on.