Bye, Bye, Bayh!
Did you read about the Olympic skier in Vancouver who stormed off the slopes when he had no chance of medaling? No, you didn’t. Because it didn’t happen. Olympic competitors are astonishing. Of the 2,600 young athletes in Vancouver, only a handful has any realistic chance of standing on the medal podium, yet they compete. They race, ski, sled, jump, and spin with as much heart as if they were dripping in Olympic gold.
Meanwhile in that other winter venue stuffed with Olympian personalities, Washington, DC, there’s a somewhat less competitive attitude on display. Indiana’s Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh announced he’s quitting the Senate. Along with a couple of dozen House Members, Bayh has had it. Mr. Bayh and his congressional buddies don’t have the stomach to battle gridlock, so they’re giving up. If they were on the U.S. ski team in Vancouver, they would sit out the slalom if the slope had too many moguls.
Next winter Bayh will be found, in the words of the Indiana state song, “On the Banks of the Wabash—Far Away.” That’s presumably far away from the poisonous partisanship and congressional deadlock he gave as his reasons for quitting.
“I am an executive at heart,” says Bayh in his press release, a skills set not appreciated in Congress, he explains. Does that mean he’s now looking for a CEO job that has no conflicts, no tensions, no dysfunction? Hey, Evan, how about running Toyota, Inc. for a week?
Curiously, on his senatorial website, Bayh gushes, “The public would be surprised and pleased to know that those who serve them in the Senate, despite their policy and political differences, are unfailingly hard-working and devoted to the public good as they see it.” Hmmm, tricky trying to mesh those kind words about his colleagues with Bayh’s angry press conference denouncing Senate obstructionists.
How does he explain his wimping out to the single moms back in Indianapolis working three jobs to keep food on the table? Or the father of four laid off a year ago who pounds the pavement each day in Bloomington looking for work that isn’t there? These constituents would love to have the luxury to quit when things get just too darned hard.
If George Washington had Evan Bayh’s fortitude, the National Archives might have this letter on file:
“My Dearest Martha,
It is frightfully cold here at Valley Forge and things are not going well. The Hessians are dastardly, and the Continental Congress does nothing but bicker. I do believe I shall pack up my belongings and return to Mt. Vernon forthwith.
Yours, George.”
Meanwhile in that other winter venue stuffed with Olympian personalities, Washington, DC, there’s a somewhat less competitive attitude on display. Indiana’s Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh announced he’s quitting the Senate. Along with a couple of dozen House Members, Bayh has had it. Mr. Bayh and his congressional buddies don’t have the stomach to battle gridlock, so they’re giving up. If they were on the U.S. ski team in Vancouver, they would sit out the slalom if the slope had too many moguls.
Next winter Bayh will be found, in the words of the Indiana state song, “On the Banks of the Wabash—Far Away.” That’s presumably far away from the poisonous partisanship and congressional deadlock he gave as his reasons for quitting.
“I am an executive at heart,” says Bayh in his press release, a skills set not appreciated in Congress, he explains. Does that mean he’s now looking for a CEO job that has no conflicts, no tensions, no dysfunction? Hey, Evan, how about running Toyota, Inc. for a week?
Curiously, on his senatorial website, Bayh gushes, “The public would be surprised and pleased to know that those who serve them in the Senate, despite their policy and political differences, are unfailingly hard-working and devoted to the public good as they see it.” Hmmm, tricky trying to mesh those kind words about his colleagues with Bayh’s angry press conference denouncing Senate obstructionists.
How does he explain his wimping out to the single moms back in Indianapolis working three jobs to keep food on the table? Or the father of four laid off a year ago who pounds the pavement each day in Bloomington looking for work that isn’t there? These constituents would love to have the luxury to quit when things get just too darned hard.
If George Washington had Evan Bayh’s fortitude, the National Archives might have this letter on file:
“My Dearest Martha,
It is frightfully cold here at Valley Forge and things are not going well. The Hessians are dastardly, and the Continental Congress does nothing but bicker. I do believe I shall pack up my belongings and return to Mt. Vernon forthwith.
Yours, George.”