Evan Bayh sez he’s fed up with the partisanship in DC, so who can blame him for wanting to get outa there? But one of the weird things about Bayh announcing his retirement is the timing, since the deadline for filing to run for his vacated seat is right around the corner. According to the NYT: “Democrats say that since no party candidate is likely to raise enough signatures to qualify for the ballot by the deadline on Friday, the state party will be allowed to select its Senate candidate. But Republicans are challenging that interpretation and said they were exploring their legal options to deny Democrats a candidate if no one meets the filing deadline.”
Denying them a candidate. Ain’t that just like the GOP to thwart the democratic process?
But the weirdest bit now emerging is the grass-roots effort to draft Indiana favorite son John Mellencamp. He’s apparently got a lot going for him, especially his long-time association with Farm-Aid, and is unabashedly a lefty. And his fan base could presumably make short work of that deadline.
Having JM in the Senate would also fill the void in Congress left by the late Sonny Bono, who was succeeded in office by his wife Mary, formerly a Scientologist (ain’t Wikipedia wonderful?) and now married to another congressman, Connie Mack IV of Florida, great-grandson of the Connie Mack who owned the Philadelphia Athletics and whose name graced the ballpark where I used to go to see the Phillies play when I was a kid, probably for the last time in 1965, followed the next year by seeing Sonny & Cher on TV for the first time, which says something about things coming around. Or maybe six degrees of something-or-other. Or maybe nothing at all.
Granted, we already have a former show biz type in the Senate with Al Franken, but no reason why musicians shouldn’t join in the fray. Just think of the precedent it would set. NJ’s Lautenberg is ancient, so Springsteen could easily run for his seat. And how about you, Lamar Alexander, isn’t it time to go home to Tennessee and make room for Sheryl Crow? And Dianne Feinstein’s got a few years on Barbara Boxer, she could be grooming the perpetually political Jackson Browne before Ahnuld starts getting ideas.
Some speculate that Bayh will replace the ageing Biden on the 2012 ticket, which would also leave him poised to inherit the Obama mantle. I dunno, though – just another white guy? Let’s think ahead: maybe Lady Gaga will be ready by then.
Meanwhile, here’s something to strike fear into the hearts of the family values crowd....
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