Senator-to-Senator: Birch Bayh on Ted Kennedy

Memories (4.00 / 3)

I still greatly respect our former Senator Birch Bayh.  He represented Indiana well.  

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by: Howard C. @ Sun Sep 06, 2009 at 21:00:11 PM CDT

amen (4.00 / 2)

Birch was one of two candidates who inspired my interest in politics in 1968.  The other was Bobby Kennedy.  Birch was then running for his second term in the Senate.  Seldom have we seen the like of either of them, and their absence from the public stage has sorely been missed.  

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by: FishersDemo @ Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 15:19:33 PM CDT

I was eight or nine (4.00 / 1)

and listened to WOWO radio in Ft. Wayne constantly.  They played the famous Birch commercial, with the tune "Hey Look Me Over" that Mary Lou Conrad penned.  It stayed on my mind to this day.

And sparked an interest in politics that never left.  Birch was a damned good senator.  Who got beaten by a lightweight.

Lest we hope this never happens to the offspring.

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by: Blue State Blues @ Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 19:41:01 PM CDT

My fear (4.00 / 1)

My fear is that the offspring is the lightweight.

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by: Howard C. @ Mon Sep 07, 2009 at 20:56:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Oh Howard (0.00 / 0)

I wouldn't worry about it.  

Dad eventually lost his seat because the Pullliams and their card-carrying hatemonger Water Co. friends went ballistic when Birch opposed the Geist project.  Which should've been built with investor funds instead of ratepayer funds.

They lined their pockets.  He cried foul.  They got even.  Classic struggle.  Except they put up their dimwit nephew in a Reagan landslide year, and within a few years, that nephew was thrust into the national limelight.

Evan is not his father.  In some respects, we can be glad.  In others, we can hope for another term.

It beats the hell out of the alternatives.

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by: Blue State Blues @ Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 05:36:22 AM CDT

in partial agreement (4.00 / 2)

I agree that there is no one else on the horizon.  I guess I am just disappointed that Evan is not the advocate for the poor and uneducated, the working class and willing to take on issues when one side presents a clear sense of what is right for the citizens of Indiana and the U.S.      Birch gave us 18 years of that while he was in office.  I dont think he lost because of his voting record but because of the landslide.  While I dont want to lose the senate seat for the Dems,  I dont think that if Evan were to lose[which he wont this time]that the rank and file Dems would lose a friend or an advocate like we did when Birch lost.

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by: Howard C. @ Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 07:35:36 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Hey Howard (4.00 / 1)

Name me three senators who ARE stalwart icons like BIrch was.  Those days are gone.   Politics today is a slice-and-dice business, segmented, fractionalized, marginalized....dare stick your neck out very far, and fourteen websites send out hate e-mails.

Evan is effective.  It's not his father's time.  That amy be good, or bad, but it's just not the same.

And he consistently tries to forge relationships issue-by-issue.  Calmly.  We need that today.

I have only one wish for Evan in the next year: that his family find other income for Susan, so she can leave the board of that healthcare leech Wellpoint.

BUt that's just me.

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by: Blue State Blues @ Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 19:43:04 PM CDT

my three (0.00 / 0)

Senators Leahy, Finestein and even Snowe [R}   ..We are in agreement on Susan's employment.

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by: Howard C. @ Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 05:38:15 AM CDT

[ Parent ]