Bayh: Retirement news got ahead of me

When the television cameras vanished from his front lawn, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) was both disappointed and a bit relieved.

Moments after Barack Obama announced he was picking Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) as his running mate in the summer of 2008, the press packed up and vanished.

The bright media spotlight would return nearly 18 months later, when Bayh shocked the political establishment by announcing his retirement. The news also stunned Senate Democrats, most notably Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.).

About a year ago, Bayh had told Reid, Menendez and President Obama that he was thinking about retiring. But he kept building up his campaign war chest to nearly $13 million, leaving nearly everyone under the impression he was going to seek a third term.

In an interview in his Russell Building office, Bayh said, “I would have preferred to have spoken to them directly before the news broke, that’s true. ... As you can appreciate, around this town, even with people with discretion like the two senators — I would have complete confidence in their discretion — but of course they’d have to share with some of their assistants, and then it takes on a life of its own. I thought the people of Indiana deserved to hear from me directly as opposed to having it out in the media first.”

In a gloomy election cycle for Democrats, Bayh was considered one of the party’s few bright spots for reelection. He has never lost a statewide race in Indiana, and won his last three with more than 60 percent of the vote, including his 1992 gubernatorial reelection. Soon before he said he was leaving Congress, former Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) said he was going to run.

But that had little to do with Bayh’s decision.

He said neither he nor his wife knows what his future holds — he formerly ran a private law practice in Indianapolis, and his wife, Susan, sits on the corporate board of the health insurance firm Wellpoint. Bayh has said he won’t pursue a lobbying career, but does not want to become “politically irrelevant.”

Seeking to dispel any rumors of an independent bid in 2012, the 54-year-old centrist also said he plans to support Obama for reelection in 2012 and will give only to Democrats this fall.

Bayh nearly became vice president, being on Obama’s final shortlist that also included then-Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D). His feelings on the matter appear mixed. He is pleased that his children won’t be under constant scrutiny while also stressing he was ready to give it his all if he had been selected.

Kaine was later named chairman of the Democratic National Committee, while Bayh returned to the Senate, a place he has grown tired of.

The vice-president slot would have anointed Bayh as Obama’s successor. But now, Bayh, who briefly considered running for president in 2008, is unlikely to ever win the presidential primary because he is to the right of most in the Democratic Party.

Quizzed about his Senate accomplishments, Bayh ticks off a legacy of property tax cuts, improved armor for U.S. troops and legislation to promote parenthood. But he suggests he is most proud of his reputation as a centrist, and most alarmed at the dwindling moderation and bipartisanship in the Senate and among left- and right-wing political action groups. He points at the precarious position of targeted Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) as an example. Lincoln is facing a challenging primary race.

“The most energetic elements of both parties sometimes frustrate the cause of progress by taking an all-or-nothing approach,” he said. “There’s a tendency on the part of some to view any compromise as an act of weakness or immorality… The irony of our political process today is that the vast majority of Americans want practical progress. They’re fairly moderate, they’re not straightly partisan, and they just care about bread-and-butter issues.”

Few current issues have demonstrated the sharp divides in the Senate more than healthcare reform, Bayh suggested. He blames the decision by Democratic leaders to pursue a more comprehensive bill; the thinned, united ranks of Senate Republicans who dug in their heels and acted more desperately; and the “overlearned” lessons of President Bill Clinton’s failed health reform effort in 1993.

Bayh said Obama officials made a conscious decision against micromanaging the bill, which Clinton was accused of, but which left Congress with too little direction.

Recently, Bayh has turned his crusade for more bipartisanship into promoting filibuster reform. He acknowledges he participated in the practice, but said it is being abused by Republicans.

His idea differs from Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) filibuster reform bill, which sets a sliding scale of gradually lowering thresholds from 60 to 51 votes over several days to achieve cloture and end debate. Bayh prefers requiring 35 senators to sign on to a filibuster — and then to speak on the Senate floor, “to require them to have some actual physical discomfort.” He would also lower the threshold for a successful vote only to 55.

He notes that his father, former Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), served in the Senate at a time when 67 votes were required for a successful cloture vote, before Senate leaders lowered it to the current level of 60 votes in 1975.

Reid has said Democrats may change the rules next year — when Bayh is gone.

Bayh won’t miss raising money, which he is good at: “The constant money chase is a big part of it, because it means politics is constantly in the forefront of your mind. It never stops. And if that’s the environment you’re functioning in, it’s just difficult to put political calculations out of your mind to make policy decisions.”

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