How great would it be to have a Senator who sung about “Suckin’ on chili dogs, outside the tastee freeze”?

Our progressive betters (credit: John Cole) have been crowing about how the Dems failed to capitalize on populist outrage after ‘08 and here’s a guy with some pretty substantial populist cred built into his public persona. I’d love it if they got behind this idea, but I suspect they’ll just spend the next crucial days bashing Rahm and Obama.

Comrade— I love it:

(1) Evan Bayh drops out of hs re-election race at the last minute.

(2) Hamsher notes that Rahm Emanuel attended a fundraiser for an Indiana Representative who might be chosen to run in Bayh’s place, and concludes that Emanuel commanded Bayh to step down.

(3) The first firebagger comment begins: “Chicanery like this is why Progressive voters stay home.”

Um… no, you twit.  Conspiracy theorizing like this is why Firebagging commenters stay online in an eternal state of high dudgeon.  Also why some people like to point and laugh.

You’re psychic, Kevin. Jane sees the cold, dead hand of Rahm in this, too.

Heh. I swear I didn’t look.

And, without looking, I’m guessing some of the Firebaggers are probably really excited about Tamyra D’Ippolito getting the nomination.

I read the FDL comments.  There are some lashing out at those who think D’Ippolito would be a disaster as a candidate but I’d characterize the shitegeist as more a desire to see Rahm thwarted at the expense of all other considerations and without any plan beyond the end of the filing deadline.  The power commenters don’t want distractions like, just for whom the fuck would they be signing?

I don’t get the Firebaggers. If you buy the premise that Rahmputin is out to kill progressives, how does it make any sense that he’s pushing Evan Fucking Bayh out? The guy is about about “centrist” as they come, and he won the last election by 22 points in a state that went for W by 20 points.

Does. Not. Compute.

Comment by sean on 02/16/10 at 08:58 AM

I don’t even get what the theory is supposed to be. Rahm orchestrated the handover of a Democratic Senate nomination to a Blue Dog by…pushing the Big Blue Dog out of the race? WTF?

As for Mellencamp, I love the idea.

Gah, why did I go and read FDL?

mikesong February 15th, 2010 at 10:28 am

Best news ever!!! I DESPISE Evan Bayh!!! I’d rather have Cheney or Palin in his seat.

And the reanimated corpse of Hitler!

And the reanimated corpse of Hitler!

Actually, I hear Hitler is 2l4o.

No kidding, I was reading that same comment when I shut down my browser in disgust.  Are there actually Obama voters who are going to feel like they accomplished something when all the conservative Dems are replaced by Teabagging Reps?

Meh, even I can’t get worked up about that. Bayh could quite possibly be my least favorite politician, and his type is certainly my least favorite. I’d only be slightly exaggerating if I said I wouldn’t mind replacing him with Satan himself.

Yay Mellancamp!

Now if we can just get Paul Simon to challenge Obama in 2012 we’d be getting somewhere…

I’m still waiting for a coherent reason why anyone with half a brain should view Hamsher as the Voice of Populism. Then again, I never understood why the Weather Underground thought they represented “revolutionary working-class” people, either.

Interesting speculation but I can’t find anywhere where John Mellencamp has weighed in on whether he’s interested in a Senate run.  Has anyone else heard anything?

Jane makes the implication:

Well, Rahm was in town doing a fundraiser for Hill recently. This has, no doubt, been in the works for a while.

Then the “who, me?” denial:

Oh I don’t think Rahm was planning to throw Bahy out. But if Bayh goes on to, say, replace Billy Tauzin at PhRMA or something, he’s not going to want to enrage the very people he’ll be lobbying on his way out the door by dropping this on everyone’s head. Rahm’s presence in Indiana suggests he knew in advance and was scouting out a successor. But, maybe not. Who knows.

Smooooth.

Mellencamp is OK, but I prefer this guy.

Damn, I remember that song.

The first thought that came to my mind when I heard about the very small window for other Indiana Dem senate candidates was that it had a stink of Rahm.

I’m not a member of the FDL club and do not subscribe to the “better a republican” nonsense, but I don’t think it’s more likely that the timing of Bayh’s announcement was just “coincidence.”

This clumsy manipulation by Rahm & Co to get their hand-picked candidate are anti-democratic and an insult to the populace.  You think bullshit like this isn’t going to be an issue?

I have been waiting a very long time to have Democratic party leadership give a rat’s ass for Democratic voters.  If they spent less time chasing the shrinking Republican/conservative vote and more time working to pass legislation in line with the party platform, we would all be a lot better off.

But, no, the president is allowing Rahm Fucking Emanuel to run the show right into the ground.  My prediction is that Indiana will go to the Republican.

Thanks, Rahm.

You think bullshit like this isn’t going to be an issue?

Yes, I think it isn’t, because as far as I can tell, the bullshitty “this” doesn’t actually exist, and doesn’t even make a good enough conspiracy theory to effect an election.