Something else for Bayh to keep in mind.

Alas, something else for Bayh to keep in mind is his wife's position on the board of Wellpoint, so his support of health insurance reform would likely diminish his family's wealth.

It's astonishing that Bayh is making his corruption so unmistakably obvious.

Unfortunately, I'm not voting for Bayh no matter which way he moves on health insurance reform, so my opinion carried even less weight with him than a Democrat's usually would.

Expanding on Gregory's comment, Glenn Greenwald was on Maddow last night and had this to say:

"Well, let’s look at Sen. Bayh. His wife sits on the Board of Directors of WellPoint, one of the largest health insurance companies in the nation. They own, by their own disclosures, between $500,000 and a million dollars just of WellPoint stock alone. And as I think you reported yesterday, when Sen. Lieberman threatened to filibuster the public option, as one would expect, the value of the stock of the health care industries and the health care companies skyrocketed—which directly benefited, personally benefited the finances of the Bayh family."

You'd think the Bayh family would divest themselves of this huge conflict of interest before any health care legislation comes up for a vote, but I guess that kind of integrity doesn't exist in Washington these days, even amongst many Democrats.

Here is a novel idea. Whatever the politicans have done to health care reform should reflect on their taxpayer paid insurance premiums Any increase by any insurance company will be paid out of pocket by all the politicians for all Americans. This will defray the monumental costs spent on lobbyists for the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.Because of America's politicians the Taxpayer will pay for Federal Employees insurance and will be charged for the lobbying , raping and pillaging of American people.

Hey you don't work so hard to be elected Senator just because you believe in public service. If you are a Senator like Bayh you are in it for the money and the fancy vacations. Having fools fawn all over you and your family doesn't hurt either. Hell, do you think his wife wants to stay in Washington baking cookies when she can be skimming directors fees from one of the largest health care providers? You nuts or something.

"You'd think the Bayh family would divest themselves of this huge conflict of interest before any health care legislation comes up for a vote, but I guess that kind of integrity doesn't exist in Washington these days, even amongst many Democrats."

Glenn also use the word(s) "corrupt" or "corruption" at least twice in reference to Bayh and Lieberman. More of that please.

And Bayh and Lugar are my senators, and I won't vote for either of them. In fact, I will campaign and donate against them.

How many other senators own Wellpoint or Cigna or other health insurance stock in significant amounts or is a member of a board of directors? Shouldn't they all recuse themselves or be held liable by voters?

WaPo reports "almost 30" senators are in this ethically dubious condition as Bayh, including Harry Reid (D-NV),Judd Gregg(R-NH), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), John Kerry (D-MA),Michael Crapo (R-ID)and Chris Dodd (D-CT).

I'll believe they have the interests of the American people foremost when they have divested their holdings.

Senators like Lieberman and Bayh are such self-serving, grandstanding bozos. Shameless fuckers. My hope is that both get trounced when they are up for reelection. I also hope that progressives never forget what these two have wrought.

Steve, slightly off-topic, but just a pet peeve of mine:

"Hoosier," rather than "Indianan," is the official term for Indiana residents. It's not just a colloquial nickname.

Oh, and you know who would be all about the public option if he was in the Senate today? Birch Bayh.

Bayh's wife is a whore for Wellpoint, raking in millions off the plight of the sick.

So I'm not expecting much from this jerk. He'll probably join Sunny Joe in fellating the Repubs.

Someday, probably due to the existence of the netroots more than anything else, we will have real Democrats as Senators....

Yes, slowly but surely. Somewhere many years from now we might have real health care reform. And Senators who really believe in making a difference for the average guy, not pimping their wives to line their pockets.

Let's not forget the personal profit generated for many years by Lieberman's wife's job as a pharma/insurance lobbyist.

If Sen. Bayh supports the Republican filibuster, and this causes health care reform to fail, how is he going to win re-election next year in the face of an electoral tsunami favoring the GOP?

Think about it:

1. Fired up conservative base.
2. Demoralized liberal base seething with anger over Bayh's betrayal.
3. No Obama on the ballot.

Not exactly a formula for victory.

I'm all for criticizing Dem senators who oppose the public option when their reasons for doing so have specific weaknesses. They shouldn't cite false information, they should be consistent, and there shouldn't be any hints of corruption or conflicts of interest.

However, I'm not for enforcing party discipline in ways that mirror the Republicans. One of the good things about the Democratic national party is that they allow diverse viewpoints. Someone can be a social liberal and a fiscal conservative and still be a faithful, loyal Democrat. If the cost of a government program to address a particular social issue is too high, opposing the program should be allowed.

From what I've seen so far, the public option should lower overall expenditures on health care nationwide. Hopefully, the CBO's analysis will verify that. If it does, then the public option shouldn't be opposed by Lieberman, Bayh, et al.

SRS

Bayh does not care about polls. The people who respond to those polls to not vote in midterm elections. The people who vote in midterm elections are the hyperpolitical. Bayh knows who those people are and he knows how they vote. He has them covered.

Steven,

It is the Democrats who are the outliers here. Every political party in the Western world enforces party discipline in some manner except for the Democrats. On some votes, it is typical to declare a "free vote" if it isn't key to the party's program, but on key votes the members are expected to either support or, if conscience insists, abstain. In the Senate, it would be allowable to vote against the final bill, but to support a filibuster is to align with the opposite party.

A dissenting member, in almost any democracy, at least becomes a back-bencher, losing any leadership position like a committee chair. In more extreme cases, it's common to expel a member from the caucus.

Gregory said:

Alas, something else for Bayh to keep in mind is his wife's position on the board of Wellpoint, so his support of health insurance reform would likely diminish his family's wealth.

It's astonishing that Bayh is making his corruption so unmistakably obvious.

Bayh's corruption has been obvious to observers since he was first elected. As soon as he was elected (and before he even took the oath of office) his wife was in touch with several health insurance companies "testing the waters." As was pointed out on Rachel last night, when he came out and said he would vote against cloture, the stock of Wellpoint and others went up, thus his wife's investments increased in value. As they pointed out, everything he is doing on this is enriching his wife directly, as well as his own campaign contributions.

I think he might just be the most obviously-corrupt of the Democrats.

I'm sure Obama, Schumer, Durbin, et al, are celebrating their "party loyalty" from 2006 - when they actively sabotaged Ned Lamont, the official Democratic candidate for Senator in Connecticut - to play a nice corrupt game with their scumball buddy Joe Lieberman, who promised them then (and then again last year after he crossed the line for McCain against Obama) that he would vote loyally for the party. Just think, they wouldn't have had to worry about loyalty with an actual loyal Democrat like Lamont in the office.

Of course, this would have meant Emperor Obummer would have had to support an actual liberal, something he appears unable to do.

Look up H.R. 3183 and tell us how Bayh voted. This vote was only two weeks ago.

According to David Plouffe's new book, Obama's veep pick finalists were Biden and Bayh.

So next time Biden makes some stupid gaffe, we should all be happy and say, 'Well at least he's not anti-middle-class like Bayh'.

Look up H.R. 3183 and tell us how Bayh voted. -flounder

Aye.

The senate of the United States is a fraud.