Bayh Makes a Bet

U.S. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana has made a double-or-nothing bet with Montana’s Senator Max Baucas on Saturday’s NAIA National Championship football game between Saint Francis University of Fort Wayne and Montana’s Carroll College.

Bayh said he is so confident of a USF victory that he wanted to up the ante on a bet made last year with Baucus. Bayh agreed to put up a bucket of Indiana-grown popcorn against Baucus’ Montana beer.

Carroll, which is 13-0, won its third national championship last year over Saint Francis 15-13.

The 50th annual national championship game will be played in Savannah, Tenn.
St. Francis (13-0) is going for its first national title. The Cougars have lost only three games in the past four years — all in the playoffs and twice in the championship game to Carroll.

Bayh Calls for Defense Bill Conferees to End Patriot Penalty

Some excerpts from the Senator's latest press release.

U.S. Senator Evan Bayh, joined by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA), today sent letters to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee and all Senators who will be involved in negotiating the final version of the Defense Authorization bill urging them to retain his legislation eliminating the Patriot Penalty. Last month, the Senate unanimously approved an amendment offered by Senators Bayh and Richard Durbin (D-IL) that would help end the Patriot Penalty, a pay cut many National Guard and Reserve members face when they are called to active duty and lose their civilian salaries.

"This provision will provide crucial assistance to the members of the National Guard and Reserve whose families are struggling to keep up with mortgage, car, child care and education payments," Senator Bayh said. "Its inclusion in the final conference report is essential to continuing the war on terrorism, to preserving the strength of our armed forces, and to maintaining our moral obligation to those who defend our nation."

The amendment offered by Senators Bayh and Durbin would provide reservists with a direct payment to make up for the difference between their civilian salary and their military salary. Reservists who have been called up to active duty for more than six months and have suffered a cut in pay of at least $50 per month qualify for assistance. The amendment would provide up to $3,000 per month to eliminate the Patriot Penalty.

According to a recent Department of Defense study, more than 50 percent of all Reservists reported a loss in income when they were called up for active duty. The average income loss for Reservists on active duty equals $4,416 per year.

Evan Bayh Turns 50

Tomorrow night, Evan Bayh will be celebrating his 50th birthday party near downtown Indianapolis. Although his actual birthday is not until December 26, several hundred of the Senators closest friends will be gathering to wish him a happy 5-0 and to raise money for his campaign committee. The reception is scheduled to kick off at 6 followed by a dinner at 7. The event is estimated to earn $600,000.

Sadly, I was not on the invitation list. However, I will hopefully be receiving some pictures of the event. The flash website invitation can be viewed at the link above.

On Iraq, Bayh would vote differently now

The latest on Evan Bayh's decision to go to war with Iraq from the Indy Star:

Saying that he relied on inaccurate information, Sen. Evan Bayh said today he would not have voted in 2002 to authorize President Bush to go to war in Iraq if he had known then what he knows now.
“Of course I would have done things differently knowing what I know today,” Bayh told reporters at his Indianapolis office.

But, he added, “I did what I thought was right at the time. Now it turns out that some of the facts were inaccurate. There were no weapons of mass destruction. We didn’t realize that this undertaking would be carried out in some ways as incompently as it’s been carried out.”

But Bayh, a Democrat exploring a run for the presidency in 2008, quickly added: “We do support freedom, we do support democracy, we don’t support dictators. And we want to assure the troops who are representing us in Iraq that they have our unwavering support.”

If the Senate were faced with such a vote again, Bayh said, “of course we’re going to insist on better intelligence next time; of course we will have, God willing, a better understanding about the complexity of nation-building in a society as complex as Iraq..... A list of tragic mistakes were made in the way this was conducted.”

Bayh said President Bush “took a step, but not all the steps” that need to be taken toward a resolution of the Iraq conflict in his Wednesday speech.

Bayh said that while no specific timetable should be given for American withdrawal from Iraq, a series of goals and strategies should be outlined to measure progress.

“We need to say how much this is going to cost, what it’s going to take, how we’re going to measure progress and some general time-frame for how long we think that might take,” he said.

While specific dates would be inappropriate, he said, “it just can’t be open-ended, forever and ever.”

Bayh On the Radio

Senator Evan Bayh appeared on the Greg Garrison radio show this morning. He was helping to push some legislation before congress that would prevent the sale or rental of violent video games to those under 18. He said that only video games with the most graphic violence would be restricted. Bayh also makes the point that this is the time of the year to push for the change because 70% of the games sold every year are sold during the holiday season.

Next Senator Bayh was asked about the recent ruling that now forbids the Indiana House from mentioning Jesus in its opening prayer. He responded that he has yet to review the legal reasoning behind the ruling, but the prayer is something that he would not have a problem with, especially because of its long standing tradition. He also mentioned that as Governor of Indiana he worked to uphold the Gideons placing bibles on state property.

When asked about all of the press coverage about his possible candidacy in 2008, he responded that "the press must be having some slow news days." But he confirmed that he has been doing several things to ensure that a possible candidacy would be an open option to him if that is the route he decides to take.

Finally he was asked about Iraq. When asked what he thought about the president's speech yesterday, he said that the president was attempting to lay out a strategy. He then went on to say that we can't "Cut & Run", and that he was not for a specific timetable for troop withdraw. He was asked "Why would the left call for an immediate pullout?" His response was that he didn't know, but he feels that an immediate pullout from Iraq would be the wrong decision because Iraq would fall apart and become a haven for terrorists. Before his committee, General Casey has said that troop drawdowns will likely begin next year, and Senator Bayh feels that beginning to hand over security to Iraqis at that time seems reasonable.