John Nichols: Obama should go for the better Bayh

John Nichols  —  8/13/2008 5:21 am

Barack Obama is considering whether to offer Sen. Bayh a place on the Democratic ticket.

That's exciting.

An Obama-Bayh ticket would link the freshness and vigor of Obama's candidacy with the depth and record of accomplishment of an elder statesman.

Even Obama's most ardent backers have to acknowledge that the senator from Illinois could use a ticket partner with a track record of:

Actively opposing an illegal and immoral war.

Blocking the nominations of conservative activists to the Supreme Court.

Not just defending but seeking to expand civil liberties protections.

Drafting two amendments that were added to the U.S. Constitution.

Standing unapologetically, indeed passionately, with organized labor, civil rights activists and feminists to advance a liberal economic and social agenda.

Senator Bayh would bring all those strengths to the Democratic ballot line.

Sen. Birch Bayh, that is.

The current Democratic senator from Indiana is Birch Evans Bayh III. He's known as "Evan." He's the wrong Bayh. A forgettable centrist, he voted to authorize George Bush to go to war with Iraq; backed the Bush administration on civil liberties, surveillance and torture issues; and voted for Bush-promoted free-trade pacts that have damaged the interests of workers, farmers, communities and the environment in the U.S. and abroad. He has worked for the better part of two decades to steer his party to the right as a leader of the "Republican-lite" Democratic Leadership Council.

Perhaps, some day, Evan Bayh will do something that would make him worthy of consideration for a place on a national ticket. But it hasn't happened yet.

But Evan Bayh is not the only "Sen. Bayh" from Indiana.

Birch Evans Bayh II -- the current senator's father -- served from 1963 to 1981 as the hardest working and most effective member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during that contentious era. The elder Bayh was never satisfied to debate the issues of the day -- although he did so brilliantly, especially when he was opposing the Vietnam War and urging passage of civil rights legislation. He worked, often with success, to achieve structural changes that were designed to make the American experiment more functional and democratic.

After the assassination of John Kennedy, it was Bayh who developed the plan to rationalize presidential succession that became the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. A few years later, Bayh was the architect of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18. And he came close to eliminating the Electoral College.

Not since the founders has one American official done so much to define the nation as Birch Bayh.

And he is still an able advocate for reform -- something Obama could use in a running mate and America could use in a vice president.

True, the right Bayh is 80 years old.

But that's only eight years older than John McCain.

And, frankly, if McCain's background is supposed to cause us to overlook his age and consider him seriously for the presidency, then surely Birch Bayh's record is impressive enough to cause us to overlook his age and consider him for the vice presidency.

John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times.

John Nichols  —  8/13/2008 5:21 am