Gitmo Gonzales and My New Favorite Democrat

Hi Everyone,

Its official. Bush has appointed Gonzales to replace Ashcroft. Gonzales is a social moderate but is the architect of the Bush policy on "enemy combatants" and ignoring the Geneva Convention. So he's not a raving religious fanatic but he's a statist. Not entirely sure he's an improvement but my gut says he's marginally better for us than Ashcroft. At least he'll take the curtains down from around the half-nude statue of Justice.

As for how to get rid of this bunch? Here is my new favorite Democrat (or is that favorite New Demcorat?). Evan Bayh of Indiana. He's currently a Senator in his second term. Before that he was a two term governor (executive experience!) of Indiana and was able to balance the budget, increase jobs, increase education spending, build up a budget surplus and lower taxes all at once (thanks largely to the Clinton economy but let's see the Republicans use that to attack him). He was acclaimed by the Wall Street Journal as a fiscal conservative. He's chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council (see link to the right). He's popular in Indiana (a "Red State") and well respected in the region (i.e. in neighboring Ohio). He's the son of another famous and popular Indiana Democratic Senator, Birch Bayh. He graduated from college in 1978 so he's too young to have to explain what he did in Vietnam. He makes a big deal of his efforts as governor and Senator to crack down on everyone's favorite scapegoat....dead beat dads (its family values and tough on crime all at once without bringing God, Gays or Guns into it!). While he's a Senator, he has excellent ballance budget creditials so it will be hard to bash his voting record like they did with Kerry. You can see his ideological position here. He's a slightly left of center moderate - just to the left of where Bill Clinton ends up on that chart.

Comments? Discussion?