Evan Bayh, living down to expectations

Well, the budget passed the House and the Senate. The House passed something more or resembling what Obama proposed. The Senate trimmed $221 billion. The conference - that's when House and Senate members get together to iron out the differences in their bills, and then present the compromise version for final passage - will probably cut that about in half, if past practice holds. This is how things always go. It could be better, it could be worse.

As usual, no Republicans in either house voted for the budget. In the House, 20 Democrats were against it, and in the Senate, two: Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Evan Bayh of Indiana.

Nelson is one of those cases that is semi-understandable. Nebraska's a red state (although remember, Obama did win one of its three congressional districts and thus got one electoral vote out of the state). But what of Bayh? Indiana is historically red, but it voted Obama last fall. Five Democratic senators from red states somehow summoned up the gumption to support the president's budget -- David Pryor, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill.

Bayh is a) not the brightest bulb in the firmament by reputation and b) positioning himself to be the responsible, moderate Democratic presidential candidate in 2016. Fine. But this was a very important vote, and people should remember it. He's barely a patch on his illustrious father, who also had a much better name (which I guess is probably the father's fault to some degree, although that messes up my story line).