Evan Bayh's Last Chance to Put Your Money Where His Mouth Is

There are so many points I'd like to make about Evan Bayh's retirement. I am going to stick to two.

First, I think Matt Sledge's post makes a lot of great points, but my conclusion is slightly different. What's really different now is not that DC has turned more partisan, it's that it has turned more and more transparent. Having spouses on payroll of companies that were supporting you was old news for lots of years. It's just that now more and more people know and when his wife was paid more than $2 million in two years, they kind of figured the company that paid her got their money's worth.

Poor Evan. His wife was pocketing a million plus a year from health care boards and in the good old days, no one would have known, but now, it's just so sad, people think that that is somehow buying a Senator -- tragic, really.

The second thing is now people are wondering where Evan's $13,000,000 war chest is going. Will he give it to the Senate campaign committees or to some other group?

This just annoys the crap out of me.

Evan -- and all the people in DC who don't get this simple fact --- it's not your money.

People gave you the money to run for office, fair enough.

You're not running.

So give it back.

And yes, it is that simple.

Look at it this way. You're working late at the office and someone gathers funds for a pizza run but then doesn't go get the pizza -- they don't keep the money, right?

It's a simple, moral, basic question my seven-year-old can answer.

It's not your money Evan.

Give it back.