My adopted home state of Indiana had a nice send off to Birch Bayh today.
I’ll be the first to say it. He looked like Dean Wormer.
Godspeed Senator. Thanks for the amendments. Let’s get the popular vote one passed in your honor.
A liberal from Indiana elected to the Senate three times.
We need more Midwesterners to run for President.
wasn’t his son evan governor at one time too?
Not just a Midwesterner, a Hoosier.
Boot-Edge-Edge.
I’d hate to do a simple google search for you, but yes, he served as both governor and senator from Indiana.
Yes, his son is Evan Bayh. Birch’s political career was ended when he lost to, of all people, Dan Quayle.
Man - the Indiana Statehouse must have had a big backlog of memorials to get through. Birch died in March. They’ve got to make room for Richard Lugar, who passed away last week. Two upstanding statesmen who weren’t afraid to walk across the aisle to get things done that mattered.
He was. His “I won the election” party happened to be at the same hotel I stayed in on a business trip to Indianapolis in 1988. I arrived at the hotel, the clerk said “Oh, we’re incredibly full, only room left is on the penthouse, gonna have to upgrade you” :).
So I went to the elevator and a fellow in a suit looked at me with great suspicion and demanded to know if I was really on that floor. He mumbled about the “ebm by reception”. Had to say it several times before I even caught the last word; I didn’t figure out “ebm by” until later.
Well, I had a key that told the elevator I was allowed on the 18th floor, so there wasn’t much he could do to prevent my going up, though he did look quite pissed about it. He was obviously a security staffer whose job was to keep riffraff like paying hotel guests away from his client’s shindig.
(The room was quite nice - a 2-floor suite with living area / kitchen downstairs, bedroom upstairs, and an outdoor deck).