When he first announced that he was stepping down from the United States Senate, Evan Bayh cited a lot of high-minded reasons for the decision. So high-minded was his talk that Ezra Klein was moved to remark that “Evan Bayh might have been an ordinary politician, but he’s proving an extraordinary retiree.” It turned out, however, that his main plan was to get rich as a lobbyist. Today we learn that he’ll also be acquiring a secondary gig as a conservative television pundit:
Bayh will be a commentator and political analyst across all of Fox News’ platforms. He was a Senator from 1999 to 2011, where he became one of the more prominent conservative Democrats in the chamber. He was also the Governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997. Bayh considered running for the presidency in 2008, but ultimately decided against it.
Note that there’s considerable synergy between Bayh’s job at McGuireWoods LLP and his Fox gig. This way business enterprises hoping for regulatory favors or subsidies from the federal government can hire McGuireWoods not only to take advantage of Bayh’s influence and knowledge on the Hill, they’ll also be gaining on on-air television spokesman, presumably one whose client affiliations won’t be disclosed to the viewing public. And since as best we can tell Fox has no journalistic standards, it’ll be an ideal venue for peddling whatever nonsense he likes.