NP: Wigan vs. Tottenham

Evan Bayh has an op-ed piece in today's New York Times about his decision not to run for re-election in Indiana, along with his suggestions on how to fix the legislative branch. While he makes some good points -- like his observation that "when too many of our citizens take an all-or-nothing approach, we should not be surprised when nothing is the result" -- and gives a shout-out to Indiana favorite son David Letterman early on, his first recommendation strikes me as, well, a little odd.

Let’s start with a simple proposal: why not have a monthly lunch of all 100 senators? Every week, the parties already meet for a caucus lunch. Democrats gather in one room, Republicans in another, and no bipartisan interaction takes place. With a monthly lunch of all senators, we could pick a topic and have each side make a brief presentation followed by questions and answers.

I think that what happened here is that Bayh became jealous of whatever the Republicans were having at their caucus lunches, but it wasn't enough to make him to switch parties.