R.O.C.K. in the Senate?

 Well, Bayh, I hope you're happy.  Now that you've announced your retirement, not only have you sent Republicans scrambling for your seat, but you've also somehow managed to find worse candidates than yourself on the Democratic side to start popping up.  The more I look at the potential candidates, I cringe, but it looks likely that Baron Hill will be the frontrunner.

Baron Hill, really?


Let me preface this by saying I'm a critic of all my elected officials, it's my responsibility as a citizen to know what they're doing and be dissatisfied with the results as I see fit.  That being said, as the Representative for Indiana's ninth district, Hill has served on three committees including the Joint Economics Committee.  Don't get me wrong, if you've got an econ guy running for office, sign me up because I can get on board with that, but he's not an econ guy.  Not only is his degree in history, but he has received abysmally low ratings from interests groups for the American taxpayers.  Now, I can give him credit in a couple of areas.  Number one, he supported H.R. 2272, which was designed to put America back in the driver's seat in regards to science and mathematics education.

Honestly, if the election were today, that one vote is enough to keep me voting in his column.  Despite the fact that he hasn't made a speech on education in the two years since he cast that vote, I can forgive him.  But here's the deal, Baron.  As a United States Senator, you should be one of the best citizens our state has to offer.  Preferably, you should be in the top two.  Indiana has a horrible history of electing unproductive senators who can't seem to make any noise when they reach Washington.  Perhaps this is Hoosier Hospitality preventing them from rising in opposition, but I doubt it.

Hoosiers are leaders, not followers, so why is it that we are still yet to elect a single senator who could be an innovator?  (The one exception to this rule could be said to be Dan Quayle who was not only the 44th Vice President of the United States, but also wasn't afraid to stick his neck out in the senate.  I disagree with this assessment strictly because he was both intellectually and politically weak nationally.... Oh yeah, and he can't spell the word "potato").  Now, I'm not saying that Baron Hill is awful.  He's good at his current job, representing southern Indiana.  I don't believe, however, he's politically strong enough to carry his own weight in the Senate.  Don't believe me?  Go to his website, read a couple of position statements, and tell me how many times you see a buzz word.  He's too weak for the seat... So who to choose, who to choose?

There's a lot of talk recently about John Mellencamp potentially making a run for the seat.  All I can do is shrug and hope something crazy happens.  Not only is there a strong push from several Hoosier groups, but Mellencamp has not denied the claims that he's running.  Recently, his agent said that they have no statement on the issue, which raises two immediate questions...


1.)  Why would the same man who said "I don't want to be a politician. I don't like politics. It's petty; it fights dirty" run for the United States Senate?
2.)  Is there actually a chance he could fight authority and NOT have authority win?


My answer to both is we don't know.  I don't buy that he's about to run out of nowhere, but then again, I could see it happening.  I feel like after 2008, he has hit a point where he'd get involved strictly to "fight authority."

But wait folks, here's the beauty... If Mellencamp runs, I guarantee a victory.  Not only will he win, but he has a chance to do something that no Hoosier politician has ever done, make a national splash that can actually make a difference in this nation.  He can be our Al Franken, but with more spunk.  The best part?  Those walls that have been holding Indianapolis back politically and economically?


They'll come tumblin' down.