Birch Bayh, as the rain fell

<p>By John Krull TheStatehouseFile.com  INDIANAPOLIS – Birch Bayh chuckled. I rode in a car with him during the waning days of the 1990 Indiana secretary of state race. I was covering Democrat Joe Hogsett in the last stages of what would be an upset campaign against the heavily favored Republican candidate, Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut. […]</p><p>The post <a href="//thestatehousefile.com/commentary-birch-bayh-rain-fell/38180/&quot;" rel="&quot;nofollow&quot;">Commentary: Birch Bayh, as the rain fell</a> appeared first on <a href="//thestatehousefile.com&quot;" rel="&quot;nofollow&quot;">TheStatehouseFile.com</a>.</p><p>INDIANAPOLIS — Birch Bayh chuckled.</p><p>I rode in a car with him during the waning days of the 1990 Indiana secretary of state race. I was covering Democrat Joe Hogsett in the last stages of what would be an upset campaign against the heavily favored Republican candidate, Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut. Hogsett was young enough to be Bayh’s son, Hudnut old enough to be Bayh’s contemporary.</p><p>The weather was miserable in the Region, cold with November rain that sometimes blew sideways and sometimes swirled.</p><p>Hogsett, on the hunt for the votes that would push him over the top, worked the streets, going to door to door even as the rain made the sidewalks a sopping mess.</p><p>Bayh was a decade past his own last campaign, a losing battle to retain the U.S. Senate seat he had held for 18 years.</p><p>Bayh had come back to Indiana to help Hogsett. Few voices exerted more sway with organized labor than Birch Bayh’s did. His task was to rally the union troops and he did it in vintage Birch Bayh fashion, suit coat off, sleeves rolled up, tie loosened, leaning over the lectern.</p><p>When he finished, the crowd roared.</p><p>And when he left the hall, the union guys shook his hand as if it were a pump handle and pounded him on the back. Many begged him to run for office again.</p><p>As we all drove away, a couple of Hogsett campaign staffers groused wearily about how hard it had been to campaign against Hudnut. Hudnut even had found funds to put up billboards in heavily Democratic Lake County.</p><p>That’s when Bayh chuckled.</p><p>An old pro, he knew that Hudnut’s chances of picking up votes in union country were worse than slim.</p><p>“If Bill wants to spend his money that way, let him,” Bayh murmured. “He’s doing you a favor if he does.”</p><p>Bayh stayed in the car while Hogsett knocked on doors.</p><p>After traipsing after Hogsett in the rain for a couple of blocks, I opted to stay with Bayh in the car. I was curious to talk with the former senator about how it felt to come back to Indiana.</p><p>I asked him if he ever thought about running for office again.</p><p>He shrugged and said it was gratifying to be asked, but that part of his life was over. He’d had his day, he said, and now it was time to let others take their turn.</p><p>That prompted me to ask him what advice he would give Bill Hudnut, who was headed to defeat in a race he’d expected to win.</p><p>Bayh’s voice softened.</p><p>Everyone in politics loses at some point, he said.</p><p>The sting from the loss is lessened if you had run and served for reasons beyond ambition, he said, his voice a whisper.</p><p>He said he had loved being the senator from Indiana for three terms. He talked about the people he had been able to help — the opportunities, particularly for women and young people, he had been able to create through the adoption of Title IX and through the constitutional amendment lowering the minimum voting age from 21 to 18 — and said that was the best solace for a defeat.</p><p>He said if Hudnut could take the same satisfaction from serving four terms as mayor of Indianapolis that Bayh took from being senator, Hudnut would be able to take comfort from that knowledge.</p><p>“It will hurt, because it always hurts to lose,” Bayh murmured, almost as if he were talking to himself. “But, if Bill remembers all of the people he was able to help, he’ll be all right. He’ll get through it.”</p><p>Birch Bayh died recently. He was 91.</p><p>His legacy is immense. The author of two amendments to the U.S. Constitution and numerous other contributions to the well-being of those too often downtrodden and dispossessed, he looms large in the history of this state and country.</p><p>But, in these days after his passing, I find himself thinking not of that big picture, but of an aging warrior talking softly, while the wind howled, about fates worse than defeat.</p><p>Such as not trying in the first place.</p><p>Or forgetting why you tried in the first place.</p><p>That old warrior is gone now.</p><p>Let’s hope he rests in peace.</p><p>The post <a href="//thestatehousefile.com/commentary-birch-bayh-rain-fell/38180/&quot;">Commentary: Birch Bayh, as the rain fell</a> appeared first on <a href="//thestatehousefile.com&quot;">TheStatehouseFile.com</a>.</p>