Thursday, July 26, 2012

More On Bauer Drama

The Northwest Indiana Times' Dan Carden is reporting that State Rep. Linda Lawson (D-Hammond) is likely to be named as an interim minority leader for the Indiana Democratic caucus at a caucus meeting called today in Lafayette to remove their long-time Democratic leader, Pat Bauer. Carden's source is State Rep. Charlie Brown (D-Gary).

Brown said at least 21 Democratic representatives must agree to remove Bauer, D-South Bend. He said he's confident the votes are there to oust the former House speaker.
"It appears as though the majority of the members of the House Democratic caucus are screaming for a change in leadership," Brown said.
But Bauer isn't going quietly. During an unusually long 40-minute Statehouse news conference Wednesday, Bauer said the effort to remove him is unnecessary, unfair, illegal, destructive to the party, "distractful" and disrespectful.
He insisted House Democrats cannot hold a meeting because state Rep. Vanessa Summers, D-Indianapolis, the caucus chairwoman and a Bauer ally, did not call for one.
WRTV's Norm Cox also reported that Bauer's State House office had been cleared of many of his personal belongings when reporters gathered in it yesterday to get his reaction to news of the latest efforts to remove him. His wife told reporters that the items had been removed in the event of a sudden shift in command. Bauer acknowledged to reporters that he had faced criticism within his caucus on a host of issues, including that he is "follically-impaired." Cox said Bauer, who has long worn a toupee, had never before publicly talked about his hair.

UPDATE: At a caucus of the 23 of the 30 Democratic members of the House today in Lafayette, the members voted to oust Bauer as minority leader and name Rep. Lawson as the interim minority leader through the November election. It is unclear whether Bauer will recognize the legitimacy of the decision. Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker congratulated Lawson and says that she has the state party's backing. Indiana GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb released a statement indicating that his party is sorry to see Bauer go.

6 comments:

Pete Boggs said...

Comments about personal uniquities should be off limits.

However, curiosity of critical thought, would cause some to wonder, about what the caucus might discover and react to, politically bossed distributions to candidates. What could that discovery mean for the boss?

Jeff Cox said...

Pete,

Bauer's toupee has long been a bipartisan joke at the Statehouse, simply because for the longest time it was just so laughably bad. Even Gary Varvel of the Star made fun of it by attaching a price tag to Bauer's hair whenever he appeared in one of Varvel's cartoons. He seemed to get a new one a few years ago that was a big improvement and the jokes stopped for the most part.

Strange that he would bring it up right now. Between that and his invention of the word "distractful" (I'm gonna have to use that), it looks like this has him more upset than a typical political battle.

patriot paul said...

Bauer said: "to remove him is unnecessary, unfair, illegal, destructive to the party, "distractful" and disrespectful". Hmmm. Aren't those words similar to what Bauer himself did when he led his caucus to their hotel vacation in Illinois? What goes around comes around. Oh how rich the hypocrisy.

Unknown said...

So...the democrats scream, cry, kick their feet, and complain that Richard Mourdock will be a TERRIBLE senator because "he won't compromise."
But B. Patrick Baur, who rammed legislation through, took his caucus out of state, and did everything EXCEPT compromise....THAT was OK?
Oh....I get it now!

CircleCityScribe said...

I guess that he won't be remembered as the successor to Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall.

artfuggins said...

Dan Parker shouldn't be too happy. He is next.