Is Evan Bayh a spineless, weak, empty shell of a people's representative?

I'm just asking:

“The only we are able to govern successfully in this country is by liberals and progressives making common cause with independents and moderates,” Bayh said.  “Whenever you have just the furthest left elements of the Dem party attempting to impose their will on the rest of the country -- that’s not going to work too well.” 

This is pure garbage, and Bayh knows it.  In what universe are the furthest left elements of the Dem party imposing their will on anybody?  In the real world, liberals and progressives have been making common cause with independents and moderates on health care, which is why "the furthest left elements of the Dem party" are very disappointed in the quite tepid health care bill, the stimulus bill that had to be stripped down by $100-200 billion for no stated reason, the lack of activity on gay rights, the troop buildup in Afghanistan, and the failure to carry through any meaningful reform of the financial industry.

There are whispers of Mike Pence running against Bayh.  Obviously, I don't like Mike Pence and, yes, he would appear to make a more terrible senator than Bayh.  But after all this, I'm actually not sure just how much more terrible Pence would be than Bayh has been as of late.  And at least with Pence, we know what we'll be getting, but with Bayh, who knows?  

Voting for Pence is like buying a gallon of rotten milk that is already past its "best by" date: you know it's going to taste awful and be bad for you; voting for Bayh is like buying a gallon of milk with a mis-printed "best by" date: you think it's going to be delicious and nutritious, but it tastes of feet and old cheese, and on the bottom of the jug a printed label tells you that you really shouldn't have wanted non-spoiled milk in the first place because, well, that's just over-reaching.

Caption: Evan Bayh (D-IN), seen here at a town hall forum on how to use ridiculous claims about the fringe elements of one's own political party in order to avoid the responsibility that comes with being a leader, feigns trying to hear the concerns of an uninsured constituent.  Bayh used the same gesture when two other constitutents spoke: one was a woman who had been denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition, and the other had been repeatedly denied coverage that was included in his original insurance policy.  Bayh did not seem to have any trouble hearing anything that representatives of the health insurance industry had to say, especially those from WellPoint.