Bayh? Bought.

Evan Bayh is one of the many Democrats who wants the '08 nomination so bad he can taste it. His name has been associated with the term presidential run since at least 2000, when the conventional wisdom was that young-ish, conservative-ish, and Southern-ish would be a nearly unbeatable combination. In fact, I didn't know much else about Bayh, until he emerged after the elections to take the credit for the Dems' big win.

John Judis knows something, though-- the Indiana senator's position on the bankruptcy bill.

And Bayh was also a recipient of credit card money. He was tenth among all Senators in 2001-2002 for the receipt of money from finance/credit companies, the year of the vote, and he was tenth in the 2005-2006 session, when the bill finally passed both houses and was signed. So he was paying the companies back for their support.

But it may not be that simple. Feinstein's amendment was a fly on the elephant's hide. While 17 Democratic Senators eventually backed the final bill in March 2005, eight of them also supported Feinstein's amendment in March 2001. They included Baucus, New Mexico's Jeff Bingaman, North Dakota's Kent Conrad, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln, and Florida's Bill Nelson. Many of these senators were as dependent on credit card contributions as Bayh was, but they were willing to vote their conscience on what was a really a small financial matter to the companies. Not Bayh.