Tippecanoe County Democrats —

The Blue Indiana political blog reports that Republican Congressman Mike Pence is trying desperately to hang the BP oil disaster on President Obama, to make it his Katrina. "The American people deserve to know why the administration was slow to respond, why necessary equipment was not immediately on hand in the area and why the president did not fully deploy cabinet-level federal officials until he spoke at the White House on April 28th," says Pence. He also argues that President Obama's response to the oil spill was slower than Bush's to Katrina.

Happily, even some Republican commentators are rejecting his line. Fox's Bill O'Reilly calls the politicization of the spill is "insane" and wonders, "What could they have done? Are you gonna put Obama in a dive suit and send him down there with a little rake?" Former Republican congressman and MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough says that the oil spill/Katrina analogy is "completely obscene" and "Anybody that draws that analogy is an idiot." You can read Blue Indiana's entry on this subject here.

Reps. Baron Hill and Andre Carson have forwarded a four-page memo from Cynthia Mann, director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to Governor Mitch Daniels, explaining that the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does not provide a justification to phase out the state’s medical savings accounts for low-income adults through the Healthy Indiana Plan or to close HIP to new enrollees, as Gov. Daniels has done. “Indiana is in no way required to terminate its Healthy Indiana Plan,” says Director Mann. Her memo also addresses Attorney General Zoeller's suit on the constitutionality of the health reform bill: “This is nothing new. Historically, opponents of reform have turned to the courts when major legislation they disagree with is signed into law.”

The Governor counters that Hill is “understandably nervous about the perfectly obvious negative effects of his bill on health care costs, premiums and taxes.” You can read more here.

The Indiana primary, like others nationwide, was tough on incumbents and "establishment" candidates. Take 28-year incumbent Rep. Dan Coats. You'd think if he only pulled 30 per cent of the Republican votes that he'd just been administered the political whipping of a lifetime. Instead, he won the primary because six challengers split the anti-Burton vote. What if there'd only been one or two or even three challengers?

Or take Senator-Turned-Washington-Lobbyist Dan Coats. Blessed with four challengers, the hand-picked nominee of the Republican Party's elite garnered only 39 percent of the vote, enough to slide him into a race with the dynamic Brad Ellsworth.

The turnout in the Republican primary was impressive, the highest of this decade (including presidential years), but will the 60 to 70 percent of anti-establishment Tea Party types turn up in November to support these tired establishment retreads? One also has to wonder if the Tea Party is so politically astute, why didn't it coalesce around one or two strong candidates who could have picked off the establishment candidates?

You can read more about battered establishment Republicans from the Christian Science Monitor here. And here is Lafayette political blogger Doug Masson wondering what happened to the Tea Party revolution.

Among the crowded field of Republicans vying for Evan Bayh's Senate seat, only one of them--State Sen. Marlin Stutzman--met the deadline for submitting required financial disclosure forms three weeks ago. Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker is requesting that the Senate Ethics Committee take action against them for a violation of Senate ethics. Parker is especially frustrated with Dan Coats, who, as a Washington lobbyist, knows these rules. Parker says, “I believe Mr. Coats is engaged in a cynical and deceitful attempt to hide his lobbying income until after the primary election because he fears disclosure could negatively impact his political campaign.” You can read more here.