Charlie White Going After Bayh: Proper Complaint, Improper Reason

"Huh-uh, YOU did!"

Charlie White

Yep, Indiana politics has turned in to a game of childish finger pointing. The entire local blog world (Advance Indiana, Ogden on Politics, Indiana Barrister, et al) and the entire local news world (WRTV, WISH, WTHR) is reporting that Secretary of State Charlie White has filed a complaint against Evan Bayh, charging that the former Indiana Senator has committed felony voter fraud by lying about his primary residence when voting.

Hmmm...sound familiar?  Let's see, an Indiana politician being charged with lying about his primary residence when voting....gosh, I swear I've heard that before.  Oh, yeah!  Those accusations have been made against Charlie White!

In an interesting turn of events on the Charlie White saga, White himself decided to file a complaint with Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry asking Curry to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate whether or not Bayh committed voter fraud by lying about his primary residence for May's primary. (Indiana Barrister has the whole complaint, thanks to Abdul Hakim-Shabazz)

Evan Bayh

And this is where this whole thing will go sour.  You see, White has a legitimate complaint about Bayh.  As Paul Ogden points out, White could also easily make this same complaint against Dick Lugar, but since Lugar is a Republican, White took a pass. I mean, White is clearly going to great lengths to prove that the Democrats are after him, and you make that point by turning the tables against Democrats, not against fellow Republicans.

But White's choosing to only go after Bayh is exactly what is going to make everyone snicker about this.  By going after only the big-name Democrat, you turn this mess into a piece of children screaming "Well he did it first!"  Trying to spin it that way makes White look like an idiot, and will make this whole thing be a news story for, oh, about as long as it takes you to finish this blog.  This is all going to be gone that quick.

And what's really sad is Charlie White had a point.  We all know Evan Bayh hasn't lived here in years.  Most of us are too young to remember when Lugar lived here at all.  Yet they continue to claim Indiana residences, and they continue to vote in our precincts, and Lugar still claims to be a Hoosier when he represents us in D.C.  This is a major problem with Federal politics, and it is one that needs some serious attention drawn to it.

Richard Lugar

Charlie White, despite all his problems, actually had the opportunity to draw our attention to this the right way.  He could have stood up and said, ' You know what?  I did it.  You are all right, I lied and I did it.  It's time for me to accept my wrong doing, and time to be punished for it.  And I think it's time we took a hard look at the other politicians around here.  Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar have failed to live in this state for years and years, but continue to claim residence.  I agree it's time I took my punishment, but it's time they took their punishment, too."

But, of course, Charlie White didn't do that.  Instead, he just pointed the finger at Bayh.  In doing so, he turned this into just another political mess that we'll all ignore.  Just some more finger-pointing across party lines.  Just some more of the typical political hypocrisy...."it's OK when I do it, but it's a horrible injustice when they do."

I do find it ironic that, by pointing out the Bayh situation, White all but admitted guilt himself. According to White's Attorney, former Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, in the WISH-TV article:

Carl Brizzi, White's defense attorney, said White was trying to make a point that the charges against him were politically motivated when he had done the same thing as Bayh, a former Indiana secretary of state and governor.


"The case is just intended to show the similarities in their two situations," Brizzi said. "This whole thing started because of politics."

Guess what, Carl...you just said your client did it.  White presented truly damning evidence against Bayh, and you just said White did the same thing.  You said the two cases are similar.  Oops.

So now we're left with what will soon be yesterday's news.  Charlie White accuses Evan Bayh of doing what Charlie White is accused of doing.  Charlie White's attorney, who says that Charlie White is innocent, says that Charlie White is proving a point by showing the hypocrisy involved by Democrats by not charging Evan Bayh of what is clearly illegal, and that that illegal thing is the same thing that Charlie White did. And since Charlie White chose to only point fingers at Evan Bayh, and not at Dick Lugar, this all looks like a big bunch of political finger-pointing and we'll all forget about it tomorrow...when instead we should truly be investigating them all.