Ezra Klein has been landing some pretty good interviews of late. Even though he (often in the case of Paul Ryan) overtly disagrees with the interviewee. Today is with the soon to be retired Democratic Senator from Indiana: Evan Bayh. All and all a good read, though nothing earth shattering.
Mostly, however, it shows Bayh as a progressive at heart, despite his often having been demonized by progressives. I'm sure that there are still policy areas in which he is significantly more conservative than an average Dem, but it seems like he has his head on straight when it comes to how things should operate in the Senate, notably when it comes to deciding committee chairs.
The filibuster has been hammered all over the place lately, but one of the things that is also a bit of a sticker for many progressives is that Republicans do committee chairs much better than Democrats do. The result is ancient out of touch Dems, largely from places that are less progressive (like Montana and Iowa) chairing very important committees and forcing compromises that much of the base dislike in return for: absolutely nothing. Joe Freaking Lieberman is a committee chair and he hasn't been a Democrat in practice for a while.
I would prefer that chairs be determined by drawing names from a hat.
I should note that the seniority crap is pretty similar in the House, though that has notably changed under Pelosi to allow for some junior members to actually be more effective legislators. (typically the first termers have very little power, and can't affect legislation much, and so end up having a harder reelection fight than more senior incumbents). Not that house members with seniority were appreciative of the change.
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