Chris Matthews had two former senators...

...on Hardball the other night, Democrat John Breaux from Louisiana and Republican William Cohen from Maine. They were discussing the retirement of Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and how difficult it has become to serve as a centrist in the United States Senate. Matthews showed a clip of Bayh:

SEN. EVAN BAYH (D), INDIANA: I don‘t feel that the Senate or Congress in general is working as well as it should. I think it‘s in desperate need of reform. I think you‘ve got a lot of good people trapped in a dysfunctional system right now. And with regard to the left-wing bloggers, you know, I believe in the 1st Amendment. They‘ve got a right to criticize me. Sometimes it gets a little personal. You know, you‘re only human, you don‘t like that. But you know, you‘ve got to accept that in our society, so I do.

MATTHEWS: Well, Senator Breaux, he took a shot at the left-wing bloggers, as he calls them. And the question is, is that part of the difficulty of being a U.S. senator, you get hit from your extremes, from the liberal side, the left, and the right, if you try to work a deal in the center?

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MATTHEWS: Well, what do you say to the J.D. Hayworths on the right who are to there beating the heck out of John McCain and the Katrina Vanden Heuvels over on the left who are raising hell about the Democrats like you, Senator, or anybody that might go to the middle? I want to start with you, Mr. Cohen. What do you say to your extremes when they get all the noise on TV? They got nothing to lose. I guess that‘s one thing you can say, that you‘ve got nothing to lose!

COHEN: What‘s wrong is no one is willing to take tough decisions. It used to be, when Senator Breaux and I were in the Congress, that in the Senate, you could be a statesman for four years and then go run for reelection the last two (my emphasis). Now it‘s running every moment, raising money, out on the road. And what we‘re seeing is the polarization taking place and no decisions being made because they‘re too tough.

To which I say, Boo-hoo! You have to run for reelection for six years now. So--stop! Serve for six years in the best way you know how and then step down if you have to. Why is it more important for a guy like John McCain to get reelected to the Senate than it is for him to stand up to a thug like J. D. Hayworth? McCain is forever talking about honor and courage and blah, blah, blah. Why doesn't he show some himself and just vote his conscience?