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Hello, and welcome to the Slateville.

Go Gap Fest for the 19th of February.

I'm John Dickerson in Washington with David Plotz.

Emily Bazelon is in New York.

She is, you might hear a slight hiss coming from her.

She's sitting on an enormous Pilates ball that is slowly losing air. And that's what accounts for that. Our first topic today is going to be about the retirement of Evan Bai, Senator from Indiana. Our second topic will be Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff. Should he be fired for sins both large and small and is he to blame for everything bad

that's happened to mankind since the Bronze Age? And topic three will be the conservatives.

They were in Washington this week at the conservative political action committee's convention.

Also some Tea Party activists were meeting with the Republican Party. And there were also some

other conservatives who signed a manifesto, the Mount Vernon manifesto, which I know most of our listeners have read and committed to memory. David Plotz, beginning with you, what does it mean that Evan By decided not to run again? Well, it means the Democrats have lost another seat because there is no way in hell that they are going to hold onto the Indiana seat because

they have, I think, not a strong candidate to put up. And the Republicans, it's a state which

naturally wants to be Republican and the Republicans are going to take that seat pretty easily.

It's, you know, Bai did this kind of more in anger than in sorrow. No, he did

one of these sorrowful. Yeah, more in anger than in sorrow. Yeah, this, you know, this,

this angry exit disgusted with Washington and he can't take it anymore. And, you know,

it's a not, it's a totally valid point. Washington is partisan and disgraceful these

...