Former Republican Congresssman John Hostettler announced today he's launching a bid to challenge Indiana Senator Evan Bayh next year. Hostettler represented Indiana's 8th Congressional district for six terms from 1994 to 2006, eventually losing in a landslide to Democrat Brad Ellsworth.

Hostettler made the announcement in a posting on his web site which reads, in part:

And speaking of Washington, DC, in 2006, Senators Harry Reid and Evan Bayh asked voters to give them control of Congress, and America gave them what they asked for.  They've been in control of the government's purse strings and lawmaking authority for the past three years.  What do they have to show for it?  Unemployment is the highest it has been in more than a quarter century.  Bailed out Wall Street banks are paying their employees billions in bonuses; and an annual budget deficit running in the trillions of dollars.  How have Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Evan Bayh responded to this reality?  By doing what they always do:  blame someone else for their years of failed leadership.

And do you remember the so-called Stimulus Package that President Obama and his ally, Senator Bayh, said would create jobs?  What was their solution to the millions of Americans looking for a job?  Make-believe jobs in nonexistent congressional districts.  Americans don't have the luxury of cheering Washington, DC for creating pretend jobs.  Hoosiers need real jobs created by real companies that are not taxed and regulated to death by new big government boondoggles like government-run health care and cap and trade.  These new programs will only push jobs out of Indiana and out of the United States.

Even without these NEW programs, Harry Reid and Evan Bayh will continue to heap trillions of dollars of debt onto the backs of future generations of American taxpayers.  We can't afford to allow Harry Reid and Evan Bayh to have six more years to bankrupt our children's future and make them the virtual servants of our foreign creditors.

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