Indiana Can Have Him Back

What's the real reason for Bayh's departure? John Fund puts it on "liberal overreach":

Before Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh suddenly announced he will not seek re-election in November he had issued several warnings to fellow Democrats. Last month, for example, he told Gerald Seib of this newspaper that his party's liberals were "tone deaf" to the fact that they'd "overreached" in their agenda. "For those people," he said, "it may take a political catastrophe of biblical proportions before they get it."

I can certainly see how a third generation career politician would flee the foul stench of Tea Bag in the shifting political winds ... but seriously, dude, grow a pair. What a douche!

The guys at FiveThirtyEight apparently agreee:

I never much cared for Sen. Evan Bayh, and care even less for his lame explanation of why he is retiring. It’s not that he’s one of an increasingly extinct number of centrist legislators who presume to be better than partisans from either side of the aisle, or that he expects to exercise power beyond his lone vote. And, to be fair, the laments Bayh expressed upon departure are hardly comparable to the steady diet of hang-wringing sanctimony we get from self-styled saviors, like Bayh’s colleagues Joe Lieberman and John McCain.

It’s just that complaints about America’s polarized politics are especially hypocritical coming from Bayh’s mouth. [...]

It's worse, though. This is the exact opposite of the instict that will save the party this fall. Government is there to govern. If the Democratic caucus can't figure out how to get legislation through the Senate, an American public with 10%+ unemployment will replace it.