Another blow to the Democrats after Evan Bayh announces that he will leave the Senate

“I DO not love Congress,” Evan Bayh declared on Monday February 15th. “I will not, therefore, be a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate this November.” Mr Bayh, Indiana’s two-term Democratic senator, warned against reading too much into his decision. But over-interpretation is what Washington does best. The chattering classes erupted. Mr Bayh was nervous about his re-election. He never even liked the Senate. He wants to foil Democrats’ chances in Congress. In his announcement he said “I’m an executive at heart”, so he must want to be president.

Perhaps, in time, one theory will trump others. For now, however, the only clear outcome is that Democrats’ problems have got worse. Mr Bayh is the third Democratic senator this year to quit Congress—Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota declared last month that they would retire. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, learned of Mr Bayh’s decision from news reports. Joe Wilson, a Republican wont to shout insults in joint sessions of Congress, summed up the Republican response in a tweet: “good prospects of change in Indiana has [sic] now become much brighter!” …