By Dave Andrusko

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Well, when it rains, it pours. In an announcement that nobody saw coming, Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh announced today that he is hanging up his senatorial cleats. A man who has never lost an election attributed his decision not to an increasingly volatile political climate--"Even in the current challenging environment, I am confident in my prospects for re-election"--but to a waning desire to serve in Congress.

Sen. Evan Bayh (D) will not seek re-election

However it is also true that Bayh's decision comes less than two weeks after former Indiana Republican Senator Dan Coats indicated he would be running. While unnamed aides told any reporter who would listen that Bayh was comfortably ahead of Coats, Chuck Dodd, NBC News Chief White House correspondent, remarked, "it's not going unnoticed that Coats ducked Bayh in '98; Now Bayh ['s] ducking Coats."

As is always the case, context is everything--in this case a trifecta of bad news for pro-abortion Democrats over the last month.

The 54-year-old Bayh, a former Indiana secretary of state and two-term governor, dropped his surprising news only a month after the even more surprising election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Not only did this deprive Senate Democrats of a filibuster-proof majority, adding insult to injury for Democrats, Brown was replacing the late Sen. Teddy Kennedy.

Bayh's announcement also follows on the heels of the not-unexpected retirement of scandal-ridden Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and the largely unexpected retirement of Sen. Byron Dorgan(D-N.D.).

Indiana is considered a Republican-leaning state, a handicap which Bayh overcame with a reputation as a "moderate" and initially by being the son of former Indiana Senator Birch Bayh.

To retake control of the Senate, Republicans would need a net gain of ten seats in the November 2010 elections.

Part Two