Based on approval ratings of barely 30 percent, most Americans believe Congress is overly partisan and dysfunctional. Monday's unexpected announcement by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., that he will not seek re-election only reinforces the view of a Congress that is broken.

Bayh expressed frustration at the inability to get anything done in Congress, and he blamed "brain-dead partisanship" for much of the gridlock on Capitol Hill.

Extreme partisanship not only prevents compromise, but it also crowds out divergent views, including those of moderates from both parties. In recent years, it's been noted that moderate Republicans have become nearly extinct. Now, with the loss of Bayh, the same appears to be happening in the Democratic Party.

Some Republicans suggest Bayh's decision to not run again is a reaction to the surprising victory of Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts to fill the Senate seat held by Edward Kennedy.

Commenting on the Bayh announcement, Michael Steele, chairman of the national Republican Party, said "moderate Democrats across the country are heading for the hills because they sold out their constituents and don't want to face them at the ballot box."

While Bayh's decision poses problems for Democrats in Congress, it's wrong to view his decision through a purely political lens. Bayh never has lost an election and he is very well-funded, with $13 million in his campaign war chest. And Bayh is popular in Indiana, having won both his Senate terms with a comfortable 60 percent of the vote.

As a fiscal conservative, Bayh frustrated many of his more liberal Democratic colleagues with his focus on deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility. The recent defeat in the Senate of a plan to form a bipartisan commission to recommend actions to reduce the federal deficit was disheartening to Bayh and might have been the final straw.

Bayh's surprising announcement comes just weeks after two prominent Democratic senators, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, announced they too would not seek re-election.

Democrats certainly face a troubling trend, but Republicans have to know that the public is growing more anti-incumbent than anti-Democrat.

Most off-year elections see the party in power lose seats in Congress. This year should be no different.

But instead of signaling support for the minority party, most Americans' frustration is with a Congress — and sometimes a government — that doesn't work because of extreme partisanship and hardened ideologies.

Bayh suggested that voters could shock Congress into action by replacing senators and representatives who are viewed as too partisan with challengers from either party. But that's unlikely to happen, as most voters seem to think that their particular lawmaker is effective, while every other lawmaker should go.

Polarization in Congress often is linked to gerrymandering, where politicians alter congressional district boundaries following the national census to make each seat safe for a Democrat or Republican. By allowing lawmakers to select their voters, rather than voters selecting their lawmakers, the result is a 90 percent or higher re-election rate for incumbents — and partisan gridlock.

Most surveys suggest the American public, generally considered right of center, is not nearly as divided as Congress. Fewer than 20 percent of Americans are strongly conservative or strongly liberal — most people live in the middle of the political spectrum, often holding views considered conservative on some issues as well as other views considered liberal.

Congress today is not a reflection of America — it's a reflection of politicians gaming the system to serve themselves, their party or the special interests and lobbyists who finance their re-election campaigns. Serving their constituents, and the country at large, comes last, if at all.

Because Bayh is one of those lawmakers who wants to get things done and try to solve problems, his departure from Congress will only make the partisan gridlock worse, unless millions of Americans say "no more" and start replacing incumbents at the ballot box.