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It's not often that someone turns in his membership card to the most exclusive club in the land. But when Evan Bayh decided to give up his seat in the U.S. Senate last month, he sparked a trend continued by Rep. Eric Massa this week. The departing legislators, citing partisan politics, give inside-the-beltway confirmation to something Americans have felt for years - Washington is broken.

We think Bayh, and those who continue to follow him, are onto something. And the numbers back them up. According to data from our users in 50 states, a quarter of the U.S. Senate votes along with its constituents only 30 percent of the time. In other words, when these 25 Senators, Republican and Democrat, say yea or nay on the Senate floor, they're voting against their hometown neighbors on two-thirds of the country's most important issues. What's more, half of the Senate votes against those back home more than 50 percent of the time.

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