New York pollster John McLaughlin tells me he’s not surprised by the Dodd news: “Last year I thought some of the negative ethics information on Dodd was leaked by Democrats to force him out. Republicans didn’t have that information. The Democrats did know they had a more popular candidate they could run in his place.”

Dorgan is a different story, though: “In North Dakota, that’s not the case. Byron Dorgan was popular, but forced out by the specter of the very popular governor who will run for Senate. The only common denominator is that President Obama’s policies are forcing liberal Democrats who gave him their votes into unexpected retirement. We’ve seen it in the House. We’re seeing it in the Senate. As states run record deficits due to out-of-control spending, you’ll see it in the statehouses.”