That was quite the parting shot that Sen. Evan Bayh delivered to the Sen ate this week.

“I have had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should,” said the Indiana Democrat, announcing that he will not stand for a third term.

“There is . . . too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous challenge, the people’s business is not being done.”

Bayh’s broadside mirrors the sentiment of the vast majority of Americans — 63 percent of whom, according to a recent poll, don’t think their member of Congress deserves re-election.

That’s a portentous number — voters usually hate Congress but love their own congressman — and it could have profound implications for this fall’s elections.

No surprise, then, that Vice President Joe Biden seems to have bought a clue. Citing voter concerns over ballooning deficits, Biden said yesterday, “We understand why they’re angry. . . We get it.”

Really?

Hours later, President Obama was praising his stimulus program to the heavens: “There has never been a program of this scale, moved at this speed, that has been enacted as effectively and as transparently as the recovery act.”

Probably so, even if scarcely a third of the $787 billion appropriation has been spent. And he could just as truthfully have said that never before has the federal deficit grown on such a scale and with such speed, to such little good effect, while creating such popular anger.

And he promises more of the same.

America’s popular anger is a direct result of specific policies — mainly, those that are spending the country into penury with no noticeable improvement in most folks’ economic condition.

To wit:

* Obama’s pride-and-joy $787 billion stimulus bill, which saved some state and local government jobs, but created virtually no new private-sector positions. (For the ugly details, see below.)

* Bank and automaker bailouts that are seen to reward irresponsibility.

* A radical proposed health-care overhaul that was loaded with special-interest giveaways and bribes for key legislators — and threatens to saddle the nation with massive tax increases.

Republicans deserve a full share of the blame: They set the stage for the current binge with their own spendthrift ways.

The explosion of “narrow ideology” decried by Bayh — often Internet-driven — is merely an outgrowth of this lack of seriousness in Washington.

Such frivolity is also a major factor in Congress’s corruption epidemic. Where “spend, spend, spend” counts as a governing philosophy, who wouldn’t be tempted to take his cut?

Compared to the rest of the crowd, Bayh stood out as a fairly serious guy; for that reason, he’ll be missed.

But don’t expect much to change until a lot more of his colleagues follow him out the door.

Or are chased out.