Jack Warner announces retirement

Sen Jack Warner (R-Va), the senior Senator from Virginia and my favorite GOP politician is calling it quits after 30 years in the Senate. This is indeed a great loss of experience for the nation as a whole. It is also a singular opportunity for the Dems to add another Senate seat (Va used to be a red state until Jim Webb proved otherwise in 2006) in 2008.

Senator Jack Warner was everything the current GOP party is not. Bipartisan, secular, global, smart, erudite and urbane. With his mane of white hair (mostly intact), his great choice in clothing, his star power (he was married to Liz Taylor and dated Barbara Walters for a while) and his knowledgeable and able leadership as the Armed Services Committee chairman he was a formidable politician and the closest thing we have to an "eminence grise" in the Senate. In recent times he has come out and stated his disappointment for the way this Administration has prosecuted this war. His concerns made headlines.

He will be missed indeed.