Virginia Senator's Fundraising Suggests Retirement in the Cards
Virginia Republican Senator John Warner (and ex-Elizabeth Taylor husband) looks very likely to retire: He raised $71,000 in the second quarter, after raising only $500 in the first. Let us pause in wonder at that $500 figure. For a prominent US Senator to raise so little, you would think he was working the phones non-stop telling people not to give him money. While if Warner decides to run for re-election, he would be unlikely to face a serious opponent, an unserious opponent might be able to gain ground on him if he doesn’t step up his fundraising. If the Senator does not run, this seat has got to be regarded as a likely Democratic pick-up.
Many years back, a newspaper article called the Senator the dumbest man in the United States Senate. Warner, insulted, wanted to sue, and was warned that was a bad idea: What if the reporter was able to prove it? It’s been many years, of course, since anyone called him the dumbest man in the Senate. Which either means he’s gotten a whole lot smarter, or the Senate has gotten a whole lot dumber.
It could be either one, but I know which way I’d bet it.
