Good! Now the base doesn’t have to fight party officials (think Toomey Vs. Specter) over the seat.

“I will conclude my service to Virginia as a senator when I complete this, my fifth term, on January 6, 2009,” Warner said. The former Navy Secretary and past chairman of the Armed Services Committee said he wrestled with the decision, which he came to “in the last day or two.”

In the end, he said, it was the rigors of Senate service as he enters his 80s and the importance of letting the next generation of Senate leaders step up that drove his choice.