It always was a longshot that VA governor Mark Warrner would challenge incumbent senator George Allen in 2006. Warner, after all, has a legitimate chance of winning the Dem presidential nomination in 2008, and it's hard to see how his candidacy would have been strengthened even by a successful race against Allen.

But the party's bench in the Old Dominion seems rather shallow. In 2002, the Dem candidate against longtime incumbent John Warner dropped out of the race following the 9/11 attacks, and the party didn't even field a challenger. For 2006, this morning's Washington Post reports that in the aftermath of Mark Warner's decision not to run, VA Dems are flirting with the idea of running . . . Ben Affleck. Now, I know that the current Republican majority traces its heritage to the successful political career of a failed actor. But, to paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, I'm afraid that Ben Affleck is no Ronald Reagan.