VP spec 'olation

Ezra Klein is right, it would be a very bad thing to take Webb out of the Senate and put him on one of the tickets. For one thing, we're likely going to lose one Senator, though from relatively safe seats in Illinois or New York. We certainly don't need to lose one from the less safe state of Virginia. More importantly, as Drum points out, Webb has been extraordinarily effective as a Democratic gadfly. Let him keep doing it.

Historically, though, it's been damned hard for Senators to become president. In 2008, that looks to be a lock. But having two senators on the ticket looks even more insane, in hindsight, when you consider Lieberman (as the holier-than-though scourge of Bill Clinton) and Edwards (as the populist from the south counter to Boston brahmin-ism). They added almost nothing to their respective tickets.

So, let's start thinking about a governor.