A man who never should have been US Senator has now announced he is leaving the US Senate after three decades in office.

John William Warner, who was best known for marrying actress Elizabeth Taylor when he entered the Senate 28 years ago but who grew into an elder statesman and Republican maverick highly regarded for his expertise in defense matters, announced his retirement Friday.

Warner, 80, chose the north steps of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, where he studied law a half-century ago, to reveal his widely anticipated decision not to seek a sixth term next year.

"So I say that my work and service to Virginia as a senator . . . will conclude upon the 6th of January, 2009, when I finish . . . my career of . . . 30 years in the United States Senate," Warner said. The former Navy secretary and past chairman of the Armed Services Committee said he wrestled with the question, coming to closure only "in the last day or two." He postponed a decision, he said, until completing a trip to Iraq last week. Warner has been a leading GOP critic of the Bush White House's war policy.

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

"I'm going to quietly step aside," he said as his third wife, Jeanne, stood at his side.

Warner's departure triggers a round of political jockeying that will change the political landscape nationally and in Virginia.

Some view this departure as a negative for Republicans. I do not. And not just because of Warner's mushy moderation in recent years. At age 80 and finishing his fifth term in the office, Warner needs to step aside so that a new generation of Republican leaders can step to the lead.

For my own part, I have mixed emotions about John Warner.

I met his several times, the first when I was twelve and he visited Guam during the Bicentennial celebrations, which he headed up under President Ford. Later, as a student at Warner's alma mater, I met Senator Warner at a number of GOP events while I was active in the College Republicans. And in the years since, I've encountered him a time or two. My mpression is one of a decent man who has been a competent public official -- but whose views I don't always agree with.

And I remember, too, that he was not the man who should have become US Senator from Virginia in 1978. Only the unspeakable tragedy of August 2, 1978 allowed Warner to become the GOP candidate for US Senate in 1978, when Dick Obenshain the man who can rightly be called the father of the modern Virginia Republican Party was killed in a plane crash. I knew Obenshain's son, Mark Obenshain, several years later through the state College Republicans, and have always wondered how the presence of his more consistently conservative father in the Senate would have changed the face of America.

And yet that historical reminiscence and speculation is today less important than determining how we as a party can hold on to the Senate seat Warner is vacating next fall.