Pace for Senate?

The National Review wants to draft former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Peter Pace to run for Senate in Virginia. There's no indication Pace is interested in politics (my gut tells me he isn't, but that's a totally uninformed statement), but what if he did run?

Well, my first two reactions are 1) he'd be a very strong candidate and 2) he'd still get whipped by Mark Warner, who is the perfect Democratic candidate in Virginia. I'd also note that he'd have an extremely difficult route through the GOP primary, with two well-established Virginia political figures already in the race (Rep. Tom Davis, representing the more moderate wing and John Warner's implied successor, and former Gov. Jim Gilchrist Gilmore, the more radical politician). It's unclear how he'd get the traction to really make headway.

The other thing I'd say about Pace is that it would be wrong, if he does enter the race, to try and tar him as some sort of evil force of regression. True, I find his views on homosexuality to be absolutely abhorrent. And he unavoidably will be taggeed with his role in promoting President Bush's failed Iraq war. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten his stirring testimony on immigration, or his strong stand against human rights abuses (contradicting Donald Rumsfeld to his face). Indeed, it was precisely his memorable stances on these issues that made his statements on homosexuality feel like such a betrayal. We shouldn't treat those statements with kid gloves, but we shouldn't allow them to entirely subsume the rest of his character either. That goes for if he decides to go into to politics, or remains a private citizen.