Soon-to-be FORMER US Senator Fritz Hollings of South Carolina demonstrated why he was reluctant to run for another term, thus bringing to an end the longest “Junior Senator” run in American history.

Calling the war in Iraq a “mistake from the beginning” and saying “This is, chapter and verse, Vietnam,” these are not strategies for victory in South Carolina or anywhere outside Manhattan or the Hollywood Hills.

Hollings has long espoused positions far to the left of the typical South Carolinian, but he’s benefitted from his state’s voters tendency to defer to incumbents. South Carolina hasn’t ousted an incumbent US Senator since WWII.

Hollings is demonstrating yet again why he’s stepping down rather than testing that streak.