Reports say Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez is not running for reelection in 2010.
UPDATE: A reader writes in:
That’s his choice, but what is it with Republicans abandoning ship so easily? Give credit where credit is due. Democrats never accept defeat. They just bide their time. When the going gets tough, Republicans head for K street.
With yet another seat opening up, what about Jeb Bush for that seat? I think he needs to be involved in Republican politics and the Senate is a great place for that. Two years from now, I think the taint of his brother won’t be as strong. He was quite popular as governor.
When I saw Jeb Bush speak to a small group earlier this year, I came away with two conclusions. First, the man has an executive’s instincts and wants to run things, so running for the Senate isn’t likely to interest him. Second, I got the feeling that he didn’t quite know what he wanted to do next in his life — something in the area of education reform, but not stuck in a bureaucracy. Most successful governors just instinctively flirt with the idea of running for president; Jeb Bush projected none of that. Having witnessed his father and his brother experience the ups and downs of the presidency, he doesn’t seem like a man who has that instinctive yearning necessary to run for the Oval Office.