California Group Steps Into Vacuum on the Left

"Warner '08!" shouted a bystander at Java J's coffee shop in Bristol; a man at a Martinsville Chamber of Commerce meeting told Warner matter-of-factly, "Good luck with the presidential" -- taking it as a given that Warner will seek the White House in 2008.

Most Washington operatives assume the same thing. But separate interviews with Warner and former senator Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) highlighted different approaches to a familiar political ritual: Would-be candidates profess that it is much too early to be thinking about a presidential campaign while simultaneously dropping hints about a possible bid to keep the interest of donors, party operatives and the media.

Both men denied they had any plans at the moment to run for the Democratic presidential nomination while noting ( insert wink here; nod optional) that predicting the future is impossible.

Daschle, who lost his bid for a fourth term at the hands of Republican John Thune last November, was the more direct of the two. The "honest answer is 'I don't know,' " he said when asked Friday whether a presidential race was in his future. "It interests me."

In late 2002, Daschle was so close to joining the 2004 race rather than seek reelection that his hometown newspaper ran a banner headline, "He's Running." Daschle will travel to Des Moines on Nov. 5 to address the Iowa Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner -- a coveted spot for a candidate seeking exposure to the state's influential voters. Two days earlier Daschle will be at Northwestern University to deliver a foreign policy speech.

Warner, by contrast, said in an interview Thursday that he is a "long way from making any kind of decision."

Okay, but then why has he already set up a political action committee, Forward Together, and hired experienced national political operative Monica Dixon to run it? "If you want to have a voice about where the party and the nation heads, the rules are you set up a PAC," Warner said.

Quotable

"And, obviously, they will address the questions that the senators have in the questionnaire as a result of the answers to the questions in the questionnaire."

-- President Bush last week, responding to concerns from senators that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers's written answers to their questions were inadequate.

Cillizza is a staff writer for washingtonpost.com. The Fix, his

online column, appears daily at www.washingtonpost.com/thefix.