By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 6, 2007

Sen. John W. Warner left the hospital yesterday morning and headed directly to his Capitol Hill office after three days of treatment and observation for an irregular heartbeat.

In a telephone interview, the 80-year-old Virginia Republican sounded cheerful and strong and even weighed in on who should succeed him as he recounted the fatigue that prompted him to check into Inova Fairfax Hospital on Tuesday for tests. The five-term senator said his arrhythmia, for which he has been taking medication for years, was not a factor in his announcement Aug. 31 that he will retire in 2009.

Warner stressed the need for Republicans to nominate a solid contender to face Mark R. Warner (D), the popular former governor. He was the first to declare his intention to replace Virginia's best-known politician, a maverick Republican who has become a leading voice of dissent over U.S. policy in Iraq.

In a tacit rebuke to former governor James S. Gilmore III, a conservative Republican who is also considering a Senate bid, Warner said the strongest GOP nominee would be someone with congressional experience. He named three congressmen from Virginia as well-qualified possibilities: Reps. Thomas M. Davis III of Fairfax County, Eric I. Cantor of Richmond and Robert W. Goodlatte of Roanoke.

"Mark Warner has stepped up. Certainly he has credentials," Warner said. "I just fervently hope that someone with experience will come forward. We're in the midst of two difficult wars right now. We've got an extraordinary fiscal problem facing this nation. There's not much time up here to get on-the-job-training."

This is not the first time Warner has suggested that congressional experience is a must for his job. But at the time of his announcement in August, the comment was widely assumed to reflect Warner's support for Davis, a moderate Republican who has been preparing for a Senate run for years.

Davis, a consummate numbers man who is acutely aware of how tough a race against Mark Warner could be, has made clear in recent weeks that he is undecided about running. He is also focused heavily on the reelection campaign of his wife, state Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis (R-Fairfax), who is in a difficult race in an increasingly Democratic-leaning district. A loss for her would underscore the challenge her husband would face winning votes in his home base of Northern Virginia next year.

Davis said it's "probably true" that Warner wants another strong candidate who is not Gilmore to be willing to step forward if Davis decides not to run, but he would not comment further.

Cantor did not return a phone call seeking comment. Through a spokeswoman, Goodlatte said: "I appreciate Senator Warner's extremely kind words of support. At this time, I have no plans to run for the U.S. Senate."

Gilmore noted that Warner had no congressional experience when he entered the Senate nearly three decades ago, and he added that it is not up to an incumbent to anoint his replacement.

"We don't have a situation where senators pick their successors, where governors pick their successors," Gilmore said. "It's really up to the public to make that selection, and I think they will."

Warner said he entered the hospital Tuesday after a long weekend of work and a late night on Capitol Hill on Monday that took their toll. He woke up Tuesday feeling fatigued, and when his heart medicine did not provide the usual relief, he went to the Capitol doctor, who suggested that he seek further medical attention.

"The history of it is that over the past two years, maybe once or twice a year, I've had a very mild fibrillation problem," Warner said. "It was diagnosed by doctors, who said not to worry about it. They gave me a little pill to take when it occurred. Usually the pill took care of it in short order. But this most recent incident took on a different perspective."

At Inova Fairfax, Warner underwent an exploratory procedure to rule out any other heart problems. Doctors found his arteries clear and the heart muscle strong, he said.

"They went in and came out and said, 'You've got the heart of a 40-year-old, clean as a pin,' " he said.

Doctors performed a second procedure to correct the irregular heartbeat. Warner checked out of the hospital yesterday morning and headed straight for his office to assure his staff that he was well and to send a message to Virginians, he said. He took a call from President Bush, who wanted to know why he was at the office, he said.

"It's important that people know they don't have a lame-duck senator," he said, but he also added: "When you get to be 80 years old, your bells and whistles blow different tunes and at different times. Some bells say, 'Go ahead and charge today,' and other bells say, 'Well, maybe you better knock off for a few hours.' "