The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> THE CLINCHER br> It wasn't really a surprise that South Carolina Sen. Fritz Hollings yesterday announced he won't run for re-election next year. What was surprising was how old he seemed in doing so. "He was practically unintelligible," says a reporter who read a transcript of the now-senior senator's remarks, delivered at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. "He couldn't put two sentences together that made any sense." /p>

Hollings was not gracious about his exit. He called President Bush "weak" and as much as said that the president was a puppet of adviser Karl Rove.

Senate Democrats in recent weeks had begged Hollings to reconsider his decision, in part because of concerns that the party was facing an already brutal 2004 campaign cycle.

Hollings will retire next year having served as his state's senior senator for all of two years. The 81-year-old spent more than a record 35 years in the Senate as a junior senator by dint of the fact that he followed in Sen. Strom Thurmond's footsteps.

As The Prowler reported earlier this year, Hollings appeared to be leaning toward retirement since he hadn't held a fundraiser for himself this campaign cycle. His making it official all but guarantees that Democrats will not regain control of the Senate in 2004. The Republicans, who face tough campaigns in Alaska and Illinois, are assured better than 50-50 shots at making up those seats in Georgia, where Sen. Zell Miller is retiring, and now in South Carolina. Rep. Jim DeMint is a favorite for the Republican nomination, along with the state's former attorney general Charlie Condon.

Former Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges was thought to be a strong option on the Democratic side, though already several other state politicians are studying the race.

p> CAROLINA STATE OF MIND br> There is a belief inside the presidential campaign of Sen. John Edwards

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