Wadhams

From today's Wall Street Journal Political Diary:

The most well-known race in the country after the presidential contest this year was the showdown between Democrat Tom Daschle and Republican John Thune. Mr. Thune's dramatic ousting of the Democratic minority leader put him in the national spotlight and made Dick Wadhams, his campaign manager, a mini-version of Karl Rove -- i.e., a rock star in the political community.

Everyone was wondering what the celebrated Mr. Wadhams would do now. Last Friday, we got the answer when he signed up as chief of staff to Senator George Allen, chair of the Senate Republican campaign committee that helped pad the party's Senate majority by four seats in last month's election. Mr. Allen clearly can spot talent, and just as clearly is thinking about running for president in 2008.

Mr. Wadhams says he will focus on running the Senator's legislative office and that talk of a White House run is premature. But someone of his caliber doesn't sign up to merely handle late-night conference committee reports on farm legislation. The 49-year-old Colorado native is credited with helping candidates as varied as Montana Senator Conrad Burns, Colorado Senator Wayne Allard and Colorado Governor Bill Owens win come-from-behind victories. Mr. Thune can't say enough about his campaign manager. "We recruited the best pit bull out there," he says.

Senator Allen has other assets, including an impressive list of donors and a name familiar to the legion of political reporters in nearby Washington, DC. True, among the 100 Senators who've run for president since Jack Kennedy won in 1960, none have made it to the White House. But Mr. Allen points to the fact that he also served as governor of Virginia from 1994 to 1998, leaving only because of the state's peculiar limit of one term for its chief executive.