Warner to announce whether he is retiring

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., plans to go to his alma mater, the University of Virginia, to announce whether his political career is coming to an end.

Warner has scheduled an appearance Friday afternoon, The Washington Post reported. Warner, 80, would be seeking a sixth term in the Senate if he runs for re-election in November 2008.

"The senator has not shared his final decision with me or anyone on his staff," Carter Cornick, Warner's chief of staff, told the Post. "The decision resides with him and his wife."

A former Navy secretary who chaired the Armed Services Committee until the Republicans lost control of the Senate in the 2006 election, Warner has become known as a Republican rebel. He wrote the 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq but has more recently criticized President George W. Bush’s conduct of the war.

In the past, he joined Democrats to vote against Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

Warner graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1953.