Now, Michigan Republican Party Chair Bobby Schostak has taken to muttering that some knight on a white horse may yet show up. Guess what: They won't. True, the Michigan GOP may manage to recruit a slightly more high-profile candidate, such as Rob Steele, the physician who spent lavishly while losing to John Dingell last year.

But as Terri Lynn Land candidly said when she bowed out, the National Republican Party indicated to her they weren't willing to spend the millions that any challenger would need to have a chance of unseating Debbie Stabenow.

There's a reason for that: They know she is almost certain to win. Two weeks ago, when I talked about this race on Michigan Radio, some predictably anonymous blogger posted a rant saying, "she's as much of a backbencher as there is in the Senate."

Backbenchers don't usually chair major committees, but I suspect Stabenow wouldn't much care what she was called. True, she is not glamorous, though those who still sneer about her weight may be startled to discover that she is now essentially slender.

Nor is she ever likely to run for higher office, or be Senate majority leader. However, she was instrumental in getting this state $1.3 billion in funding for advanced battery research.

More than anyone else, she made the state and nation aware the Canadians were dumping vast amounts of their trash in Michigan, a practice that has since been somewhat curtailed. She might be more adequately described as a workhorse, rather than a show horse.

Which may be why voters keep returning her to the Senate.

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