How have the mighty fallen? I guess Rove has lost so much status that even the horse's head in the bed doesn't work anymore:

TALLAHASSEE - Rejecting overtures from Gov. Jeb Bush and the White House, Florida House Speaker Allan Bense said Wednesday that he will not challenge former Secretary of State Katherine Harris in a Republican primary for the U.S. Senate race next year.

The decision leaves Harris, now a member of Congress from Sarasota, as the likely challenger to incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in what will be one of the most closely watched Senate campaigns in the country....

Rove really, really wanted Bense to run. He twisted Bense's arm in D.C. a few weeks ago because Florida polling shows that Democrats and independents in the state can't stand Katherine Harris (incumbent Democrat Ben Bill Nelson would beat her 50%-38%). Rove has usually gotten his way on candidates in the past, and his choices usually win -- think Norm Coleman in Minnesota and John Thune in South Dakota, plus, of course, Mel Martinez in Florida, who ran for (and won) Florida's other Senate partly as a result of a White House effort to stave off a Katherine Harris candidacy. But apparently they can't stop her this time. How nice.