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September 01, 2007

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I was around during the Ray-gun era and Warner was even more of the same. He's bad on all civil rights, and just a wee bit cukoo on race. You have to dig a bit, but the truth is there.

"All that said, I wasn’t around in the Elizabeth Taylor era, so maybe he was different in the pre-Gingrich/Rove days."

Not that I ever noticed, for whatever little that's worth.

He voted against Robert Bork, and has made a smattering of minor votes in the course of his career that I approve of, but I can't think of much more positive to say about him than that, other than that he certainly has always looked very Senatorial. He opposed Oliver North's run for the Senate in Virginia, and also Michael Farris; small stuff like that has kept him from being an Inhofe or Coburn -- he's not stupid, and he's not crazy -- but mostly he's just looked pretty.

A lot of people in Virginia are grateful to Warner for helping save them from the prospect of Sen. Ollie North, but other than that I have to agree with your view of him, at least in recent years. He's just one of the spectering "independent" Republicans, and I suspect he'll continue on that path even now that he no longer needs to worry about reelection.

He's a pompous old fool. Won't be missed.

Thanks for this, publius.

Jim Webb's tribute makes me nauseous.

To add to your list of Furrowed Brow/Enabling Actions: In late August 2002, when a delegation of 30 Virginians assembled in his office in Richmond to urge against war on Iraq, he promised to hold hearings in the Armed Services Committee.

And he did; the SASC held the only hearings at which actual opposition to the war was expressed (by Gen. Hoar, along with twice as many pro-war witnesses), in the second or third week of September. The hearings did not receive a single drop of press coverage. I believe we've seen enough in the last few years to recognize that if Warner had wished those hearings to be publicized, they would have been.

When, a week later, three delegations of constituents came to his DC office to lobby against the war resolution, they were foisted off on a 22-year-old aide who took no notes and looked at the ceiling for most of the "meeting". Oh, yes, he's certainly quite the gentleman, our silver-haired senator.

I can't wait to see the back of him.

publius.: progressive politics (and sane policy)

I’m not sure why you would think those are the same things. ;)

SANE's policies have always been quite progressive.

:-)

Like others have said in comments here, Warner is probably more responsible than anyone else for sparing us from Sen. Oliver North, and for that at least I remain grateful.

One of my favorite Warner moments was when he went to Afghanistan about a year into that war, and was suprised to learn that there were French soldiers there, and that they were effective. He was head of the Armed Services Committee, but he didn't have a clue what our NATO allies were contributing.

Thank you, Publius. The same criticism can be said about Richard Lugar. These people knew better; not just should have known better, and they did nothing to stop it.

Until my dying day, I shall never understand how Reagan could lose enough Republican support to have vetoes overridden, and yet no one challenges Bush. Where is their self-respect?

Warner is probably more responsible than anyone else for sparing us from Sen. Oliver North.

You credit him with organizing Marshall Coleman's candidacy, then? Could be.

I suppose that's what accounts for some of Webb's warmth for Warner, also; he hasn't had a lot of use for North.

Nell:
What do you expect Webb to say? He's not going to publicly spit nails at Warner. I would bet privately he's disappointed in Warner.

Y'know, I hadn't actually read the WaPo piece by Brigid Schulte until just now, and I have to say I love this:

[...] The reason, he explained yesterday as he announced that he would not seek reelection, is that he never defined himself as a Republican senator, but as a representative of all the people.
Senator Warner went on to explain that he was also a mutant genius, far wiser than any other human who has ever lived, and that he has six toes on each foot, but you can't see them. Also, he is the kindest Senator ever, he confirmed reluctantly when pressed.

He also bears Narsil, the sword of Elendil, which he keeps in his office, under wraps.

What do you expect Webb to say? He's not going to publicly spit nails at Warner. I would bet privately he's disappointed in Warner.

And by talking nice now, Webb is able to keep those moderates on his side for when he's helping whichever Democrat runs to replace Warner (hopefully the other Warner).

As someone who's had the misfortune of being represented (read ignored) by Seantor Warner all of my voting life, let me just say good riddance. I have enough form letters from his office that ignored what I actually wrote about to fill a decent sized folder.

More gratitude for calling it like it is. Warner was very zealous about making sure that Virginia benefited handsomely from the military-industrial complex. Other stuff -- more like a tertiary concern.

I heard him on C-SPAN a week or two ago, talking about his half-assed proposal to consider a gesture that would look like something resembling a withdrawal from Iraq -- so long as it didn't come within a light-year of treading on Presidential turf, of course. The guy couldn't do anything more than orbit around a handful of vacuous phrases, the most prominent being variations on, "I've been in the Senate for 29 years". He said that three or four times in a few minutes.

I always figured the guy has the reputation he does because he physically resembles the comic book version of what a 'good' Senator is supposed to look like.

He also bears Narsil, the sword of Elendil, which he keeps in his office, under wraps.

Good luck finding some Elvish smiths on Capitol Hill to forge that baby back together.

Btw, is it still illegal for elves and mortals to marry in Virginia?

Until my dying day, I shall never understand how Reagan could lose enough Republican support to have vetoes overridden, and yet no one challenges Bush. Where is their self-respect?

It's been "obvious" to me for many years now that W et al have used our our intelligence services to spy on everyone and that much Congressional compliance/inaction has been extorted.

"Btw, is it still illegal for elves and mortals to marry in Virginia?"

Yes, but there are many orc-human marriages and partnerships, as well as mixed-race people.

A few half-orc relations can can really get you ahead in Washington, as well. Look at Robert Novak and Richard Perle.

Italiexo!

deEmphalo!

What I don't understand is why journalists have such a hard time with things like looking up voting scorecards for pols.

If they did, they'd see that Warner is solidly right-wing. OK, his ADA rating wasn't zero, but the historical average was pretty low, roughly 10/100 IIRC.

sglover wrote, Warner was very zealous about making sure that Virginia benefited handsomely from the military-industrial complex.

The funny thing is that I think one of the articles about his impending retirement cited that as some kind of virtue.

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