Excerpts from today's Wash Post article on Sen. Warner with my comments in brackets.
I regret that I was not more outspoken" during the Vietnam War. [Come Nov. '08 let's spare Warner any more opportunities for regret.]
The 80-year-old senator won't say whether he will run for a sixth term next year. [Who cares? He clearly doesn't deserve a seventh term. It's been rumored that Warner is going to hold off announcing his retirement until late in the game and throw his support to Tom Davis, an otherwise problematic candidate for the far right, but still a candidate who should be unacceptable to most Virginians. By acting to replace Warner with a good Democrat now we can foil this slick plot.]
"I gotta tell you, I've gotten to that wonderful age in life -- I don't worry," he said. "If you do what in your heart you feel is right, go to sleep. Don't worry. I go to sleep and I don't worry." [Can we at least agree that today's crises call for leadership that's a little less complacent?]
"John Warner understands full well that he is elected to the U.S. Senate, which is a separate and equal branch of government," said Gillespie, who has since become chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. [Gillespie's words are worthless. Let's hear what Mr. Separation of Powers thinks of Bush's unitary executive power grab.]
Warner not only opposed North's candidacy, he recruited an independent challenger -- former Republican attorney general J. Marshall Coleman -- who helped give the race to then-incumbent Sen. Charles S. Robb (D). Infuriated, Virginia conservatives persuaded former president Ronald Reagan's budget director to challenge Warner in the 1996 Republican primary. [See? There's precedent for Warner's slick maneuvering.]
Warner won easily and in the process cemented what had been an evolving reputation as a moderate, independent politician. [Moderate these days seems to mean anyone who hasn't wholly bought into Bush and Cheney's imperial visions.]
"His support for a redeployment resolution -- and his opposition to the surge policy -- is very important," said U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a longtime friend. "It's going to have a very profound impact on the debate." [Uh oh. Let's hope Rep. Moran isn't displaying HIS independent streak.]
Warner's resolution gives some of his Republican colleagues a politically safe position to take on a war that is increasingly unpopular with the American public. "When John Warner decides that these issues have seriousness . . . there are a number of people who come with him," said Warner's new Virginia colleague, Sen. James Webb (D). [Much bigger uh oh. Assuming the Dems nominate a reasonably electable candidate, Webb will have no room to display just how serious he was when he joined the Democrats after a history of such Republican partisanship that he endorsed and voted for Allen over Robb.]
"John Warner can be a patriot and still do something foolish that hurts our foreign policy," Kristol said. [As harsh as I've been to Warner in my comments above, at this point, if I have to choose who's more foolish Warner or Bush, I think I know which way I'll go, and I'll take great glee in observing that self-styled intellectual Kristol has had a career that included being Chief of Staff to Dan Quayle and now is bottoming out with trying to scare people into thinking that if they disagree with the dumbest President in U.S. history they're foolish.]
"Those who say we're not doing the right thing, tell me, what is the obligation of the Senate?" he asked. "Do nothing?" [Then again, don't think I'm willing to accept marginally-less-foolish-than-Bush as some sort of great thing. Can we please have another Senator like Webb who doesn't resort to schoolyard debating tactics like this.]
Sen. Warner, just because the bloodthirsty xenophobic war profiteers are against your proposed resolution doesn't mean that it's right. The right thing to do is something that might actually force a change toward peace. If a toothless resolution like yours passes the Senate, that means the White House is allowing it to pass, which means Karl Rove has decided that, while they'd rather have no resolution, at least, a toothless resolution does nothing to stop the war (or any coming war with Iran). So, as the blood flows ever more, and our Treasury shrinks, and our future becomes less safe, you just keep sleeping soundly, and don't worry about the fact that while you sleep, we're working to make this your last term.
