In my opinion my home state of Virginia’s happily soon to be ex-Senator John Warner is the epitome of the expression that all you find in the middle of the road are dead skunks and long yellow streaks.
It was a sad day for the Old Dominion when the rightful GOP Senate nominee in 1978, Richard Obenshain was tragically killed in a plane crash and this man, whose only real previous achievement was being the latest in Liz Taylor’s regiment of husbands, was chosen to replace him as the general election candidate in November and in a strong Republican year, barely managed to win the race by a few thousand votes.
Obenshain was a man of strong conservative principles like Ronald Reagan, Warner has been an empty suit whose main activity for the last 30 years has been to hold a wet finger in the air to judge the conventional wisdom and align himself with it to ensure his own re-election.
I mean, can you think of a single controversial stand he has taken during his Senate career? And please don’t mention his refusals to support Republican nominees Mike Farris for lt. governor candidate in 1993 and Oliver North for the U.S. Senate in 1994, a position isn’t “controversial” when it is heartily endorsed and praised by the local mainstream media (including of course, the Washington Post.)
Warner made it his business to sit tight and not make waves in his admittedly successful effort to retain his Senate seat. Every one of his votes seemed to be weighed to determine which position would best advance this goal. I think his most cynical vote was that he cast against the nomination of the supremely well qualified Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court.
This might have been considered a principled stand except for the fact that Warner waited until the actual day of the vote to announce his position and not until enough other Senators had already done so to guarantee that he would be on the winning side. John obviously figured that since Bork was going to go down to defeat in any case, he might as well vote “no” and gain a little street cred with the state’s large black voting bloc. But I have no doubt at all that if Bork had needed one extra vote to win nomination, Warner would have provided it, in that case, it would have been the “safe” thing to do.
This kind of supine behavior may be helpful in winning elections, but it does nothing to advance the interests of the nation. We need statesmen who will take the right stand even when it is unpopular (thank you, President Bush) not politicians who regard living on the public payroll as a lifetime career.
Goodbye, Senator Warner, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!
