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Dem Keystone support creates tougher fight for Reid, ObamaBy Alexander Bolton - 12/16/11 04:08 PM ET Republicans want to jam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Keystone oil sands pipeline and the Democratic leader will have a tough time resisting, given support within his caucus for the project. GOP leaders have made clear to Reid that they will not approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday unless it includes language to speed up construction of the pipeline. Senate Republicans estimate as many as 14 Senate Democrats support the project. Labor unions have also voiced strong backing, complicating...

On September 25, the 23rd Arab-American Candidates’ Night Dinner was held in Virginia, attended by 46 Democrats and Republicans seeking office, with former governor and current Democratic Senate candidate, Tim Kaine, as a major speaker. The dinner honored a top Muslim Brotherhood official affiliated with Hamas named Jamal Barzinji, an inconvenient and overlooked fact for Kaine’s campaign team. Tim Kaine was the governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010 and then was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was on the short-list to become President Obama’s running mate. He is now running for Senate and will likely face...

RICHMOND — Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) said he might run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, possibly setting up a race against one of Virginia’s most popular politicians, Democrat Mark R. Warner. Cuccinelli, who garnered national attention for suing the federal government over the new health-care law, had said he would run for reelection or governor in 2013. But in an interview with The Washington Post, he said for the first time that he could instead run for the Senate. In the interview, he accused Warner — a former governor who has expressed frustrations with the workings of...

The idea of such a bank has been around since the 1990s but has never gained significant attention until now. In March a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate that gained the support of the US Chamber of Commerce, America’s leading business lobby, and the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation — two groups on opposite sides of most debates. The BUILD Act, proposed by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Hutchinson, R-Texas, and Mark Warner, D-Va., would create a national infrastructure bank that would provide loans and loan guarantees to encourage private investment in upgrading America’s infrastructure. There are...

Of the early potential Democratic contenders, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley says he supports gay marriage but stopped short of making a major push for the legislation earlier in the year, while Virginia Sen. Mark Warner is opposed. Hillary Clinton, if she runs, would still have her commitment to civil unions but not gay marriage from the 2008 race hanging over her — and at least until the end of next year, when she’s said she’ll be done at the State Department, she won’t be able to make any new comments on the issue. “It gives him an authenticity and a...

There is no gray area. Either members of Congress are liars or they are too stupid to serve in government. Senator Mark R. Warner (D-VA) says: “The facts have consistently shown that President Obama was born in the United States. As a natural-born American citizen, he is fully eligible to serve as President of our country.” Anwar al-Awlaki was born on April 22, 1971 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He is an Islamic spiritual leader and an imam who has encouraged Islamic terrorism against the West. He is a senior talent recruiter and motivator, who has also become “operational” as...

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said Wednesday that he agrees with Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) in opposing President Obama's decision to restrict oil and gas drilling off the coast of Virginia for the next seven years. "Mid-Atlantic coastal oil and gas production does not represent a 'silver bullet' solution to our energy challenges, and while it is appropriate to take the time to incorporate lessons learned from the Gulf disaster, Senator Warner sees no reason to delay this process for what realistically could be another seven years or more,'' Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said. McDonnell is calling for the White House...

Senator Mark Warner agrees with Republicans that the financial regulation bill presently being considered by of the U.S. Senate. According to The Daily Caller Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who has been closely involved in negotiations, said that concerns being raised by Republicans about potential bailouts of large financial institutions are legitimate. “There are parts that need to be tightened,” Warner said, referring to the bill in the same manner as Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama Republican and ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee. On the senate floor this morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) said “Last night,...

Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Democrat Mark Warner (Va.) are both fans of President Barack Obama's plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling. Obama announced that areas off the Atlantic coast will now be open to drilling, but not areas in the Pacific and many parts of Alaska. McCain, Obama's opponent in the 2008 presidential election, tweeted: Drill baby drill! Good move - where are Reid and Pelosi on this? The Arizona Republican has been outspoken against many other items on Obama's agenda, especially since he faces a primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who is running...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Virginia's two U.S. senators on Wednesday urged the Obama administration to carry out a previous plan to lease almost 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) in federal waters off the state's coastline to oil and natural gas companies. The lawmakers said in a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that recent comments by a department official that the Virginia lease sale originally planned for late 2011 would be delayed until 2012 at the earliest are frustrating given that drilling creates jobs and needed energy supplies. The offshore Virginia area that would be leased may hold 130...

> break < In addition to adding an estimated 261,927 people to Virginia's Medicaid rolls, Sens. James Webb and Mark Warner "charitably" committed Virginians to pick up the Medicaid tab for half-a-dozen other states. > break < We commit one-sixth of the state budget to Medicaid - $7 billion a year. Now Virginia's two senators hope to impose on their own state a federally mandated increase in Medicaid enrollment of nearly 30 percent. > break < Mr. Webb, in particular, had the tough talk down pat - insisting that true reform must not create "a cumbersome, overly bureaucratic system." He...

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., who pledged a tight-fisted approach to federal spending, is being criticized as anything but by a living symbol of Virginia fiscal conservatism. Former Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., I-Va., while describing Warner as "my friend," expressed dismay yesterday that the freshman senator backed on party-line votes spending and health-care bills that balloon the deficit by more than $1 trillion. "When a Virginia Democrat is elected to the Congress -- Senate or House -- he or she must decide whether to vote the party line or vote the Virginia tradition of financial responsibility," said Byrd, who...

The text that is in quotes are excerpts from Warner's canned response back to my first letter asking him to not support the bill! “...As the debate in Congress continues, it is of utmost importance to recognize that our current health care system is financially unsustainable. ..." Only the government run systems are unsustainable! All current US State run systems (Ca, Mass, Tenn, others) are in the red and don’t even come close to living up toward the extravagant promises made by the state politicians that insisted on them. In fact these systems sole recourse is to pass costs to...

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Virginia, said that he voted in favor of the health-care overhaul because he thinks it will lower health-care costs...Warner and Virginia's senior senator, Jim Webb, also a Democrat, recorded their votes to advance the legislation. In the end, the Senate's 58 Democrats and two independents voted to prevent a filibuster and move the bill toward likely passage before Christmas... Webb said the debate "often overwhelmed the substance" of fixing the problem. Warner and Webb said they thought that late changes in the Senate bill improved it. Warner cited the dropping of the public option. But Warner,...

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling sent a strongly worded letter to Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner Monday expressing outrage over special concessions given to certain states to obtain support for federal health care legislation from their Senators and asking them to oppose this legislation, which Bolling called “misguided.” “As you know, one of our major concerns with this legislation is the potential impact it could have on the cost of Medicaid for Virginia’s state government,” wrote Bolling. “Many reports have suggested that this legislation could result in much higher Medicaid costs for state governments across the nation, costs that state...

On December 8, Senator Warner and 10 other Freshman Senators introduced the "Value and Innovation" amendment package, aimed at encouraging innovation and affordability for consumers across the U.S. health care system. Supporters of the package include: AARP; Business Roundtable; Safeway; New America Foundation; AFL-CIO; National Partnership for Women and Families; CEO Workgroup for Health Reform; Center for American Progress; Healthcare Leadership Council; Catholic Healthcare West; Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association; Carilion Clinic; David Cutler (Harvard Economist); Consumers Union; Small Business Majority; Walmart; Kelly Services International; Intel; US PIRG; Better Health Care Together; Brookings; Pacific Business Group on Health; Quadgraphics; Health...

The nation’s richest senator - the Bay State’s own John Forbes Kerry - has been knocked down a few notches after seeing his fortune sliced by one-third by the fiscal meltdown that ripped down Wall Street. Kerry’s personal net worth plunged from an estimated $336 million in 2007 to $208 million in 2008, according to a study by the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics. The Boston Democrat’s staggering losses dropped him from first to third among the wealthiest senators, trailing Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) “So does this mean Senator Kerry is now arriving in Nantucket by ferry...

Friend -- Saturday evening, my Senate colleagues and I were given an opportunity to take the next step in fixing our nation's health care system. I voted in favor of bringing the health care reform bill to the Senate floor because I want an opportunity to work on strengthening and improving the legislation. If we do not work toward real health care reform, families will face rising premiums, employers will remain at a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace, and federal budget deficits will go from bad to worse. Thus far, only those senators on the health and finance committees...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Both of Virginia's U.S. senators say they will vote to allow debate on the Senate version of health-care overhaul legislation, but neither has committed to voting for the actual bill. Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., got an earful on the subject from a group of small-business owners in Carytown yesterday while protesters rallied outside Warner and Sen. Jim Webb's Richmond offices. *break* Warner, who said he wants to see more cost containment in the Senate's legislation before he can support it, responded that he hasn't committed to vote for the bill. "If it doesn't improve, chances are...

Arguments that the individual mandate in healthcare reform is unconstitutional are "spurious," one centrist Democrat said this week. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) dismissed questions about the individual mandate's constitutionality, which conservatives activists have questioned. "The United States Congress passed laws regarding Medicare and Medicaid that became de facto mandatory programs," Warner told the conservative CNSNews.com in a video posted Friday. "I think that this is a bit of a spurious argument that’s being made by some folks."