Mum Warner likely to move on (VA retirement alert)

The Washington Times ^ | June 26, 2007

[Clintonfatigued]

Virginia Sen. John W. Warner has said little about whether he will run for re-election, but the 80-year-old Republican is giving clear indications that he will not return for another term and that his coyness is merely an attempt to help Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, a fellow Republican, replace him.

"There has been considerable discussion about the possibility that [Mr. Warner] might delay an announcement of candidacy, then announce he wasn't going to run, to allow Congressman Tom Davis to build up at the beginning of the campaigns, which would give Davis an advantage," said Morton C. Blackwell, chairman of the Virginia's Republican National Committee and leader of the conservative Leadership Institute.

[Malesherbes]

2008 is going to be a tough year for Republican Senate candidates. There are 21 Republican seats up and only 12 Dim seats. The fact that the Virginia seat may be in play is part of the problem. I fully expect the Dims to gain Senate seats. The House is probably the only hope .

The ultimate nightmare: President Hildebeast and a Dim Senate and a Dim House.

[Bender2]

I’ve never trusted John Warner since his 1976-1982 marriage to Liz Taylor...

Not that I would not hit on Liz... in the days when she was a major babe, but...

As Frank Sinatra told JFK about Judy Exner... when he said, “Yeah, Jack, she looks like Liz Taylor, but you don’t have to marry her to ^*%# her...”

BTW Natasha Henstridge went dark haired in her 2002 flick Power and Beauty playing Judy Exner and it was a really good little flick.

Of course... I may be biased toward Natasha a mite!

And, I guess to be completely 100 per cent honest... I would marry Natasha.

Once again, Bender... you have stolen my sweetheart.

Don't worry, Dr Z... I doubt Natasha will be buying rice anytime soon...

[oldbill]

Virginia is rapidly becoming a blue state. A big reason is the effect that illegal immigrants have on the vote - and yes, they do vote, in significant numbers. Even the state politicians will admit it in private, but don’t want to stir the pot because the MSM will quickly label them racist.

Webb beat Allen by 9000 votes. Many more than that margin were illegals who were registered in voter drives that hispanic organizations and Democrats set up at hispanic festivals and outside mercados. Illegal? Yes. Easy? Yes. They just tell them to check the box on the form that affirms you are a US citizen and resident of the voting district.

I played dumb and tried to regiser myself. I asked the little old ladies from the League of Women Voters if I had to show some citizenship proof. Nope. I went through four of these tables and then had them call over the supervisor. Nope. “The county registrar will follow up” she said. I called them later - they don’t.

So, the Republicans will lose next year, because conservatives in northern Virginia are turned off by the weasles in the US and Commonwealth Senates, Republicans all, who are in lockstep with the corporations and developers and Chambers of Commerce who want that cheap labor.

One hundred and forty-two years after the Civil War, Virginia is returning to a Democrat slave state. They just use nicer words to describe it.

But in Great Falls and McLean the lawns are neat and the toilets are spotless.

[AzaleaCity5691]

In a statewide race, the best course of action is to go for someone who has a very strong base area....or, someone who has actually won a statewide race before. In this case, I’d say the best solution is Gilmore, I think he was fairly popular when he left office.

Though my personal opinion about Allen losing is that, at least to some people, he seemed to be jumping the gun, call it the John Edwards syndrome. When people in North Carolina began to think Edwards was using that seat as a stepping stone, his ratings went down. Now, I know there were other factors at work in VA, but this had to have had a tiny thing to do with it. I kind of wonder if this same factor will hurt Obama in 10. Never mind the recent electoral history of Illinois, the fact is, his victory had some conditions surrounding, but that’s a story for another day.

[Kuksool]

Its a real shame that once reliable conservative heroes like Lindsey Graham and Bob Barr have jumped the shark.

Gov’t really is a corrupting influence. If not Davis, then Randy Forbes would be our best bet. BTW, do you still think Mark Warner will ditch the Senate race in favor of another stint as Governor?

[xDGx]

“I’m sure that Kate Obenshain Griffin is a great lady, but does anyone in Virginia know who she is?”

Call me old-fashioned, but I have qualms about someone who cannot decide what their last name should be, and resorts to hyphenation.

(Apologies if that is her middle name)

[Clintonfatigued]

Obenshain is her maiden name, Griffin is her married name.

[xDGx]

Well there ya go!

[AppyPappy]

Yup. Sellout

[jch10]

I don’t know Mr.Davis but he can’t be worse than Warner.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I was talking to CF about that. I think Mark Warner would far prefer a return to the Governorship in ‘09 (since Republicans occupy both the 2 other statewide offices, the Dems don’t have a natural successor to Gov. Eyebrow). But the Nat’l Dems may be applying considerable pressure to him to run for the Senate seat given their narrow majority.

[AzaleaCity5691]

I am going to disagree with the last statement. 140 years ago, the Republicans were the liberals, and the Democrats were the conservatives. One of the most conservative presidents this country ever had was Grover Cleveland. The New Deal effectively changed that, as what had been a party made up almost entirely of the South, suddenly became a party that the rest of the nation was drawn to, and of course, they immediately showed their anti Southern bias, and they drove the South away.

The Republican Party, as it were, almost had died away by the 1950’s, the only thing that saved it was the fact that the Democrats, which by this point were run by the same liberals who ran the Republican Party between Reconstruction and the New Deal, pushed Southerners out, and the Southerners came to the Republican Party, where there was Barry Goldwater, who had many of the same values regarding federal authority that the old Bourbons had in the 1870’s when they helped liberate the region from Yankee rule.

And look at the map today, without the South, there would be no Republican Party, we are the base, or as I told my daughter when she asked me the predictable question about the parties, I told her “they switched”, and that’s what happens. The Democrats that are in the South today are the ideological descendants of the Populists, and the Republicans in the south are the descedants of the Bourbons. Or to put it another way, Democratic legislators voted to change the Georgia state flag, Republican legislators voted to keep it. Soon after this, Georgia elected it’s first Republican legislature in 130 years.

The parties switched, and as my final note, the war had nothing to do with slavery.

[fieldmarshaldj]

If you knew what that name meant in VA, you’d understand why she uses it. Obenshain is a revered name amongst Republicans and Conservatives.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yes he can. Post #29.

[Corin Stormhands]

Call me old-fashioned, but I have qualms about someone who cannot decide what their last name should be, and resorts to hyphenation.

Kate Obenshain Griffin is the daughter of the late Dick Obenshain, our genuine conservative candidate for Senate in 1978. Obenshain died in a plane crash in August of that year. The State Central Committee selected John Warner to run for that seat. Warner came in second at the state convention and he's never forgiven the conservatives for that.

As fieldmarshaldj said, "Obenshain" is a revered name in Virginia Republican circles. Kate's brother Mark is in the Virginia Senate.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’m going to take issue with your assessment. It’s far more complex than that, and some is just a bit off-base.

Both parties had large groups of liberals and Conservatives, but a 19th century liberal would be quite Conservative today (even some 1950s “liberals”, for that matter — JFK, for example). Only in the last 30+ years have those ideological groups firmly attached themselves to one party or another.

Briefly on Cleveland, he was a Conservative, but he was replaced by the liberal William Jennings Bryan in 1896 (though Bryan’s social views today would be to the right of most Conservative Republicans).

RE: Georgia. The Republican party in the state was not built upon the backs of old-time Bourbonism, that’s just plain wrong. Most of the seeds were planted by Northern immigrants since the 1950s (Gingrich was from PA; Bob Barr and Paul Coverdell were from Iowa; John Linder from Minnesota) that brought their Republicanism with them. The old Dixiecrats died off, and not a one of them became a Republican (aside from Albert Watson & Thurmond in SC, for example). A generation or two ago, many of today’s Southern voting Republicans were Northerners, but those folks voted with their feet, the reason why once hyper-Republican states like Massachusetts or the NYC suburbs have gone the opposite way (with MA now as politically a one-party backwater as pre-1960s LA or MS).

[xDGx]

Well Heinz was a revered name here in PA (you may recall our Senator by that name who died in a helicopter crash).

You may also recall a certain figure in the ‘04 Presidential election by that name. Sided with the other camp.

If she’s a good candidate, then God bless her. But to be honest I have just about had my fill of candidates who are scions of political figures. We have a dunce of a Senator who got in on his diddy’s name (Casey). I want honest credentials (which she may well have), not name recognition. Think FDR vs. TR.

no offense mind you, just not one to mince words.

[satan]

Agree. Warner’s endorsement will be the kiss of death to any republican. It did, however, help Chuck Robb.

[Doctor Don]

It is about time for pompous John to be turned out to pasture!

[Corin Stormhands]

I’m not implying that Kate should get the nomination or the Senate seat just because of her name. I was merely explaining the use of both names and the fact that it’s far from some feminist statement that was inferred from your first post.

Kate had a rocky time as Chair of the GOP. And there have been some other issues. I’m not sure how strong a candidate she would be.

Congress maybe. Senator? I’m not so sure.

Still, in the nominating process, there are those who would supporter her ~just because~ she’s Dick Obenshain’s daughter.