Posted on 12/21/2008 4:53:45 PM PST by King of Card Games
WASHINGTON The reminders of public service are coming out of the office of Sen. John Warner, who leaves the Senate on Jan. 3 after 30 years:
A chair used by Teddy Roosevelt at a peace conference in 1905. An oil painting by Winston Churchill. A metal fragment of a Scud missile. A stone from the ancient Roman Senate.
Pictures with presidents and admirals. Colorful still lifes by Warner himself. A mounted smallmouth bass. Battle flags. The resolution, drafted by Warner, to go to war against Iraq in the first Gulf War.
The office overlooking the Capitol from the Russell Senate office building is one of the choicest on Capitol Hill, and Warner has occupied it for 18 years.
"In so many states the political system is so rigid," he added. "They send those voters to the polls and say 'You vote this way,' but we're an independent lot."
Warner thinks the Republican Party in Virginia, which he helped build, is substituting rigidity for independent thinking.
"I would have to say that I'm deeply concerned, indeed sad, about the Republican Party of Virginia," he said.
A year ago, when he knew he was not going to seek re-election, Warner said he donated $2,000 to the Republican Party of Virginia to help defray the costs of a luncheon and straw poll at the party's annual Advance in Arlington.
"Guess who they elected? Ron Paul. That was the worst investment of several thousand dollars I ever made."
In 1994, Warner chose to oppose North, the party's Senate nominee, then best known for the Iran-Contra affair. Warner enticed J. Marshall Coleman, a former attorney general and the Republicans' 1989 gubernatorial nominee, to run for the Senate seat as an independent. Many Republicans blamed Warner for North's narrow loss to Democrat Charles S. Robb.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
30 years in the US Senate is actually a black mark on one’s resume rather than some sort of badge of honor.
I wonder if he has any of his fingerprints from Liz Taylor’s ^^^.
He’s served about 29 years 352 days too long
I agree. Good riddance to Warner
Oh yay. Tooting flute with broken toot.
Was Warner ever conservative, or has he always been liberal?
In my relatively brief time following politics, he seems to me only pro defense, and center left on pretty much everything else.
US Senator John Warner (R-Washington Post).
Newbie. Signed up today. This is his/her only post.
One year of experience, 30 times.
Nobody doing nothing, forever.
And Frau Schlossberg, the granddaughter of Nazi sympathizer Joe Kennedy, will be appointed to a lifetime appointment.
Is this country great or what?
I wonder if it sings?
He was ONLY there 30 yrs.? I could have sworn it was eternity for all the bad moves he’s made in that amount of time, but then what would anyone expect from someone whose greatest achievement was being briefly married to Elizabeth Taylor.
Thank God and Greyhound he’s gone.
What was hilarious was his short marriage to Liz Taylor.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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