John Warner: 30 years in U.S. Senate

The Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | December 21, 2008 | Tyler Whitley

[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.

[fieldmarshaldj]

There were worries in ‘94 that North couldn’t beat Robb one-on-one. I thought he might be too controversial myself and supported Reagan’s Budget Director Jim Miller. RINOs weren’t going to vote for North and went with Marshall Coleman (alas, had I been a VA voter at the time, I’d likely have cast a vote for Coleman, but I was a bit more pragmatic at the time, which changed with my disillusionment over what RINOs ultimately did to sabotage the Conservative movement — of course, I had a more important vote(s) to cast in TN that year when I voted for Frist and Fred). North probably would’ve won had Doug Wilder stayed in the race (and it was hard to overstate how much he and Robb HATED each other), but Wilder put party over petty hatred, and that’s how they managed to hold on. Too bad we don’t have enough Republicans that showed as much character and loyalty as Wilder demonstrated in that election.