Virginia’s longstanding man in the U.S. Senate, John Warner, had some major media coverage last week. As critic of “stay-the-course” and the outgoing chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Warner got a turn in the spotlight when the Hamilton-Baker Iraq Study Group report was released to his committee. Because he marshaled support for Rumsfeld replacement Robert Gates, Warner led the quotes in the confirmation lovefest for Gates, who won Senate approval with a 95-2 vote.
“You simply must be fearless,” Warner told Gates, according to The New York Times. “I repeat, fearless.”
If U.S. Senator John Warner, third from left, runs for a sixth term, as he suggested last week he might, the 79-year-old would become the longest-serving Virginia senator ever. Maybe those years with Elizabeth Taylor kept him young.
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Even at fellow Republican George Allen’s farewell address, Warner upstaged the one- term senator by announcing that he may run for his sixth term, supposedly to keep the state from having two freshmen senators.
Yet Warner was hardly fearless in his announcement: He didn’t definitely commit and pointed to the issues of raising tons of cash and weathering the vicissitudes of the campaign trail. “I’m seen [approval] numbers fade like thunderstorms,” said the 79-year-old Warner, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
If he does run, however, that means that Virginia could see an epic rematch: Warner v. Warner, the 2008 version. Mark Warner, the Democratic former Virginia governor who recently declined a presidential bid, hinted that a Senate seat or a return to the governor’s mansion could be in his future. He narrowly lost to John Warner in 1996.
