While I do not always agree with his decisions, Senator John Warner (R-Va), whom I have met and talked with a number of times and heard speak numerous times, but he remains one of the few old-school members of the GOP that is left. He has never been a hate monger, is not anti-gay, and has on occasion openly defied the GOP to uphold his ideals. In fact, his push for a third party run by Marshall Coleman largely stopped the charismatic, but wing nutted Oliver North (who I likewise refused to back) from winning Virginia's other U. S. Senate seat some years back. Yesterday, Warner again put his conscience ahead of party loyalty:
Two senior Republican senators, including Virginia’s John Warner, filed legislation Friday demanding that President Bush develop detailed plans to begin removing or repositioning American troops in Iraq.
The 18-page proposal by Warner and Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar says Bush must prepare plans for alternative strategies by mid-October and should be prepared to begin implementing them by year’s end. It stops short of ordering a U.S. withdrawal, mandated in legislation pushed through the House on Thursday but virtually certain to die in the Senate.
Instead, it declares that Bush’s goal of a unified, peaceful, democratic Iraq “is not likely to be achieved in the near future” and that “American military and diplomatic strategy … must adjust to the reality.”
Instead, it declares that Bush’s goal of a unified, peaceful, democratic Iraq “is not likely to be achieved in the near future” and that “American military and diplomatic strategy … must adjust to the reality.”
Drafted as an amendment to a massive defense-policy bill now on the Senate floor, the Warner-Lugar proposal underscored growing unease among congressional Republicans with Bush’s war leadership. It was offered just one day after a defiant Bush ripped legislative efforts to end the war.
What is defining in my mind is Warner's statement as to why he joined Lugar in taking this action:
My views are matters of conscience,” he said in a written statement, “and reflect what I believe to be in the best interests of the country and our men and women in uniform and their families. … It is my sincere hope that this amendment provides a basis for bipartisan consensus.”
Would that the GOP still was dominated by individuals like John Warner. I might even still be a member of the GOP. The full Virginian Pilot story is here: http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=128446&ran=63881&tref=po
1 comment:
Like you, I didn't always agree with Warner when I was living in VA. I *always* respected him, though. For one simple reason ~ he never gave me a reason to disrespect him. And that says more about a person than just about anything else in my mind.
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