Mark Warner puts party loyalty ahead of the national interest
By Ken Falkenstein | Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 | Policy, Politics
Both of Virginia’s Democrat senators, Mark Warner and Jim Webb, have signed a letter effectively announcing that they would allow the country to default and suffer a reduced bond rating before they would support a Republican plan to combine an increase in the debt ceiling with real defined cuts in spending.
The letter states that all 53 Senate Democrats will oppose the Boehner plan because it “would force us once again to face the threat of default in five or six short months.” In other words, Mark Warner and Jim Webb want us to believe that it makes sense to cause a default today in order to avoid the possibility of a default in 5 or 6 months. Yes, really.
The truth is that our two Democrat Senators signed this letter because their loyalty to their party is stronger than their concern for the national interest. Jim Webb has already announced his retirement and is therefore liberated to act against the interests of his country. Mark Warner, however, reportedly plans to run for reelection as Governor of Virginia in 2013. He is assuming that we will all forget that given a choice between loyalty to a radical movement leftist president and acting to avoid a catastrophic default of our national debts, he put loyalty to his party ahead of the national interest.
Warner holds himself out to the public as a fiscal conservative, but his signature on today’s letter exposes him as just another typical leftist Washington Democrat. As the 2013 gubernatorial campaign shapes up, we need to make sure that Warner no longer gets away with distracting the people of Virginia from his leftist record.
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About the author
Ken Falkenstein has been a staffer in the United States Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He has managed political campaigns. He was a military intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in West Germany during the Cold War. He is currently the Vice President of the Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads and practices as a civil litigation attorney with the law firm of Poole Mahoney PC in Virginia Beach. His concern for his kids' future is what most informs his writing.
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13 Responses to "Mark Warner puts party loyalty ahead of the national interest"
As the 2013 gubernatorial campaign shapes up, we need to make sure that Warner no longer gets away with distracting the people of Virginia from his leftist record.
Well, Repubs have been doing that for years – I mean of course letting Warner get away with anything he wants to get away with. Do you realize what a lonely voice you are Ken?
Ken, as a lifelong friend of a close friend of Mark Warner, I can honestly say he is not a “typical leftist”. He is a genuine democrat which be default is left yes.. He is a politician working the typical left crowd for votes by playing his drumbeat to the left. If he were a typical leftist in business, he would not have been as successful.. So, privately, Mark Warner, as my friend knows him anyway, is not typical left.. He plays to the left.. just like Webb does. That where their votes are. Just got to keep it honest.
Of course now the far right is sounding defensive and desperate, insulting anyone who has the courage of their convictions to do what is right for America. Senator Mark Warner is the epitome of the moderate centrist, bringing his business background and record of pragmatic reform to Congress where it is desperately needed, and helping to forge a deficit reduction plan that actually reduced the deficit. So why would posters herein turn on Warner? Probably because another Senator, John McCain, who had been the standard bearer for the republican party in the last Presidential election, has called out the bozos in the republican party in the House of Representatives, for their attempts to take political advantage by causing severe economic disruption. I believe the key words are “bizarro”, “Tea Party Hobbits”, and of course the real zinger, “crack political thinking”, and if I have to explain the form of crack he is referring to, you aren’t listening. So Ken, nice try, you always try to deflect bad news, but frankly, while you are good at it, even you can’t stem the tide against the bizarro actions of the far right republican party.
I don’t know, maybe we should just…
…raise the debt ceiling.
Ken, isn’t your title for this post a bit hypocritical? Perhaps it should read “Mark Warner, John Boehner, and Eric Cantor put party loyalty ahead of the national interest.”
Based on Boehner’s statement to Republican House dissenters “Get your asses in line!” and Cantor’s charge to “stop grumbling and whining” is this for the good of the Republican Party or national interest?
Bohner’s retort this morning in starkly partisan terms, “Barack Obama hates it, Harry Reid hates it, Nancy Pelosi hates it, and it is the last chance to hold Obama’s feet to the fire.”
This all-in bluff, even if it gets 217 House votes, will not make it out of the Senate and reach the President’s “feet”.
The Democrats will own this problem if it makes it out of the house. They will branded the “No” nothings, just as they did to Republicans during their power grabs during Stimulus and Obamacare. Democrats still haven’t produced their plan, much less any legislation. They are too busy planning the President’s birthday party.
Well Tim J, that sounds a bit like false bravado; first, it may or may not make it out of the House, but it has been crafted to ensure it can’t pass in the Senate. Is that responsive legislating? Of course not, and that fact has not escaped anyone who has a clue. But perhaps when adults modify the legislation in the Senate, a bill can be crafted that will pass. I sure hope so.
Mike, where’s the Senate’s plan? Where’s the Senate’s legislation? Where’s Obama’s plan? Oh, that’s right… he outsourced it to the House and Senate because his was unanimously defeated.
So, with Republicans trying, the Democrats conniving and the President crying, who’s going to get the blame?
“Turbo”. Mark Warner never really started any business. He just took the American people for a ride with the rights to cell phone licences. Warner raised taxes and borrowed monies like no other VA governor. Ask him what happened to “Southside Risisng” and his other venture capitall pieces of junk that he used to run for Governor. He is a joke.
Tim J: Your conclusion is steeped in blind party loyalty and hopeful for a desired result. Yet failure to recognize the various outcomes of this Republican tactic leads to expanding the risks of political blow-back. This just might be a Democratic rope-a-dope tactic to eventually set-up the President, through executive means, as the debt crisis savior. The submitted house bill, doomed for failure, without the tax increases and with cuts to entitlements viewed popular with 75% of the polling data is in my mind a risky, imprudent play.
So Tucker, by your criteria, if borrowing money makes a Governor a joke, how do you categorize our current Governor whose excess borrowing has put our triple AQ credit rating at risk. A gigantic joke?
Tucker is right. Warner was a political lawyer who used his insider contacts in government to make his fortune. His ability to spin that as being a great businessman and moderate is disgusting and weirdly admirable in that he is a master politician able to spin a false narrative with the best of them.
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