Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990 TAG: 9004260547
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
At that time we said, "it wasn't Warner's vote against Bork that conservatives should mind so much - the cause was lost in any case - it was the odiousness of the company he joined." And we stand by that. Whenever the likes of Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and Howard Metzenbaum are singing in an unholy choir of moral indignation, decent people should run - not walk - to the nearest exit. And long exposure has convinced me that Warner is one of the most decent people in American politics.
Perhaps some refresher is in order. Proper names used to be a wonderful source of enrichment for the langauge, and "Borking" threatened for a time to enter the dictionary as a word to describe any carefully orchestrated campaign of vilification. As the world of media-induced hysteria spins giddily forward, it is rare that memory preserves a definitional moment of personal injustice. But the case of Bork has come close. In the respect that was accorded publication of his recent book, "The Tempting of America," there was a hint of contrition on the part of the press for the demolition of an able American.
While the general public has long forgotten Warner's vote against Bork, it has stuck in the craw of some Republicans. But more as a symptom of the senator's persistent refusal to serve as a dependable mouthpiece of the "conservative" agenda. That perception was compounded when Warner, as the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was slow off the mark in confronting the "Borking" of John Tower as the president's original choice for secretary of defense.
Still, Warner is now the GOP's sole surviving statewide officeholder, and criticism of him has been carefully muted. Generous helpings of disappointment have also served to curb the appetite of the Virginia Republican Party for rash adventures.
Warner had seen firsthand the palpable hostility that Paul Trible faced at the GOP convention in Roanoke in 1988. Having declined the honor of standing between the sainted Robb and his elevation to the U.S. Senate, Trible could hardly have expected a warm embrace as the party took up the doleful chore of choosing among equally hopeless candidates for the seat he was vacating.
But Trible still possessed a household name, and a proven capacity not only for mounting effective political campaigns, but also for discharging the actual duties of high office in a sober and competent manner.
Trible was, in a word, still a "bankable" asset that the party might have done well to treat with greater respect. Had it done so, Republicans might now be enjoying hospitality in the governor's mansion instead of contemplating the lugubrious prospect of yet another race by Marshall Coleman for a prize already twice denied.
Warner has profited from these examples and scuttled this year's GOP convention and forced a primary upon the party, in which he has already been declared the winner. And state Democrats have now done their part to make his coronation complete. Lacking any serious prospect to challenge Warner, and being afraid to poke among dying embers, the Virginia Democratic Party has decided it won't even hold a convention to consider the possibility of fielding a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
But the vote in the GOP State Central Committee on Warner's written request for nomination by primary might serve as an indicator of the indignities to which the senior senator could have been subjected had someone arisen to challenge his stately progress through the labyrinth of local and district nominating conclaves on the long road to a state convention.
No such candidate had emerged, but it was only by a vote of 40-27 that senior Republican leaders accorded the two-term senator, and their only sure statewide winner, the courtesy of respecting his wish for a primary.
That 40-27 vote can be interpreted several ways, of course, and many who voted against Warner on the issue had other things on their minds and no desire to see him taken down. But there were those who would have liked to see a "true" or "movement" conservative emerge to force Warner to sing for his supper.
It was not that the senator would have had any difficulty brushing a challenger aside, but doing so would have consumed a large measure of time and no small degree of dignity. And, who knows, a Republican cutting up Warner might have given Democrats ideas of their own. It is a fanciful scenario, to be sure, but it is a shrewd politician who arranges his battles in advance to avoid even the necessity of their being fought.
And this has been the genius of Warner. While doing duty by his party - and he has carried water for many hopeless causes - Warner has been careful to so arrange his rhetoric and his voting record as to give Democrats as little incentive as possible for being mad at him. Here is where the Bork vote fit in.
Warner and his Democratic colleague, Robb, have perfected the formula of dispensing charm and platitudes in the manner best calculated to endear themselves to the great middle which straddles both of their parties. Not only do they complement each other, but in a real sense they guarantee each other's continuation in office.
by CNB