Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995 TAG: 9502070035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Warner, who is up for re-election in 1996, acknowledged his differences with the Virginia GOP, especially over his refusal to back party nominee Oliver North in his unsuccessful 1994 race against Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va.
``I'm the biggest piece of raw, bloody meat you've got,'' Warner joked at a meeting of the Virginia Associated Press Newspapers.
Warner said he wrote state GOP leader Patrick McSweeney this week, vowing to remain a Republican instead of launching an independent bid for re-election next year.
``I will work within the party,'' Warner said.
The Contract With America, the GOP legislative road map, is dangerously unrealistic, Warner said. ``You're not going to turn this mighty ship of state a hard right or she'll roll over.''
Especially troubling is the speed with which the new Republican Congress has tackled fiscal issues and made promises of tax cuts, without addressing social ills such as welfare and crime that worry Americans more, Warner said.
Warner noted he is unusual among Virginia senators in his longevity in office and said the state needs continuity and seniority in leadership.
``No one anticipated the overwhelming majority of Republicans who came to the House of Representatives,'' he said.
He also said Republicans have only a fragile grip on power in the Senate, holding 53 of the chamber's 100 seats. That's not enough to dismiss Democrats, and the plurality would not exist at all but for the resignation of four popular Democratic senators who have taken other jobs, he said.
``Those seats would be very safely held by those gentlemen, and the Congress would be a very different place,'' Warner said.
by CNB