Pop Warner

I thought that when John Warner announced his retirement, the pressure would be off of him to satisfy his President and his party, and he would be better positioned to vote his conscience. It turns out that his conscience pales in comparison to flattery:

Just when it looked as if Senator Jim Webb's troop readiness bill might pick up enough GOP support to reach the magic number of 60 filibuster-proof votes, we're now getting word that Senator John Warner is reconsidering his backing for it and may vote against it.

So reports the Wall Street Journal in a subscription only article. In a bit of a cruel joke, here's the reason Warner is giving for not backing a measure that would give exhausted troops more rest:

...in an interview Tuesday, the senator said he is "reconsidering his position" in light of the administration's willingness to move closer to him on expediting some reduction in U.S. troop levels this year in Iraq. "It took a lot of convincing to make the first units come home before Christmas," Mr. Warner said. "There is a lot of importance in that."

They did the meaningless thing I asked for! They like me, they really like me! I can't cross 'em now!

Warner also voted against giving nearby Washington, DC a voting representative in Congress, the only Senator of a contiguous area to do so. I guess since those DC residents aren't as - ahem - patrician as he is, they ought not to count.

(The common refrain amongst Republicans on this is that you can't give DC the vote because the Constitution forbids it and it requires an amendment. Of course, if that ever came up for a vote they'd vote against that too. They hide behind this notion that DC must be free of partisanship and therefore can't have voting members. Right, because the working-class citizens of DC would simply be able to bribe their Congressperson... oh wait, that's what every lobbyist in the country does, poor black people don't have the money to raise such a voice. This is purely about race - they don't want to see two black DC Senators down the road, which is not even what this bill provides.)

John Warner truly is Lucy Van Pelt with the football. But we can still honor our soldiers and pass the Webb Amendment. Call your Senators today.

UPDATE: Why am I doubting the fact that "GOP moderates" (all 0 of them) are weighing loyalty to Bush versus political realities? If that were the case there would still be a Republican Congress.