November 8, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Sen. Warner reflects on GOP loss

Senator John Warner used the Republicans' loss in the election on Tuesday as an opportunity to heap criticism on the party leaders around the Commonwealth:

The rigidity of this outfit is going to keep taking it down until they hit bottom. And I don't know when that will be. ... And I find it quite distressing. (SOURCE: Richmond Times-Dispatch)

He hit the nail on the head, of course, but these days there just are't many Republican Party leaders who are likely to listen. Most of them pay lip service to the "big-tent" idea, but in practice they attack as a "RINO" anyone who doesn't abide by standards of ideological purity. Sen. Warner has been noticeably cool to the idea of former Gov. Jim Gilmore running for the Senate seat he presently occupies. What a pity that after Warner steps off the national stage, there won't be any prudent-minded senior Republican leader from Virginia left to fill his shoes. Will the GOP even bother to contest the Senate seat, or will Mark Warner win it by default? And how low will the Party of Lincoln sink in the Old Dominion before enough people wake up to reality and start appealing to voters in the middle of the political spectrum?

New GOP blog

One of the major league honchos of the Republican Party in Washington started a new blog a few months ago: Fred Malek. I was taken aback to see who is listed at the top of his blogroll: Moi! Perhaps he took note of all the favorable posts I made about him when he was bidding to buy the Washington Nationals franchise. See Aug. 14, 2005 and Nov. 3, 2005, for example.