Warner earned reputation for independence

Whether it was policy, politics or the prerogatives of the U.S. Senate, retiring Republican John W. Warner did it his way.

A spirited advocate for defense -- a major economic force in Virginia, home to the Pentagon -- Warner, nonetheless, has raised questions about the nation's strategy in Iraq.

In breaking with his party over Robert Bork's 1987 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court and refusing to back Michael Farris for lieutenant governor in 1993 and the following year, Oliver L. North for the U.S. Senate, Warner strengthened his hand with Democrats and unaffiliated voters.

"With the two major parties evenly matched and contending for the political middle, the support of independent-minded voters became crucial to candidates in both parties," said Frank B. Atkinson, who was chief counsel to then-Gov. George Allen and a political historian.

"Senator Warner's personal penchant for independence and willingness to take issue with his fellow partisans made him especially appealing to this pivotal bloc of swing voters."

Warner's independence and his devotion to Virginia appealed to governors on both sides of the aisle. In a reflection of their respect, all eight of Virginia's living chief executives, five of them Democrats, gathered in Arlington County on April 25 to pay tribute to Warner.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, called Warner an antidote to the nation's deteriorating political discourse.

"You could not hold up a better example of what this nation needs and what the commonwealth needs than John Warner," Kaine said.

Warner's centrist brand of Republicanism was a constant, even as his party shifted further right, said former Gov. Linwood Holton, another moderate, who finished third in the GOP's 1978 Senate nominating contest.

"John Warner did exactly what he thought was right," said Holton, recalling that as an upperclassman at their alma mater, Washington and Lee University in Lexington, he whacked a freshman Warner with a paddle during a fraternity hazing ritual.

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As he readies to depart Washington after 30 years in the Senate, Warner is leading efforts to block the possible reassignment of a Norfolk-based carrier to Florida. Warner, a former Navy secretary, warns that such a shift -- it would uproot thousands of sailors and their families -- could be a blow to the Virginia economy.

The carrier's potential reassignment shows that Warner's retirement may already have taken a toll on Virginia, said Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia. The effort to move the carrier "may well have happened because of Warner's exit," he said.

While mindful of defense spending as vote-generating pork, Warner risked the ire of the White House by challenging Bush administration strategy in Iraq.

In 2006, for example, Warner -- then chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- caught the administration by surprise by describing U.S.-occupied Iraq as "drifting sideways."

Former U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr., I-Va., who served on the Armed Services panel with Warner from 1979 until 1983 and has followed his career since, said this was vintage Warner.

"A year, maybe 18 months ago, he began to question the situation very carefully," Byrd said. "That's his nature."

As one of the old bulls of the Senate, Warner fiercely defended its traditions. In 2005, Warner joined a bipartisan group, later dubbed the "Gang of 14," that successfully stopped efforts to scuttle a Senate rule that allows a minority of members to block judicial nominations.

Conservatives, among them Allen, who was elected to the Senate in 2000 for a single term, pressed for a so-called "nuclear option" that would force floor votes -- over the wishes of senators -- on President Bush's picks for district and appellate judgeships.

"John Warner was an institutionalist [who] cared deeply about the prerogatives of the Senate as the world's greatest deliberative body," said Carl Tobias, a law professor and analyst at the University of Richmond law school.

Further, Warner is credited with helping open the federal bench in Virginia to women and blacks.

Defying convention occasionally put Warner at odds with his home state's most muscular interests, including tobacco.

Warner, who was often seen in photographs puffing on a pipe, used his chairmanship of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee in 1998 to extend a smoking ban to across the Senate complex, except in designated areas.

Betty K. Koed, assistant Senate historian, said that until then, smoking was allowed in all areas except the Senate chamber.
Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .

Staff writer Tyler Whitley and Washington correspondent Neil Simon contributed to this report.