Sunday's NYT Magazine has an extensive profile of Tom Davis. A few quick excerpts from the lengthy article:Sunday's NYT Magazine has an extensive profile of Tom Davis. A few quick excerpts from the lengthy article:
The way Davis sees it, the system has become dysfunctional. Bush has so destroyed the party’s public standing and Congress has become so infected with a win-at-all-costs mentality that there is no point in staying. “You know, the Cubs fans used to put the bags over their heads,” he told me when we met for eggs at Mickey’s Dining Car in St. Paul the first morning of the Republican National Convention. “That’s what I feel when you say you’re from Congress, because there are just so many things we’re not doing.”
And...
As for Bush, Davis long ago lost faith. “He’s a disappointment,” Davis said. “How else do you say it?”
It may be that fighting for the team is what has taken such a toll on Davis. The cost of loyalty — reconciling his own centrist, pragmatic instincts with the demands of a conservative party — seems to weigh on him. “You’ve got to, quote, ‘play the game,’ ” he told me. “If you want advancement, you’ve got to adhere to the party lines on a lot of issues.”
And about Sarah Palin in talking to a class at GMU that he's teaching:
But the students did not come alive until he threw the discussion open for questions and they asked about Sarah Palin. “The base hated McCain; it was a marriage of convenience,” Davis told them. “What are the negatives? What about her résumé? I got through it in about 10 seconds. Does that hurt? He’s the guy running on experience — ‘3 a.m., I’m the guy.’ And she’s a heartbeat away.”
The very end of the article mentions Webb's seat in 2012, and Davis has the nerve to say he could jump back in, but "neither" party is looking for a problem solver.
I think this flirting with Dems is too little and way too late.
To me, the following is the most telling quote to me in the article: "You're not an independent actor as a leader."
He's talking about being in the House Republican Leadership under Gingrich and his successors. But when he says he had no choice but to follow DeLay's orders and inject Congress into the Terry Schiavo case, that's pure BS. He could have put his conscience first. There have been many opportunities for Davis to realize he'd fit in much better with the Dems, and the same goes for his wife.
This reporter discloses his close coverage of Davis going back to his time as Fairfax County Board Chairman. The reporter probably thinks readers will be sympathetic to Davis's plight. Residents of VA-11 who have been paying attention likely won't be.
I've lived in the 11th district and the Mason District most of my life going back to the days when my developement was on the edge of suburbia. I've meet him a couple of times at various function and even chatted with him in my foyer when he was canvassing for his wife in 2007. He earnestly cared about his constituents -- that's why so many Democrats voted for him over the years.
Tom Davis was never a true believer but of course sold his soul in the mistaken belief that baser darker corners of the GOP could be kept in check by the grownups. He was wrong. Oh so very wrong -- I could forgive his earnest beliefs in a right of center political viewpoints but the gravest sin he needs to atone for is his embrace of the Tom Delay wing of the GOP.
Tom Davis should have listened to his inner conscience and gone the Independent route in 2005-2006 but his entire career and that of his new wife was tied to the GOP's fortunes so he chickened out. How do you repudiate all that you believed in for so many years? It doesn't come easy -- I liken it to faithful Catholics who wake up to realize that oh so many priests are imperfect vessels.
Atonement IMO would begin with a repudiation of his friend John McCain and the failed GOP leadership in congress. Dontknow at all if it will happen.