There was much ado on conservative blogs yesterday about the upcoming John Warner endorsement of Allen last night. Given that John Warner (and his buddies John MCCain and Linday Graham) keep conjuring up phony departures from the Bush agenda, only later to give Bush everything he wants (torture, the end of habeus corpus, unfettered spying on Americans, Alito/Roberts,and now, a pretend alternative to Bush's Iraq policy), John Warner's posturing with Allen means little.
John Warner used to stand for something. You could often count on him as a voice of reason. Not any more. Like the other so-called moderates in the GOP, there is no issue important enough to stand up for in the final wheelings and dealings. But since Warner and McCain are what now passes for within-party "loyal opposition," however weak or imaginary, they are all Bush and Allen have for giving the GOP some credibility before Nov. 7th, if only for the camera.
Interestingly, however, if the name Warner means something, increasingly, it is Mark Warner who has that cornered. As Lowell notes here on Raising Kaine, (read it here):
This weekend's Washington Post poll provided "favorable/unfavorable" ratings for key Virginia politicians. Not suprisingly, the most popular Virginia politico is Mark Warner, at +53 percentage points (73%-20%). Next is Tim Kaine, at +44 percentage points (67%-23%). In third place is John Warner at +41 percentage points (66%-25%). Then comes Jim Webb at +16 percentage points (53%-37%). Finally, last but not least is George Allen, at +10 percentage points (53%-43%).
Mark Warner has the respect of most of the voters in Virginia. He'll be traveling the state with James Webb. And voters will know which Warner endorsement really means something.
And, as Webb volunteers inform more and more voters of the facts of the race, and voters in turn learn of the Allen Team's disinformation, George Allen is in for a real awakening. We don't need any more flim-flam candidates, flim-flam staged disagreements, or disinformation tours. And (John) Warner/Allen won't cut it.