First, GOP Rep. Davis of Fairfax heaps on a healthy dollop:
U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, a past chairman of the GOP arm devoted to electing more House Republicans, saluted Democrat Warner for his governance.Davis, an unusually candid congressman, said Warner's job as governor was effectively validated when voters picked his lieutenant governor, Democrat Timothy M. Kaine, to succeed him.
"Mark Warner has earned a spot as a leader in the Democratic Party and as presidential material," Davis said Wednesday in response to a question at a breakfast for political reporters held by The Christian Science Monitor.
His praise was also reported in the latest Washington Whispers, which expanded on Warner's prosepcts:
Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is white-hot on the Democratic presidential circuit. A popular moderate in a southern state, he helped push successor Tim Kaine to victory in this month's elections and last week started his 2008 dance in New Hampshire. "Mark Warner," says Virginia Rep. Tom Davis --a Republican--"is presidential material."But it's not just his politics that have some Virginians humming "Hail to the Chief." Many see him as a contemporary Thomas Jefferson, a businessman and reluctant politician who dabbles in farming and winemaking at his Rappahannock Bend farm. "He's kind of a Renaissance man," says Virginia writer Walker Elliott Rowe, author of Wandering Through Virginia's Vineyards. At his farm, Warner grows 15 acres of grapes for nearby Ingleside Vineyards. They use the grapes in Ingleside wines and bottle a private Rappahannock Bend label that Warner offers at charity auctions.
High praise - and well-deserved.
(A sidenote: on the GOP's 2008 hopefuls, Rep. Davis finds John McCain and Rudy Giuliani as exerting "leadership qualities that [he doesn't] see in others at this point." He notably didn't include Sen. Allen in that group of leaders, despite specifically considering Allen's 2008 prospects).