A Political Giant Takes His Leave

The stories of John Warner's independent-minded style are well-known. He climbed off a plane in 2006, fresh from Iraq, and declared that the war was "drifting sideways." He stood alongside Mark Warner when the latter was governor in support of a transportation referendum that many of his Republican colleagues opposed. He refused to endorse two conservative Republican candidates, Michael P. Farris for lieutenant governor in 1993 and Oliver North for U.S. Senate the following year, whom he deemed unfit for public office.

"John was never saddled with the wrong priority on parties," said former governor A. Linwood Holton Jr., Warner's fraternity brother at Washington and Lee University who in 1969 helped him become undersecretary of the Navy after both worked on Richard M. Nixon's presidential campaign.

Holton and Warner stayed close even when they competed in the Republican Senate primary in 1978. Holton fondly recalled befriending Warner's wife at the time, actress Elizabeth Taylor, when she dazzled Virginians on the campaign trail.

"He was a Republican," said Holton, who also is the father-in-law of Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). "But he recognized that parties are competitive devices that give people the opportunity to make a choice. He never hesitated to deviate from the party line if he felt that the deviation was necessary for better government service."

Such deviations also characterize the political styles of Webb and Warner, making it possible for either to gravitate toward a centrist, brokering role in a chamber that Democrats control and where good relations with Republicans could be fruitful for President-elect Barack Obama. The styles of the three new members of Congress, who will be under pressure to follow the lead of their party elders, are less clear.

"There's going to be a vacuum for quite a while," said Republican Tom Davis, a longtime congressman from Northern Virginia who left office last year. "You don't grow seniority right away."

Anyone seeking to replace Warner must start by building expertise. Amid the wingback chairs, empty desks and stacks of framed mementos outside Warner's office last week was a box of volumes giving testament to his deep knowledge, including "Cold War Submarines" and "The U.S. Marines in the Korean War." From that expertise followed accomplishments: serving as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, securing funding for a new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, protecting Virginia's military bases from closure.

His successor also must be willing to work. By all accounts, Warner never slowed down in his final year in office. He led efforts by Virginia's political leaders to save the extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, which was under threat of rejection by federal transit regulators. And little more than a month ago, he was strategizing in his office with Kaine, Webb and Mark Warner to block the move of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier from Virginia to Mayport Naval Air Station in Florida.

The proposal "borders on fiscal irresponsibility," John Warner said at a news conference in late November.

Mostly, anyone hoping to follow in Warner's footsteps must study his grace and level-headedness, friends say -- always mixed with a touch of humor as well as that unmistakable Virginia twang.

One of Holton's favorite stories dates back to his term as governor in the early 1970s, after Nixon had promoted Warner to secretary of the Navy. A Navy ship had crashed into the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which connects Virginia Beach to the Eastern Shore, and Holton rang up his old friend.

"John, you broke my bridge," the governor said.

"Ah know," Warner replied.

And then, Holton said, the Navy fixed it.

Staff writer Michael Laris contributed to this report.