Is Mark Warner Being Shunned By The WaPo?
Shhhhh.
Hear that?
It’s candidate endorsement season and all we’re hearing from the liberal Washington Post regarding Virginia’s Mark Warner is, well, crickets.
By contrast, the last time Warner ran The Post gave Warner a warm tongue bath, declaring him to be “a former Virginia governor, who avoids partisan posturing in favor of consistent focus on critical problems.”
IN 12 YEARS on Capitol Hill, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) has staked a legitimate claim as one of the more effective, constructive and genuinely bipartisan lawmakers in Congress. In a place where grandstanding, pandering and interparty venom are nearly normal, Mr. Warner is frequently the grown-up in the room, a measured and substantive Democrat who has forged partnerships with key Republican colleagues. Virginians would do well to reelect him this year to a third term in the Senate, and we endorse him.
They published this on October 8, 2020. Just 19 days into early voting.
It’s 32 days into early voting this year and so far The Post is mum on Warner.
Perhaps the editors follow the aging senator on X where Warner seems to spend most of his time.
When he isn’t making creepy selfie videos ranting about Trump - as his chauffeur squires him around Washington - he’s spewing written anti-Trump diatribes. He could hardly be described as a “measured and substantive” Democrat today.
Then again, perhaps the Post editors were reminded that when he first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996 Warner pledge to serve just two terms.
And here he is, begging voters for a fourth.
Possibly, the editors looked at Republican Bert Mizusawa’s impressive resume: first in his class at West Point, Harvard Law grad, war hero, retired Army Major General and advisor to the CIA and could find no fault.
While the Post won’t endorse Republicans, refusing to endorse Democrats amounts to as much.
For instance, in 2024, to the horror of the Kamala Harris campaign that expected to be blessed by The Post, the editorial page editor William Lewis announced that the newspaper would no longer endorse in presidential races.
That non-endorsement spoke volumes. The day-drunk vice president was too wacky even for the Post.
That same year, however, The Post gave a hearty endorsement to U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, calling him a “model senator” and a “political workhorse.”
The editors highlighted Kaine’s ability to work across the aisle on crucial legislation noting that he is a "credit to Virginia.”
Kaine’s GOP opponent, retired Navy captain and Vietnamese refugee Hung Cao, now the Secretary of the Navy, was dismissed as lacking “temperament and pragmatism to be effective in the Senate."
There’s still time for The Post to hold its nose and endorse Mark Warner.
I’m betting they won’t.
