Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Radical Centrist

I attended the dinner meeting at the World Affair Council last night, where Senator Mark Warner was the speaker.  Normally, our speaker discusses some international issue.  Senator Warner spoke more about domestic issues.

He talked about his experience on the Gang of Six moderate senators who tried to build on the Simpson-Bowles work to break the debt ceiling debacle, complaining the press is more interested in the extremes than the moderates in the middle.

He asked fans of Fox News to spend more time watching MSNBC and asked fans of MSNBC to spend more time watching Fox News.

He asked Republicans to find a Democrat who supports entitlement reform and to support that Democrat.

He asked Democrats to find a Republican who supports taxes on the "rich" and to support that Republican.

(He did not speak about redistricting, which I believe is the root of all evil in our political culture.)

When an obvious Tea Partier asked some inflammatory questions, he answered them with aplomb and respect.  That told me he was not another liberal Democrat and may be exactly how he describes himself as a "radical centrist."