John W. Warner, senator from Virginia and force on military affairs, dies at 94
Source: Washington Post
John W. Warner, the five-term U.S. senator from Virginia who helped plan the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations, played a central role in military affairs and gained respect on both sides of the aisle for his diligence, consensus-building and independence, has died in Alexandria, Va., at 94. His former chief of staff Carter Cornick announced the death but did not provide further detail. Because of his willingness to buck his increasingly conservative party, Mr. Warner became the Republican whom many Virginia independents and Democrats respected and voted for. By the time he retired in 2009, Mr. Warner held the second-longest tenure of a Virginia senator.
As a former secretary of the Navy and, in later years, one of only a handful of World War II veterans in the Senate, his opinions on military matters carried considerable weight. His consensus-building on a number of critical issues led him to be known as one of the Senate’s more influential members. As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Warner provided critical support for President George W. Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq. During debate on a Democratic call for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in 2007, Mr. Warner led the Republican opposition, saying, “What we have on the line is the credibility of the United States of America.”
The next year, however, he broke with the president’s proposed “surge” of additional troops for Iraq, and with his own subcommittee’s recommendation of even higher authorization, a stance that strengthened Democratic efforts to curtail spending on the war.“The reason I’m into this situation so deeply,” he said, “is that I feel that the American citizens have given so generously with their sons and daughters. Have we not fulfilled our commitment to the Iraqi people?” He also urged the administration to give more attention to rebuilding the economy of Iraq. Along with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsay O. Graham (R-S.C.), he co-sponsored legislation that banned the torture of suspected terrorists and opposed key provisions to the military commissions created to try war criminal suspects at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Mr. Warner frequently went against his party in domestic affairs. He supported legal abortion, although he voted in favor of numerous limitations on the procedure; supported gun control; voted against confirmation of President Ronald Reagan’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork; and urged lifting President George W. Bush’s restrictions on stem cell research. In 2005, he was part of the bipartisan “Gang of 14” that prevented either party from using parliamentary maneuvers on judicial appointments. He was no maverick, though. Mr. Warner supported the three Republican presidents under whom he served — Reagan and the two Bushes — more than 90 percent of the time.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/john-warner-dead/2021/05/26/e1fcb37a-be10-11eb-b26e-53663e6be6ff_story.html
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he was married to Elizabeth Taylor? 
At the GOP state convention in Richmond, he finished second in a field of four. The presence of Taylor, or, as she described herself, “a housewife from a small town in Virginia,” in a sailor cap and a red-and-white striped shirt emblazoned with the slogan, “I’m in Warner’s corner,” attracted 100 journalists from as far away as England, plus two dozen Liz look-alikes.
Must. Get. Eyeballs. There's a whole generation out there who has no idea who she is (and she died 10 years ago).
You really did put Country ahead of Party and for that I, as a Virginia voter, thank you.
Thank you for serving our country.
Rest in peace John Warner.
RIP.
