Warner has far more popularity on both sides of the isle than Allen did. Even with his pro war stance, Warner seems like he's about even with Webb, who is anti war and on the side of public opinion.

He has a +11 Approval Rating.  Again, Warner is at +14, so he's not exactly unpopular.  Kaine is only at +15.  But the thing is that, right now, all Virginia politicians are relatively popular.  Webb could probably stand to get up over 50% by 2012, but he's doing just fine now.

Even though Warner is relatively popular, if Mark runs, John may go down Chaffee-style (relatively popular, but a casualty of the War).

P.S. - I make the movement that we now create the phrase "Going down Chaffee-style" to represent a popular politician going down because of an unpopular party.

aren't at all surprising. He has, very quickly, become Dem netroots' favourite, for example, even though there had been doubts at first. But how can you object to a guy who's got a pair? Especially as you're wishing that a lot of other Dems in Congress would grow one too? On top of which he's clever, he's wily, he says precisely what he means to say (watching some other congresscritters on C-Span can be really embarassing), he knows his way around and he votes as we'd hoped he would. Compare that to the dashed hopes of Connecticut Dems (and the ecstasy of the Conn. Repubs)...

Nor are Warner's (slowly) sinking ratings all that surprising, either. Warner has become another Specter or McCain -- says one thing  but votes a different way. He may be more moderate and not as disgusting as Allen had been but, when all's said and done, he's still a Repub, with Repub loyalties. I most sincerely hope we can replace him with something better, come '08 (I agreee that replacing Warner,J with Warner,M would be wonderful and should be relatively easy to achieve, too)

BTW. Here's a collection (on YouTube) of 10 best political videos of recent years. Even there, Webb wins... #1 is the famous Macaca one which knocked Allen for a loop :)

Libra,

You nailed this. Warner is quickly becoming another McCain. He says one thing, but he votes differently.

I know that the Republican Party discipline has served them well for many years, but this is becoming a major liability for them.

When Republican representatives or senators have to choose between their voters and conscience or their party, they tend to favor their party. Sometimes they do this even if it hurts them politically.

It is so absurd that most Republicans will still follow party lines to protect Bush, even though he is a lame duck that is destroying their party.

This is the URL for the 10 political videos:
http://tinyurl.com/3...

Warner pretended to support a rational foreign policy with the ISG, but when push came to shove, he just stuck with Bush.  It happened at the last minute and it was a slap in the face.  Pure politics bereft of principle.