Editorial: Warner offering calm in eye of the storm

Key Point: “As it happens, Warner finds himself in the not-so-calm eye of a rising storm. As the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee — the one congressional committee apparently ready to dig out the truth — Warner will be called upon to direct his colleagues and assure that wisdom prevails… the effort to extract facts and ascertain the truth will get more difficult every day. It should be some comfort that Warner — a man of boundless energy and tenacity — is on the job.”

Editorial: Warner offering calm in eye of the storm
Virginian-Pilot Editorial Board
February 17, 2017

LATE LAST YEAR, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner dropped by this newspaper, talked about shifting post-election national politics and three times used the phrase, “We’re in uncharted territory.”

That may prove to be a colossal understatement.

The President Donald Trump-induced chaos now coursing through Washington has begun to look like that overflowing dam in California, both captivating and menacing at the same time.

There is also growing potential of collateral damage to Virginia’s gubernatorial race this year from Trump’s bumbling and incoherent administration. This mess will spread far and wide, just wait.

As it happens, Warner finds himself in the not-so-calm eye of a rising storm. As the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee — the one congressional committee apparently ready to dig out the truth — Warner will be called upon to direct his colleagues and assure that wisdom prevails.

History will closely track as well the labors of North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the committee’s Republican chairman. It will be a telling exercise in flash-point leadership for both Warner and Burr.

Telling for the country, too. Because we’re well into uncharted territory. It’s gotten to the point that if you don’t like Trump’s version of events, just wait a few minutes. Either he or some other administration personality will be out soon with a different version.

The details of the Senate’s task, as so far revealed, boggle the mind: Apparently, it never occurred to the national security adviser that U.S. intelligence operatives routinely monitor phone conversations with leading Russian diplomats. The ousted/retired/resigned/fired Michael Flynn apparently believed he could shape his account of the conversation without fear of contradiction.

Mind you, this was the man who led the chant at Trump rallies to “Lock her up! Lock her up!” “Her” referred to Hillary Clinton, of course, who had been sloppy in her handling of classified information.

It’s one thing to make emails vulnerable to potential intruders for sake of convenience and something of another to pick up the phone for a country — Russia — that happens not to have America’s interests at heart.

Even so, once Trump heard from the Justice Department on Flynn’s machinations, he sat on it for nearly two weeks and never mentioned a word of it to his vice president, Mike Pence, the man sent out to defend Flynn.

Trump then allowed the heat to rise from ever louder press inquiries before deciding, gee, maybe this guy needs to go. Thus, Trump unloads Flynn and the White House press spokesman makes the announcement.

That was Monday.

On Tuesday, however, Trump blamed the press — the fake press, which appears to be any reporter not outfitted in a tin-foil hat or sufficiently fawning — for Flynn’s departure. It was all so terribly, terribly unfair.

Meantime, skepticism has greeted the notion that this was simply Flynn in an Ollie North outfit, just being out there all on his lonesome. Was Flynn acting at the request of someone else? The cry has gone out: “What did the president know and when did he know it?”

How does all this affect the governor’s race?

First, it serves as a mighty distraction and will continue to do so. All candidates involved either in the primaries or the general election will be requested, day after day after day, to express an opinion or react in some fashion.

The candidates will not want to do that and you can understand why. They will want to shape their own campaigns, emphasize their own positions. Good luck on that.

Second, voters may react to Washington’s chaos with a rethinking of the wisdom of having “non-politicians” — or candidates of limited experience — hold high office.

Sen. Warner — himself a former occupant of the Governor’s Mansion — was out on television Wednesday saying that the Intelligence Committee will be considering “Russian interference in the election in terms of false news, selective hacking of information and increasingly the number of contacts between Trump officials and Russian officials both pre-election and post-election.”

About the latter, Warner says, “the list gets longer and longer every day.”

Which only means that the effort to extract facts and ascertain the truth will get more difficult every day. It should be some comfort that Warner — a man of boundless energy and tenacity — is on the job.

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