Free Republic

WASHINGTON – It was a big election night for Republicans overall. But their lone disappointment – the loss of a New York congressional seat in a crossfire between moderates and conservatives – could portend struggles next year for GOP leaders. Channeling the Tea Party-inspired energy is a particular headache for Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions, whose costly effort to keep the New York seat was a casualty of the civil war. "There's a huge revolt going on in the country against the political establishment," said former Virginia congressman Tom Davis, who once held the challenging political job that Sessions now has...

(snip) But former Republican Rep. Tom Davis, who used to run the House Republican campaign operation, added a few more to the mix today in a wide-ranging interview with The Wall Street Journal. Asked who he viewed as 2012 contenders, the Virginia Republican replied: “I don’t think it’s anybody out there right now that’s running around, to be honest.” Palin, he said, is too divisive. “I think as a candidate she probably hurts,” he said, adding to a chorus of Republicans recently dispelling a presidential bid for the former Alaska governor. Romney is too spent. “In a sense he’s the...

The Arab American Institute is hosting Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds at its candidates night. Deeds will speak Sunday night as will former Rep. Tom Davis, who's attending on Bob McDonnell's behalf. The institute says it's hosting the event so Arab Americans can speak with candidates and hear from Deeds and others about issues important to their community.

John McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, 24, has agreed to headline the annual convention of the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP group which advocates on behalf of gays and lesbians. "Her willingness to reach out to organizations like ours shows her commitment to growing the Republican Party," Log Cabin convention manager Christian Berle told ABC News. "The title of Meghan McCain's speech is 'Winning the Next Generation -- How can the Republican Party attract more young voters.'" Joining Meghan McCain at the conference will be Steve Schmidt, her father's top 2008 strategist. The topic of Schmidt's address is "Moving Forward." The...

"I think you need to cut your losses," former Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican from Virginia and ex-chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told USA Today. "Frankly, I think we'll see charges in the Clemens case and they will come around pretty quickly. Lying under oath is serious. It's not like A-Rod lying to Katie Couric in an interview. When you're under oath, you have to tell the truth." Davis teamed with Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., then-chairman of the committee, to refer Clemens' alleged false testimony about the use of steroids to the Department of Justice....

Republicans' 2008 election losses have spawned a spate of self-reflection. Was it just President Bush and the economy? Was it too much religion or ineffective candidates? Was opposition to immigration reform the death knell with minorities, or did Republicans fail to explain tried and true conservative principles? The theoretical argument rages among media elites and Beltway insiders, but the impact of Republicans' declining fortunes is more vivid--and the test of their ability to battle back more concrete--just a few miles south of Washington D.C. in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. Tom Davis spent 14 years on Fairfax County's board of...

Former Rep. Tom Davis (Va.) will lead the Republican Party's centrist Main Street Partnership, the organization announced Wednesday. Davis, who represented a Northern Virginia district for seven terms, takes over a group self-billed as "the nation’s largest organization of elected centrists." As a member, he led the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “The 2006 and 2008 election results make it clear that the Republican Party must — once again — reach out to independent and centrist voters if we are to restore our congressional majorities and return a Republican to the...

A Republican Fairfax County supervisor is warning that more than 200 absentee ballots from members of the military could go uncounted because of a technicality. County Registrar Rokey Suleman II has set aside 255 federal write-in absentee ballots because they were submitted without a witness address, supervisor Patrick Herrity said Thursday at a press conference. A witness address is not required on a normal absentee ballot. But it is required on the federal write-in absentee ballots typically used by military members, Suleman said. "We're following the letter of Virginia law," Suleman said. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., in a statement circulated...

Candidate: Banking committee should be jailed By Jordy Yager Posted: 10/17/08 12:51 PM [ET] McLean, Va. – Republican congressional candidate Keith Fimian called for members of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee to be imprisoned for their role in the country’s current economic crisis. “We can’t even govern our way out of a situation like this without larding up the bill. It’s tragic,” said Fimian. “There should be people indicted and imprisoned that are on the Senate and House banking committees.” Fimian’s comments were made in a debate against Democrat Gerry Connolly, chairman of the Fairfax...

The U.S. Senate voted moments ago to authorize long-sought federal funding for Washington's cash-strapped and aging Metro system, clearing a major hurdle toward providing $1.5 billion over 10 years to help maintain the nation's second-largest transit agency. The Senate passage is the furthest the measure has advanced since Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) began the effort two years ago to secure a reliable source of financial support for Metro. The bill, part of a major rail safety reform package, was passed by the House last week and now goes to the president for signing. Supporters say a veto is unlikely, partly...

Virginia has undergone demographic changes that have made the state friendlier to Democrats. The high-tech jobs in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., have lured new residents to the state. But Republicans are skeptical the state's voting patterns have changed that dramatically. Republican Congressman Tom Davis is vacating a Northern Virginia seat Democrats hope to capture in the fall. In an interview in the Capitol, he says some of the Republicans' problems are self-inflicted and that pundits are getting carried away. "I think they read too much into the state turning blue," he says. "What you have is some...

A sitting senator resisting to back the party’s choice to succeed him would be extraordinary in itself, but Warner’s seat also is a top target for Democrats next year looking to increase its majority in the Senate. The once-reliably Republican commonwealth has gradually been tilting toward the Democratic column in recent years. Junior senator Jim Webb (D) surprised many by narrowly defeating incumbent Republican George Allen in 2006, for example. Warner has history with both of his potential successors. Democrat Mark Warner, Virginia’s governor from 2002 to 2006, narrowly lost to the senator in a 1996 bid for his seat....

Tomorrow (Thursday), we're organizing an event in Annandale to highlight the GOP's extensive ties to Big Oil. We've invited the media, and having a good crowd is critical to show them that voters don't want oil industry gimmicks, they want real solutions like alternative energy to solve our energy crisis. Can you make it? Click Here Dear MoveOn member, Republicans have been escalating their attacks on Obama and the Democrats over oil drilling, and we need to push back. Can you join us at an emergency action in Annandale tomorrow (Thursday)? House Republicans have been "protesting" ever since Congress adjourned...

The Presidency: It takes little courage — or brains — to join the mob vilifying President Bush. But the Democrats (and Republicans, too) depicting him as villain will one day regret it.In the eyes of members of both parties, George W. Bush seems to be the cause of everything from the recent GOP special election losses to a flagging economy to today's bad weather. Barack Obama plans to reach the White House by claiming the presidency of Sen. John McCain would amount to a third Bush term. McCain, meanwhile, seems to think it a wise campaign strategy to highlight his...

A former House GOP leader is calling this year's political atmosphere "the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006," citing "deep seeded (sic) antipathy toward the president." Rep. Tom Davis wrote a 20-page treatise (see earlier note) assessing the state of the Republican Party as we head into the summer and presented it to House GOP rank and file this morning. Davis, who is retiring, is rumored to be interested in finishing his term as the head of the GOP House campaign arm.

In an interview to air later tonight on Bloomberg TV, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) said President Bush is "absolutely radioactive" and Republicans "will suffer widespread election losses in November unless they distance themselves from him." Said Davis: "They've got to get some separation from the president." Davis also said his party "would lose 20 to 25 House seats if the election were held today." And if Sen. John McCain is seen by voters as "Bush III" he will lose by 20 percentage points.

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) thinks that President Bush is "absolutely radioactive" and that any Republicans close to the him will suffer electoral consequences. Davis, who made waves for a shockingly bleak memo about the electoral outlook for the GOP this fall, tells Bloomberg TV in an interview that will air tonight that GOP members have "got to get some separation from the president." "Republicans, I think, have time to turn it around to some extent," Davis tells the network. "But, if they don't, we're cruising for a bruising." Davis is not seeking reelection.

Lot's of very glum faces among House GOP members this morning as they emerged from their weekly closed-door session. The political situation is not good, and they aren't even trying to deny it. Rep. Tom Davis stomped on the concrete floor of the Capitol basement when asked by reporters about Republican fortunes at the moment. "This is the floor," he said, by way of explanation. "We're below the floor." Inside the meeting, Davis had just presented his colleagues with what he said was a 20-page memo outlining his prescription for a way out of this mess. He did not offer...

Republican candidate Keith Fimian has been able to raise more money than any of his four Democratic opponents in a fight for the congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-11). Fimian, who contributed $325,000 to his own campaign, had raised $838,662 by March 31. Out of the Democrats, Fairfax Board of Supervisors chairman Gerry Connolly came the closest to Fimian, with $501,734 raised.

A former Talk-Show host on this station once announced a "RINO Hunt" at election time. "Time to purge the party of anybody who isn't a lock-step conservative," he said. So this host went ‘a huntin’. And he laughed with glee every time a Republican moderate lost an election. "That'll teach 'em," he said. Ok, if you say so. But I just checked: It’s been four years since his great "RINO Hunt," and each of those seats, where he was so gleeful to see the “Republican In Name Only” lose, is now occupied by a Democrat. Now, why was he so...

Shortly after U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-11th) announced that he will not seek re-election Wednesday, an Oakton accountant announced his intention to run for the seat. In a statement, Keith Fimian, 51, praised Davis for his hard work for the citizens of Virginia. “Congressman Davis has served our state and our nation well and he will be missed,” Fimian said. Fimian has already raised over $711,000 and has $662,000 in his campaign account, according to the candidate's release. “I told Tom if he ran I would be first in line to campaign for his re-election, but if he chose not...

U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) said today he will retire from Congress at the end of the year, bringing to a close a 14-year stint in the House of Representatives during which he rose rapidly through the ranks of Republican leadership and championed such issues as D.C. voting rights and a vibrant defense-contracting industry.

WASHINGTON - Influential Northern Virginia Rep. Tom Davis will announce his retirement from Congress this week, multiple political sources told The Examiner Monday. Davis has decided not to seek an eighth term in office, five sources with ties to the Republican congressman or his political allies said. The decision was widely expected after Davis pulled out of a potential U.S. Senate campaign and his wife lost a re-election bid in a Fairfax County district with a similar growing Democratic lean last fall. Davis’ spokesman Brian McNicoll said an announcement could come as early as Wednesday, but would not confirm Davis...

Jeannemarie Devolites Davis yesterday lost her bid for re-election to the Virginia Senate, dealing Republicans a blow in a key Northern Virginia district. John Chapman "Chap" Petersen, a Democrat, defeated Mrs. Davis in the 34th Senate District in central Fairfax. "This is one of those moments you dream of all your life," Mr. Petersen told the crowd last night at his postelection gathering at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner. "When I was young and stupid, I thought I would put Fairfax on the map, but the reverse happened. The people of Fairfax City put me on the map," he said....

".. A master politician with a national profile, he took her under his wing and found his life's love..... Davis used every page in his playbook to save his wife and...arranged for New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to join Devolites Davis at a campaign event and praise her votes for gun control..."

CNN’s "The Situation Room," a program not known for featuring state legislators, did a live interview on Thursday of "little-known" Virginia state senator, Republican Jeannemarie Devolites-Davis, whose liberal stance on gun control earned her the endorsement of Michael Bloomberg. The New York City mayor appeared with Devolites-Davis during the interview. As CNN correspondent Deborah Feyerick put it during a report preceding the interview, "Today, the newly turned Independent threw his personal support behind friend and fellow gun critic Jeannemarie Devolites-Davis, a Virginia state senator trying hard to get re-elected. His endorsement of a little-known legislator is rare for a man...

In a possible setback to Congressman Tom Davis, the moderate Northern Virginia Republican running to replace retiring Sen. John Warner, Politico's Josh Kraushaar reports the state Republican Party Central Committee voted yesterday to nominate a candidate for Senate by convention. Davis allies, Kraushaar reports, were lobbying for a primary, which they believe would give their candidate a better chance against more conservative former Gov. Jim Gilmore. Davis has a million-dollar fundraising head start on Gilmore, and a primary would draw many more moderate Republicans to the polls. A convention, many contend, would advantage Gilmore by drawing more conservative party activists....

Veteran Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), who has been seen as a leading candidate to replace retiring Sen. John Warner (R) in 2008, may now be just a day away from announcing his own retirement from Congress.

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) is expected to announce that he will not be running for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. John Warner, according to a senior Virginia Republican familiar with Davis’ plans. The seven-term congressman began telling close friends of his intentions last week. His decision would leave former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore as the only GOP Senate candidate left in a state that had been reliably Republican but where Democrats have won two consecutive governor’s races and, in 2006, unexpectedly nabbed the other Senate seat.

Rep. Tom Davis is expected to announce later this week that he will not run for the Senate seat being vacated by John Warner (R) in 2008, according to several informed GOP sources with Virginia ties.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia Republicans will hold a convention instead of a primary to choose their candidate to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, upsetting critics who say it makes the party appear closed off. The state party's central committee voted 47-37 on Saturday in favor of a convention. No date or location was decided. Former Gov. Jim Gilmore and U.S. Rep. Tom Davis have expressed interest in seeking the GOP nomination. Supporters of Gilmore wanted a convention, while Davis backers had argued for a primary. John Warner, 80, announced in August he would not seek a sixth...

Undoubtedly, many of you will be receiving letters in the mail from U.S. Rep. Tom Davis within the next few days announcing that he is creating an exploratory committee to run for U.S. Senate. What is interesting is the repeated use of “conservative” vs. “liberal” throughout the three-page letter. On page 1 alone, “liberal” or “liberals” is used five times to describe the Democrats, Mark Warner and the Clinton White House while associating himself with the term “conservative” three times on that same page. Overall, the letter uses the terms “liberal,” “liberals,” “radical,” “special interest,” “socialized,” and “extreme liberal” a...

Tom Davis is the reason there even is a Republican Party in Northern Virginia. He is a tireless party builder who just this year has been criss-crossing the state doing more than anybody else in the party to help our candidates win. And I have some numbers from his record in the House: Planned Parenthood: Davis 30% NARAL: Davis 0% National Right to Life: Davis 80% National Taxpayers Union: Davis 49% Americans for Tax Reform: Davis 79% NFIB (small business group): Davis 93% Chamber of Commerce: Davis 85% ACLU: Davis 19% Concerned Women for America: Davis 71% Eagle Forum: Davis...

WASHINGTON - It is gallows humor time for Republicans in Congress, where one lawmaker jokes that "there's talk about us going the way of the Whigs," the 19th century political party long extinct. "That's not going to happen," Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., hastens to add, although a little more than a year before the 2008 election, the major leading political indicators still point downward for a party abruptly turned out of power in 2006. Fundraising for Republican campaign organizations lags. That is strikingly so in the House, where the party committee spent more than it raised in each of the...

In a concession to Republicans, House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) has promised to ask the National Archives for documents relating to President Bill Clinton’s Office of Political Affairs. As a result, a Democratic push to investigate the activities of former White House senior adviser Karl Rove and other aides to President Bush could mean fresh scrutiny and publicity for long-forgotten meetings and presentations during the Clinton administration. In a letter this week, Waxman suggested Republicans satisfy their curiosity by reexamining what he estimates are more than 2 million pages of documents about the Clinton White House and...

The ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to convene a hearing on whether The New York Times violated campaign-finance laws when it granted a discounted rate for MoveOn.org’s “General Betray Us” ad. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) asked committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) Tuesday to convene a hearing on the issue, saying that any rate change “for political advertising could constitute an unlawful campaign contribution.” According to media accounts, the “open rate” for the ad should have been $181,000. The liberal group said it paid $65,000. “The difference between the ‘open rate’ and the actual...

A poll commissioned by WJLA-TV found former Virginia Governor Mark Warner would easily defeat any likely Republican opponent if the election to replace retiring Senator John Warner (R-VA) were held now. The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA, found Mark Warner would defeat northern Virginia Congressman Tom Davis by 35 points, former Governor Jim Gilmore by 28 points, and former Senator George Allen by 19 points. The poll interviewed 900 Virginia adults between September 14 and September 16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent. Mark Warner, who announced his intentions last week, is the only declared...

Rep. Eric Cantor, the deputy Republican whip, would be his party’s best shot at holding John Warner’s Senate seat. As Patrick Ruffini has pointed out, Cantor is ideally positioned as a congressman from the Richmond suburbs. He can connect with downstate voters without alienating northern Virginia suburbanites. He is a proven money-raiser. In a primary, the conservative Cantor would have to be favored to beat northern Virginia moderate Tom Davis. Everyone who follows politics knows that Virginia is changing, and that 2008 is shaping up to be another bad year for Republicans. But Virginia isn’t becoming a liberal state. James...

Imagine a patient who upon hearing a potentially life-threatening diagnosis embarks on a spate of binge drinking and chain smoking. That should give you a pretty good idea of what it was like to be a Virginia Republican this past week. Following his stunning 11th hour decision not to run for President last year, it was pretty clear that former Democratic governor Mark Warner would try to re-enter politics at some lower, more manageable level. His announcement this week that he would try for the Senate in 2008 came as no surprise following the retirement of the namesake he ran...

RICHMOND, Va. - Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, once considered a potential candidate for president, announced Thursday he will run for the U.S. Senate next year. Mark Warner, 52, ended speculation about his political future in a video e-mailed to supporters and media. The Democrat said he hopes to replace Republican Sen. John Warner, no relation, who is retiring from Congress after 30 years. "Our country is at a crossroads," Mark Warner said on the video. "We're dealing with a mismanaged war. Our stature in the world is declining. We have no national competitiveness plan, and no thoughtful approach on...

September 11/07: Longing for a Shorter War Town Hall, DC - Sep 10, 2007 ... more nuanced issues affecting our national security in the post-9/11 world: an emboldened, nuclear Iran, a resurgent Taliban, a divided Palestinian ...

On September 11, 2001, America changed in ways we still struggle to accept. The pain of loss may fade to a dull ache, but it never really goes away. And the rage triggered by senseless acts hardens into resolve to make sense of a world in which innocents die in the name of a perverse version of God. Six years later, as we pause to remember the early martyrs of this protracted conflict, we should remind ourselves what they died for, and what it will take to win the war that took them from us. The events of that morning...

U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III knows that his popularity in Northern Virginia would help him in a campaign for the Senate but hurt him in the state's more conservative, southern regions. "I am not going to back off my record," Mr. Davis has said. "It's not going to please everybody, but I am who I am." That approach has helped Mr. Davis, 58, win 11 races in a region that has been an Achilles' heel for fellow Republicans. Last year, Sen. George Allen lost in Northern Virginia by about 120,000 votes and handed his seat to a Democrat, James...

2006 was the lowest point for Virginia Republicans, a decent that began in 2004. Why do I say 2004? Becasue that was the year Gov. Mark Warner bamboozled the state and passed a historic tax increase that fueled his high approval ratings. Nevermind that the state suddenly realized the recession wasn't as bad as thought and was really all about the e-bubble bursting in Northern Virginia. In the end, Mark Warner's governorship was lacking signifigant achievements. Jim Webb's defeat of George Allen still hurts today. Webb flew into the perfect storm were an axis of national anxiety and Allen's own...

<p>U.S. Representative Tom Davis attended the Americans Against Escalation in Iraq's "Take a Stand" town hall meeting, held at the Accotink Unitarian Church, to explain the U.S. policy in Iraq.</p>

Clearly, Tom Davis is intensely concerned with making a connection with his constituents. The openness we have come to know and expect from him has allowed for more valuable input from the citizenry. It will be exciting to see what influences Davis brings to Congress this fall, based on open discussions such as the meeting being held today. In fact, Davis is the only member of Congress who has agreed to meet with the group Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. This effort as well as other initiatives put forth by Davis, elucidate his commitment to both existing issues, as well...

Who says politicians can’t move swiftly and decisively to block an imminent threat to public decency? Consider the courageous work of most of our state legislatures and, potentially, the Congress of the United States, to put an end to the shameful scourge of internet hunting. Since 2005, 33 states have outlawed the cruel, unsportsmanlike practice, and when the governor signs an Illinois bill that’s already passed both houses that will make 34 states that have taken action to put an end to the slaughter. As the Humane Society of the United States declared in a mailing that went out in...

Apparently the Moonbats have gotten an agreement from Virginia RINO, Tom Davis, to attend (and speak at) a Moonbat Town Hall Meeting in Burke, VA on Thursday, August 23rd from 2:00 until 3:00 pm. The Moonbats hosting this event call themselves "Americans Against the Escalation in Iraq." At this meeting they intend to ask questions of Davis, "regarding the Iraq war and Rep. Davis' rubberstamping of Bush's Iraq policies despite stating many times that he is against the war." Best news of all is that they have invited you Virginians who may be interested, to attend the meeting! So, if...

Is Plame to Blame? by: Bethany Stotts, August 16, 2007 The Valerie Plame Affair, which resulted in the conviction of White House aide Louis “Scooter” Libby, serves as rallying point for many opponents of the Bush Administration. However, some conservatives remain skeptical of Plame’s alleged victim status. While her job description was listed on the CIA rolls as an agent with “no official cover” (NOC), Plame had in reality had been performing administrative duties at Langley for at least five years. She remains willing to pose for the cameras as a starlet ex-agent, and continues participating in high-level lawsuits. Rowan...

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore and 11th District Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Fairfax County, are a pair of potential Republican statewide rivals who said this week that Virginia should abolish its controversial abusive driver fees. "I don’t think the approach is a good one," Gilmore said Tuesday. "The people of Virginia do know that it’s using the traffic law for revenue," said the former governor, who is meeting with Republican groups across the state to explore a possible run for the U.S. Senate next year or for governor again in 2009. "I think people are angry about it," said Gilmore,...