When Warner announced his plans to retire, I kinda figured that Warner would try to capitalize on a little name recogntion. Now it's official. Former Democrat Governor of Virginia Mark Warner is once again running for Republican Senator John Warner's seat in 2008. (The two had run against each other in 1996.)

Personally, I don't like either Warner. John Warner has been Senator of Virginia for about 114 years. He was a ranking member on the Senate Armed Services committee and has historically looked out for our veterans. Growing up in a military town, we were taught to admire John Warner. But during his last term he's taken a big swing to the left. His having spoken out against the war, in favor of gun control, and in favor of bigger government has left me wanting a true conservative. Frankly, I'm glad he's stepping down.

But that no-good lying son of a bitch Mark Warner isn't any better. CNN follows the liberal media template by constantly referring to him as the "popular" former governor. But I wonder how popular he really is. At one point he was considered to be Virginia's golden boy. Media pundits were talking about a Mark Warner - George Allen matchup for the 2008 Presidential election. We all know that Allen's political career was torpedoed by the Washington Post's constant harping on his use of the non-sensical term "macaca" (which is sometimes considered offensive in remote regions of the Congo). But what happened to Mark Warner? If Warner is so popular why did he decide against running for the White House in favor of a quest for the Senate?

The answer may be taxes. Mark Warner ran for governor on a "no new taxes" platform. On the campaign trail he said, "I will not raise taxes, I will not raise taxes, I will not raise taxes." (Although he later tried to deny he'd ever even said it). But once he was elected, Mark Warner changed his tune.

Almost immediately after winning election, Mark "I will not raise taxes" Warner asked the General Assembly to raise the state sales tax. Although that effort failed, he vetoed a repeal of the death tax. Warner thought that dead people weren't paying their fair share. They had won life's lottery and even death is no excuse for not paying confiscatory taxes.

Then he pushed for and received the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN VIRGINIA'S 400 YEAR HISTORY. Warner claimed that Virgina's financial situation was grim. He said our AAA bond rating was at risk and that if we didn't immediately raise taxes, we'd suffer a disaster of biblical proportions. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling. Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes. The dead rising from the grave. Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. . .mass hysteria. And it worked. Hapless Republicans gave him what he wanted.

Just weeks after Warner signed the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN VIRGINIA HISTORY, it was discovered that Virginia was actually running a budget surplus. A big surplus. A $1 Billion (with a "B") surplus. And Warner knew it all along. The reason he pushed the tax hike through so quickly was to beat the good budget estimates being made public. And when constituents complained and asked that the tax increase be canceled in light of the "new" information, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Instead Warner and the other money-grubbing politicians began planning out new new ways to spend the extra money. Our money.

Whats more, while all this played out Virginia's roads completely deteriorated. Every time the subject of transportation funding came up, Warner and other Virginia politicians (Republicans included) claimed there was no money for roads. Warner told us if we wanted our roads fixed, we'd need to dig a little deeper.

And deeper we dug. Warner's legacy was his Democrat protoge Tim Kaine and subsequent years of tax hikes. And our roads? Well, they still suck because there's never enough money.