For Congress: Glenn Nye

Two years ago, this page endorsed U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake's re-election, citing her "superior command on all the issues and her advocacy for her constituents, especially the military and veterans."

Things have changed.

Her opponent in 2008 is Glenn Nye, a Norfolk native of considerable promise, with a deep understanding of foreign policy, clear differences with his opponent and the poise to express them.

Since 2006's Democratic takeover on Capitol Hill, Drake has been a member of a dwindling and increasingly rigid minority in Congress, and not a particularly effective one at that. It has led her into some curious decisions, including on the most important vote on veterans benefits in a generation.

Nye, a veteran of the foreign service, has spent his life volunteering to work in some of the world's most dangerous places, helping to bring peace and stability to nations with neither.

His policy positions - he wants to maintain Bush's tax cuts, press Iraq to assume control of its affairs, force oil companies to drill first in land they've leased, find a way to provide medical coverage to everyone - gives him a foot on both the Republican and Democratic platforms.

In her last two years, Drake has helped secure light rail in Norfolk and preserve Fort Monroe. She has worked to ensure Virginia gets its fair share from offshore drilling. But any hopes that the congresswoman might shift toward the moderate middle have been dashed by a continued adherence to the notion that party loyalty is more important than solving problems.

Now she is arguing on the stump that she is a bipartisan legislator, even putting together a list of votes where she and Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama have aligned. But Drake's conversion, if that's what it is, runs counter to both her career and history.

Instead, she has her feet firmly in the furthest reaches of the Republican Party's right wing:

Because the president opposed it, and because the legislation was imperfect, Drake voted against the new GI Bill before she voted for it. It is a vote she still defends.

Drake twice voted against saving the nation's financial system from collapse, again, because the legislation didn't include everything she wanted.

She campaigns for drilling off Virginia Beach, despite the fact that it would do nothing to lower gas prices or contribute much to the state's coffers.

She has voted against tax incentives for alternative energy, and in favor of tax incentives for oil companies.

She voted against a patch to fix the alternative minimum tax on the middle class, while favoring a flat tax that would take the most from those with the least.

She voted to expand an illegal government wiretapping program, and to provide telephone companies with retroactive immunity.

She voted to prevent the government from negotiating lower prices for drugs provided under Medicare.

She voted to gut the Endangered Species Act.

On many issues, Drake is among the most doctrinaire conservatives in Congress, according to multiple measures from multiple sources. She is also among the least powerful, according to congress.org and Roll Call, Capitol Hill's newspaper.

On one of her signature issues - energy - she holds the contradictory belief that America can have both inexpensive gas and alternative energy. But cheaper gas destroys any market incentive for alternatives. It ensures only that this year's energy woes would return, and America would have no recourse in place.

Back at home, Drake has run an especially distasteful campaign, based almost entirely on throwing spurious personal attacks at her opponent.

Two years ago, Drake earned our endorsement based on her knowledge and our hope that she would be more independent. Two years later, she has made few steps toward the center.

Nye's models for an effective member of Congress are Republican Bill Whitehurst and Democrat Owen Pickett, two of this region's most reasonable, open-minded legislators. Drake's supporters include Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.

Before he left school, Nye had made four trips abroad as part of Physicians for Peace. As a foreign service officer, he served in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and saw for himself on a daily basis what challenges this country faces. He speaks a large handful of languages, including Albanian, Arabic and Macedonian.

He has an impressive grasp of foreign affairs and health care issues.

In the campaign, Drake has been scrambling back to the middle where the electorate lives. Hers has been an unconvincing journey, particularly when so many of her political moves have been measured and dictated by the White House, even as it rode the nation into a ditch.

For four years now, the congresswoman's hand was on the wheel, as surely as the president's, and she must be held accountable. After so many consistently wrong turns over so many years, it's unrealistic to expect Drake will help steer us out.

In this election, quite simply, Nye's potential is a better bet than Drake's performance.

His bipartisan instincts, his public spirit, his experience in the world argue that the 2nd District would be better served by sending him to Washington as her replacement behind the wheel.