Incumbents decry political rancor as election nears

The 111th Congress isn't quite done, but South Hampton Roads representatives - like many of their colleagues - have been switching gears to prepare for the Nov. 2 election.

As the incumbents ask voters to send them back for another two years, their constituents can look back at a session that included passage of a national health care bill, billions in stimulus spending and a bank regulation overhaul.

The local delegation - U.S. Reps. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake; Glenn Nye, D-Virginia Beach; and Bobby Scott, D-Newport News - have put up a united front when protecting the region's military assets.

Working with U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb, both Virginia Democrats, they have tried to quash the Navy's efforts to move a Norfolk-based carrier to Mayport, Fla., and to stop or lessen the impact of Defense Secretary Robert Gates' plans to shut down the Joint Forces Command. Either loss would cost the region thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

The delegation has managed to delay the carrier move; hearings on JFCOM are expected to be held later this month.

On other matters, the delegation has seldom spoken with one voice. Their votes on many of the signature issues before the 111th Congress split mostly along party lines.

For example, the region's Democrats, whose party holds a majority in both chambers, supported economic stimulus legislation in early 2009 and new bank regulations passed this summer in response to financial institution meltdowns that contributed to a national recession. Republicans opposed both.

A significant exception was the 2009 health care bill. Nye joined Forbes in voting against the Democratic plan, while Scott, Webb and Warner supported the new law. Nye said at the time that the legislation didn't do enough to reduce health care costs, would hurt some hospital funding and would cause problems for Tricare patients.

While they have their policy disagreements, the local congressmen all said one of their greatest frustrations is what they describe as a caustic political atmosphere in the Capitol.

"What has been most disappointing to me has been the fact that although we are going through a very trying national time with the recession, that a lot of folks in Washington are doing the same old partisan stuff, " said Nye, who took office in January 2009. "They're taking the party line and saying it's the other party's fault for everything.... It's unfortunate because it doesn't do anybody at home any good."

Partisanship isn't wrong and is elemental to the legislative process, Forbes said. But what has been changing, he said, is the number of personal attacks during House debates.

"The reason there's no trust is because half the time the people walk on the floor, they know the guy on the other side is trying to kill them and to destroy them," he said.

Scott blames the sour atmosphere on Republicans.

"They're not serious," Scott said. "It's so partisan that you're really not engaged in a rational conversation.... You don't get to the discussion part."

The Republicans refuse to work with Democrats on any type of compromise on issues such as the massive federal deficit, he said.

Warner, who worked closely for months with U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to research and develop key parts of the bank regulation legislation, only to later see Corker join other Republicans in voting against the new law, said the GOP is wrongly operating with a "kind of team sport mentality."

"I think there was enormous pressure from the Republican leaders not to let (President Barack) Obama get a win," said Warner, a former Virginia governor who was elected to the Senate in 2008. "It's pretty bad."

Warner, who like Webb is not up for election this fall, said he would like to develop a group of moderate Democratic and GOP senators who could form their own "radical centrists" bloc. They could use their clout to develop a compromise between the extremes, he said.

"The best legislation evolves from the center," he said.

Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com