The Washington Post this morning published a feature story on the perhaps unlikely partnership that's developed between Senator Warner and Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker -- a bipartisan relationship and mutual respect that goes beyond their attendance at Senate Banking Committee hearings.

The two have already crafted legislation together. Since March, Senators Warner and Corker have hosted a series of seminars for their Senate colleagues with a "high-profile cast of current and former regulators, academics and financial gurus, such as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his predecessor, Alan Greenspan; Wall Street super-lawyer H. Rodgin Cohen; and Sheila C. Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp." to help educate themselves and their colleagues on banking issues.

As the Washington Post describes their partnership:

[B]y joining forces, Corker and Warner -- a former Chattanooga mayor and a former Virginia governor, both successful businessmen -- have positioned themselves to exert influence beyond their junior rank as the Senate tackles regulatory reform in the coming months.

In drafting bills and holding periodic seminars, colleagues say, the duo has earnestly tried to bypass the partisan rancor afflicting so many issues on Capitol Hill and produce meaningful changes in the regulation of financial markets. ...

"[W]hat Mark Warner and Corker are doing, I think it will support and foster the bipartisanship," said Martin Baily, a chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, who met with the group in July alongside Greenspan and Robert Steel, a former Treasury undersecretary and Wachovia chief executive. "They're both new and trying to do something different. I don't know where it will go, but I think it's a very good thing."

Click here to read the whole article.