The financial regulatory reform bill now inching toward passage could provide Mark Warner with the first significant victory of his short Senate career, and an object lesson on both the value and the limits of bipartisanship.

After spending his first 16 months on Capitol Hill with a relatively junior policy portfolio and a low public profile, Warner (D-Va.) has in recent weeks become a fixture on cable news shows and a point man for his party on an issue that Democrats hope can help revive their sagging political fortunes.

Although the debate has been sharply partisan -- with Republicans holding up the bill last week before relenting, and each party accusing the other of coddling Wall Street -- key elements of the measure are the product of an unusual collaboration between Warner and Republican Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.).

"There's nothing about a bipartisan agreement that makes it better policy, but there is the fact that I don't think the American public trusts either political party," Warner said in an interview last week in his Senate office. "I think showing that there's a bipartisan agreement for a lot of folks . . . kind of translates like it's code that it must really be in the country's interest."

Warner and Corker co-authored portions of the bill creating a council to monitor the financial system for signs of instability and a "resolution authority" to help close down failed firms using a $50 billion "liquidation fund." After being targeted by GOP critics, the liquidation fund is likely to be altered or cut from the bill through the amendment process this week.

Warner has defended the fund, but he's not inflexible, given the larger goal in his sights. "I'll sacrifice a little bit of policy to get a bipartisan deal, especially now when people have such low faith that any of us are doing anything in the country's interest," he said.

Building trust

Warner's role in the debate has been central, in more than once sense of the word. After urging Democratic colleagues to reach out to Republicans and setting an example by doing so, Warner has more recently worked to rebut GOP attacks.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) praised Warner as "a thoughtful Democrat" on CNN this month, but in the same appearance, he repeatedly slammed what he called the "bailout fund" proposed by Warner and Corker.

Similarly, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said last week: "I think very highly of Mark. He's a very bright guy." Hatch added that the financial reform bill Warner helped write is so bad that "I'm worried for America."

Warner has made clear that he thinks McConnell "either doesn't understand or chooses not to understand" what the bill actually does -- a view backed by nonpartisan fact checkers.

Warner said he would prefer that the two sides simply lock themselves in a room, "get some pizza and beer" and not leave until they've come to an agreement or the conclusion that they can't agree. (Apparently, beer is the key to any successful negotiation. On working with Corker, he said: "The hardest part was trying to force our staffs to trust each other. We had to have a 'beer summit.' ")

Most of the time, the Senate doesn't work that way, and that frustrates Warner, whose success as governor was largely attributable to his ability to work with Republicans.

"I think the perspective that Mark brings, and it's shared by a lot of the newer members, is that the real world doesn't operate the way the United States Senate operates," said fellow freshman Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), one of Warner's closest Senate friends.

Warner has joined with other first-term Democrats to push for changes in the Senate's internal procedures, including filibusters, secret "holds" and seniority-based chairmanships. Warner often calls himself "the new guy here," and he brought with him to Washington a key symbol from his last job: the thick leather desk chair he used in the governor's mansion.

When Republicans refused for three days to allow debate to begin, Warner was more mystified than angry. He didn't understand why Republicans would expose themselves to days of headlines saying they're "blocking reform."

"I was never a legislator. I was never a city council guy," Warner said. "I was a business guy and a governor, so the kind of theater that goes on with some of this stuff I don't fully get."

Making the effort

As a successful ex-governor and a once-and-future prospect for a presidential ticket, Warner arrived on the Hill bearing expectations that were difficult to meet.

When the economic stimulus measure passed, Warner had been in office for all of two months. As a freshman who doesn't serve on the relevant committees, he was also unable to play a large role in the health-care debate.

But financial reform offered Warner a clear opportunity: a high-profile bill that meshed neatly with his personal, professional and ideological background.

The bill also squared with the background of Corker, a former mayor and construction company owner. Soon after Warner was elected, he called Corker, and the two men hit it off.

"The fact is we have similar backgrounds: He's a business guy; I'm a business guy," Corker said. "It's just worked."

Perhaps most helpful, given Warner's lack of seniority, is that he has a long history with banking committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). Warner worked on Dodd's staff -- in jobs ranging from a driver to a junior legislative assistant -- in the mid-1970s, when he was an undergraduate at George Washington University.

So when Warner arrived in the Senate, Dodd "had some trust in me even though I was the new guy," Warner said.

Around the same time, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) asked Warner to lead the party's outreach to the business community. Warner organized small, informal lunches in the conference room of his Senate office, inviting a few lawmakers, a handful of corporate chief executives and no staff.

That position helped Warner cultivate his reputation as a business-friendly Democrat, and he has cautioned his colleagues against a lurch toward populism.

Some Democrats want a financial overhaul bill that goes much further than the current one, perhaps reversing the effects of the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that broke down barriers among banks, securities firms and insurance companies. "I know some of my colleagues want to put the genie back in the bottle . . . but you really can't," Warner said.

Warner is also working with Republicans to soften a portion of the regulatory bill that would require big banks to spin off their derivatives desks, and he warned his fellow Democrats on Thursday that "we don't want to push the whole derivatives market offshore."

It's not clear whether the bipartisan model Warner has followed on financial reform can be replicated on other issues this election year. Warner has been working with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) on the Home Star program, which gives taxpayers incentives to make their homes more energy-efficient. He has also engaged in some quiet discussions with Republicans on deficit reduction.

Warner learned in Richmond not to expect success right away. "The first year I was governor, I got the crap kicked out of me by both sides," Warner recalled, explaining that it took well over a year before he was able to develop some level of trust with Republicans.

The same may be true in Washington. Still, he said, "I think you gotta make the effort."