Photo credit: Associated Press

Sen. Mark Warner says the departure of Sen. Tom Coburn from the bipartisan "Gang of Six"--senators who have been working on solutions to the national debt--will not stop the group's work.

Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, dropped out of the group because, he said, talks were at "an impasse."

The group has been trying to craft a plan that would start cutting down the national debt and deficit.

In a town-hall meeting in Stafford County last Friday, Warner said the group wants to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion in the near term and is looking at larger tax reform, such as lowering tax rates while also reducing the number of tax exemptions.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Warner said the effort "has been a roller coaster," but that he isn't giving up.

"Our fiscal challenges are way too big to stop working on a solution," Warner said. "I still expect that we're going to have a product. There's nothing self-correcting about this problem. Every day we delay, the hole gets deeper."

Warner said he is hearing from constituents that they want a bipartisan solution to the federal debt problem.

He said he's disappointed in Coburn's decision, but not discouraged.

The gang's problems illustrate how wide the partisan divide is in Washington, and how difficult it is to bridge in an era of fiercely partisan and ideological politics.

"I still think they were the only game in town," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan group that promotes fiscal discipline. "Compromise is in very short supply--it just doesn't exist. It's 24-7 campaign mode, and the point of campaigns is not to come together. It's to beat the other side."

Bixby holds out hope that Coburn will return to the gang and equated his leaving to members of rock bands, sick of each other, breaking up but later getting back together for a reunion tour.

"I'm looking for rays of hope here," he said. "Maybe we'll have a revival of the Gang of Six in the fall."

Coburn yesterday shooed reporters away, saying, "You can read about it in the paper. I'm not going to talk about it anymore. I'm on sabbatical." That last statement indicated at least a theoretical possibility that he might rejoin the deliberations in time.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, who with Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho are now the lone Republicans in the group, said, "We need six." Chambliss is under heavy pressure from conservatives in his home state not to compromise, and Coburn's presence gave him cover. Crapo, in a statement, indicated that he's ready to continue with the gang's work.

The gang--which in addition to Warner includes Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin of Illinois--was one of several Washington efforts seeking to forge compromises on budget issues to bring down the nation's ballooning debt.

"Why should it surprise anybody?" said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "It's amazing for six senators--three from each party--to organize. This is the era we're in, the era of hyper-polarization."