Hagel ’08 stumbles at outset

[Rose Siding]

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who many political observers in Washington and Nebraska believe is preparing to run for president in 2008, has used his official Senate website for political purposes. By doing so, it appears that Hagel has gotten his incipient presidential campaign off on the wrong foot by skirting Senate rules.

A search by The Hill found at least five overtly political press releases on his Senate website addressing topics ranging from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint filed by the Bush-Cheney campaign against Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to the fitness of the Republican gubernatorial ticket in Nebraska.

The statements, bearing the Senate seal, were posted between May 12, 1998, and March 31, 2004. Direct links to the press statements could no longer be connected to through Hagel’s Senate home page, but they remained cached on his website.
...
After interviewing scores of Hagel’s acquaintances and friends, Berens said: “Just about everybody I’ve talked to thinks there’s a good chance that he will” run for president.

http://www.hillnews.com/news/070804/hagel.aspx

[Panono]

1. If he's the best the repukes can do then they're in bad shape

[HuckleB]

5. Well, it'd be a rather huge improvement over who's running for 'em in '04.

-nm-

[TlalocW]

2. I think I speak for all voting Americans when I say...

Hagel who?

:)

TlalocW

[Eloriel]

4. Oh, you NEED to know who Chuck Hagel is

And most especially how he got elected in the first place, twice. Hint: he's part owner of ES&S, maker of fabulous Hagel-friendly electronic voting machines. Try google, unless someone comes along with some links for you.

[KoKo]

6. Not only that but both he and Joe Biden are the "Media Darlings...Maybe

they think they will both be on the "ticket" in 2004. :D Evil...

[Bushfire]

8. Like this?

http://www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

Hagel’s ethics filings pose disclosure issue
By Alexander Bolton

On May 23, 1997, Victor Baird, who resigned Monday as director of the Senate Ethics Committee, sent a letter to Sen. Charles Hagel requesting “additional, clarifying information” for the personal financial disclosure report that all lawmakers are required to file annually.

Among other matters, Baird asked the Nebraska Republican to identify and estimate the value of the assets of the McCarthy Group Inc., a private merchant banking company based in Omaha, with which Hagel had a special relationship.

Hagel had reported a financial stake worth $1 million to $5 million in the privately held firm. But he did not report the company’s underlying assets, choosing instead to cite his holdings as an “excepted investment fund,” and therefore exempt from detailed disclosure rules.

<snip>

William Canfield, a former Senate Ethics Committee staffer, said the committee originally intended an “excepted investment fund,” an exemption to cover mutual funds that buy or sell thousands of different holdings over the course of a year.

more...

[peacetalksforall]

3. It appears only Republicans make vote thieving voting machines.

Has ES & S been vetted and certified by anyone?

[acmavm]

7. What's even crazier about Hagel is that as far as his positions go,

he more of a democrat than the worthless bag of garbage democrat Ben Nelson. But that's Nebraska for you. Up is down, black is white, and politically backward and clueless is the state motto.

[Rose Siding]

9. Hagel has cultivated that image.

However, Nelson votes progressive over half the time, while Hagel scores at less than 7%.

Here's the breakdown for Hagel-

http://www.progressivepunch.org/members.jsp?member=NEII

[saracat]

10. Does this mean the repugs are resigned to a loss in 2004?

[fujiyama]

11. Very suspicious

of his electronic voting system ties, but I'd take him in a minute over the current occupant. I heard Hagel criticizing Bush over the war more harshly than I heard Biden.

[cap]

12. also his ties to the family research council

and blackwater security...

you have a confluence of 3 evil forces: extreme right wing conservativism, control over the electoral process and the muscle to back them up.