Time to promote Chuck "ESS" Hagel

[ProSense]

The Heartland Dissident

By JOSEPH LELYVELD

Published: February 12, 2006
With a bluntness that seems habitual — and more than occasionally strikes fellow Republicans as disloyal — Senator Chuck Hagel started voicing skepticism about the Bush administration's fixation on Iraq as a place to fight the Global War on Terror more than half a year before the president gave the go-ahead for the assault. What the senator said in public was milder than what he said in private conversations with foreign-policy gurus like Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser in another Bush administration, or his friend Colin Powell, the secretary of state, who thought he still had a chance to steer the administration on a diplomatic course. The Nebraskan wanted to believe Powell but, deep down, felt the White House wasn't going to be diverted from its drive to topple Saddam Hussein. When he rose on the Senate floor that October to explain his vote in favor of the resolution authorizing force — he'd persuaded himself that his vote might strengthen Powell's hand — he gave a speech that would have required no editing had he decided to vote against it. What sounded then to the venture's true believers like the scolding of a Cassandra sounds fairly obvious three and a half years later, which is to say that Hagel's words can reasonably be read as prescient: "How many of us really know and understand Iraq, its country, history, people and role in the Arab world?. . .The American people must be told of the long-term commitment, risk and cost of this undertaking. We should not be seduced by the expectations of dancing in the streets." The president had said "precious little" about post-Saddam Iraq, which could prove costly, Hagel warned, "in both American blood and treasure."

more (really long)...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/magazine/12hagel.html

What makes him different from other republicans? Nothing. He says one thing and does another, votes with Bush every time.

Any action on:

the Alito and unitary executive?
Bush and illegal spying?
Cheney/Libby leak?
etc.?

[LiberalAndProud]

1. Sometimes Hagel lets his conscience run away with his mouth.

And then he ignores himself.

[snowbear]

2. Everytime I think of Hagel, I remember this story....

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0301/S00166.htm

----> edit: Oh, Doh!! That's why you called him Chuck "ESS" Hagel!

[HardWorkingDem]

3. I like Chuck Hagel.....but....

this is what concerns me.....out of the Republican party, what sort of candidate might be needed in 08 to get the nomination? Yes, the anti-Bush candidate and possibly a Republican anti-war candidate of some sort. So what concerns me, is he being the opposite for the sole purpose of getting the nomination?

Though of the bunch, I respect Hagel the most...

[leesa]

4. Can't respect a guy who says the right thing but then votes with the

criminals anyway. That's even lower than low.