Milbank: Hagel as Third Party, Hillary Disses Obama!

[TwilightGardener]

From WaPo:
--snip--
As it happens, nonsense was on prominent display at both ends of the Capitol yesterday. The day began with a hearing of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee investigating a singular case of government dysfunction: how the administration had allowed al-Hurra, a U.S.-funded Middle Eastern television station, to promote Holocaust deniers and anti-Israel campaigns. "Why are American taxpayer dollars used to spread the hate, lies and propaganda of these nuts, when our goal was to counter them?" asked the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.).

Over in the Senate, lawmakers had a series of votes about Iraq that were, by their very design, intended to achieve nothing. The votes had been tacked on to a section of the Water Resources Development Act that, by agreement between Democrats and Republicans, would itself be struck from the legislation. Not that it mattered anyway: A vote for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq fell 31 votes short.

Senators raced to the television gallery to spin the votes, causing news-conference gridlock as lawmakers waited their turn outside the TV studio. First came Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) to talk about the "meaningless gesture" he had just witnessed on the floor. Next came a group of Democrats including Sen. Russ Feingold (Wis.), who announced, even though his withdrawal plan got only 29 votes, "I am so heartened." Finally came the Republican rebuttal, where Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.) denounced "political posturing in the middle of a water bill."

Perhaps Hutchison had seen Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) deliver an apparent snub to her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama (Ill.), by looking away as he approached her on the Senate floor. On the Republican side, John McCain (Ariz.) did his posturing elsewhere; the presidential candidate skipped the votes entirely, as he has most votes over the past month.

The Senate was in need of some adult behavior -- and Hagel provided it in his lunchtime speech, where 100 people heard him speak for 40 minutes without notes. The early start to the presidential campaign "has paralyzed, locked down our ability to govern," he complained. "We must find some bipartisan consensus on Iraq and on the future, our security, and we can't wait for two years, a year and a half, for the next president to take office."

Hagel had greater scorn for Bush, attributing to him a "foolish" national security policy, "chaos now in Iraq" and "the potential of a sectarian war in the Middle East."

This led, logically, to a question about Hagel's third-party intentions -- and an immediate admission that he "might have an interest in moving in a little different direction."
--snip--

He mentioned the difficulty historically faced by independent candidates, but quickly added: "Does that mean it couldn't be done? No, not at all."

Unbidden, Hagel announced he is "not at all concerned" about his family tolerating a presidential run. And he sounded skeptical that there would be "an opening for me" in the Republican primaries. "Those are uncontrollables I can't determine," the senator said. "I am who I am, I've said what I believe, and this is who I am."
--snip--
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602444.html

So, I guess Hagel's gonna run. I agree with him that there's too much running for Prez and not enough Senate work. This will shape up to be quite an interesting election. Why would Hillary turn away from Obama when he approached her? Hope that wasn't intentional. I also don't like the way Milbank makes Russ look dumb.

[Lobster Martini]

1. "I am who I am...this is who I am."

Hagel: "I am who I am...this is who I am."
Popeye: "I yam what I yam, and that's all I yam"

Popeye for President!

Seriously, I would think that Hagel would need to make a decision soon just to come up with the cash he'd need to be competitive. Hope he does run; there's not a lot of warm fuzzy feelings for any other Republican and Hagel could be the conservative Nader.

[TwilightGardener]

4. I have mixed feelings about him running--

I think it would be neat for Nebraska to have a prez candidate, first off. I think he's a good guy, and sometimes I just want the good guys to win (or at least do well), dammit. And he would certainly put some pressure on the GOPers and change the tone of the race for them. But I wouldn't want him to take my sweetie Obama's big chance away (or the Dems' chance in general) by drawing off Dems/Indies. So I can't say for sure he'd be the GOPers' Nader, or OUR Nader. And I think he also might win the big prize.

[IA_Seth]

2. Hagel provided it .... speak for 40 minutes without notes

Ok, so why is it news that Hagel can speak about Iraq for 40 minutes without notes. Iraq is and will be a focal point of politics for years...if you can't speak on a MAJOR aspect of your position for 40 minutes without notes, you need to leave your position.

What constitutes remarkable behavior these days is sad.

[TwilightGardener]

3. I don't know that he talked about Iraq for 40 minutes, but yes, I would

expect a serious candidate to be able to speak without notes. Milbank calls him "adult" compared to the "children" in the Senate--just an example of the kind of press he will receive when he runs.