Anyone with Good Knowledge on Hagel?

[fascisthunter]

What's going on....? Who is he, what laws has he helped pass and why is he helping Obama? I'm not really do not know much about him and I would like to learn more....

[Catch22Dem]

1. His wiki entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Hagel

[Trajan]

2. The bad about Hagel ....

1) He most likely used fraud to gain office his first time around .... the voting numbers just didn't pan out for him ...

2) He is a Republican ...

The GOOD:

1) He is very level headed about issues of war and the Military

2) He is not a lock step Repuke ....

[TwilightGardener]

4. Bullshit on the "fraud". He won fair and square. That's an internet rumor.

[Trajan]

5. Oh yeah

I believe you .....

Sheeeeesh ..... GTH ....

[TwilightGardener]

7. Are you a Nebraska resident, or are you talking out of your ass?

[Trajan]

15. We would call that a bifurcation ...

So only Nebraska residents can discern facts ?

It is my BELIEF, based on the Demographics, that Hagel used his ownership of ES&S to his advantage when he was elected to office .... That the fact that HE owned the company that produced the voting machines that counted his votes is itself problematic, given that he apparently won his election by historic numbers, even capturing a majority of the votes of African Americans, who have NEVER voted in such numbers for a Republican .....

So, you want to refer to me 'talking out of my ass', because I find the whole affair less than honest ? ...... Hagel did NOT disclose his association with ES&S for over a year, and only when it was brought to light .....

The whole thing STINKS ...... and I have an absolute right to call it 'fraud' if I wish, even if I do not live in Nebraska ......

I believe it to be fraud, given the FACT of the voting percentages in the Black community .... That is good enough for me ... and good enough to be called fraud; in this thread, in this forum, on this (or any other) website, and on this internet .....

You are not the only person allowed to have an opinion .....

[TwilightGardener]

18. Your "belief" is your business. It is my business to stick to fact. And I will

defend my Senator against unfounded rumors, because in Nebraska, no one except his (crackpot) rival in 2002 has ever suggested he took his Senate seat through fraudulent means--not even Ben Nelson, who was Governor of Nebraska when Hagel beat him in 1996, has made that charge--and Nelson was in the best position possible to cast doubt on that election and investigate it. He never did, to this day.

[EFerrari]

23. Some facts here:

In 1996, Hagel became the first elected Republican Nebraska senator in 24 years when he did surprisingly well in an election where the votes were verified by the company he served as chairman and maintained a financial investment. In both the 1996 and 2002 elections, Hagel’s ES&S counted an estimated 80 percent of his winning votes. Due to the contracting out of services, confidentiality agreements between the State of Nebraska and the company kept this matter out of the public eye. Hagel’s first election victory was described as a “stunning upset” by one Nebraska newspaper.

Hagel’s official biography states, “Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Hagel worked in the private sector as the President of McCarthy and Company, an investment banking firm based in Omaha, Nebraska and served as Chairman of the Board of American Information Systems.” During the first Bush presidency, Hagel served as Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations (G-7 Summit).

Bob Urosevich was the programmer and CEO at AIS, before being replaced by Hagel. Bob now heads Diebold Election Systems and his brother Todd is a top executive at ES&S. Bob created Diebold’s original electronic voting machine software. Thus, the brothers Urosevich, originally funded by the far-right, figure in the counting of approximately 80 percent of electronic voting in the United States.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

In January 2003, The Hill reported that "In a disclosure form filed in 1996, covering the previous year, Chuck Hagel, then a Senate candidate, did not report that he was still chairman of AIS for the first 10 weeks of the year, as he was required to do."

"Hagel's unrecorded stake in the voting systems company poses an apparent conflict of interest on election reform issues. Three companies, including ES&S, stand to make a large profits from election reform legislation enacted last year by Congress," Alexander Bolton reported.<1>

The Hill noted that an official at Nebraska's Election Administration estimated that ES&S machines calculated approximately 85 percent of the votes cast in the two elections - 1996 and 2002 - that Hagel contested.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ES%26S

"If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines"
by Thom Hartmann


Maybe Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel honestly won two US Senate elections. Maybe it's true that the citizens of Georgia simply decided that incumbent Democratic Senator Max Cleland, a wildly popular war veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was, as his successful Republican challenger suggested in his campaign ads, too unpatriotic to remain in the Senate. Maybe George W. Bush, Alabama's new Republican governor Bob Riley, and a small but congressionally decisive handful of other long-shot Republican candidates really did win those states where conventional wisdom and straw polls showed them losing in the last few election cycles.

Perhaps, after a half-century of fine-tuning exit polling to such a science that it's now sometimes used to verify how clean elections are in Third World countries, it really did suddenly become inaccurate in the United States in the past six years and just won't work here anymore. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that the sudden rise of inaccurate exit polls happened around the same time corporate-programmed, computer-controlled, modem-capable voting machines began recording and tabulating ballots.

But if any of this is true, there's not much of a paper trail from the voters' hand to prove it.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm

The problem I have with some of this material is that one of the sources is the Harris woman before she was outed as a grifter. She is not above lying through her teeth so, I'd have to go back and verify what Fritrakis, Hartmann, others may have assumed to be true in her reports.

There are some facts that are indisputable: Hagel was elected by the voting machines from ES&S and his relationship to that company was a material conflict of interest.

[TwilightGardener]

25. Yes, I have read all of these, over and over. Until someone can prove

anything beyond mere suspicion, he's innocent of election fraud. He's guilty of not disclosing owning shares of McCarthy Group, the parent company of ESS--the Senate Ethics Committee decided that, and that was it. Anything beyond that is speculation and suspicion. That's simply fact. If everyone seems to feel that their suspicions and extrapolations and opinions carry the same weight as fact, then fine, I offer mine: Hagel has never shown any evidence, in his character or personal history, that he would ever entertain even the IDEA of a crime against democracy like election fraud. He has never shown a lack of integrity, or a history of deceit. Joe Biden says he wishes he would have known Hagel in high school so that they could have been lifelong friends--how's that for a testimony to someone's character? Jack Reed call him his best friend in the Senate. I don't think these good men would befriend someone of suspect character. And no one in Nebraska, including Ben Nelson, feels that Hagel won his seat undeservedly. That's enough for me.

[EFerrari]

27. The fact that he was in any way associated with a company like ES&S

is enough for me to take him with the same pillar of salt I take Joe "I'm for the little people unless the credit industry needs me to vote for their bankruptcy bill" Biden.

[Rex]

28. I hear that, crooked as the day is long so why trust him?

Suspicion my butt, Hagel stole his 'election' and paid off the judge who heard his case! You Nebs can believe whatever ya want to about Chuckie. He is rotten and we don't need him. Oh, so he is slightly less Repukish than George. BFD. Gimme a DEM, everytime over a Repuke.

[TwilightGardener]

29. I like how people just make things up. That's amusing to me.

[Inuca]

39. To me it's rather depressing

I guess it is just my cheerful character :-(. I am tolerant by nature, or so I have been told, but I find narrow-mindedness and superficiality of thought very upsetting.

[EFerrari]

31. I never read the part about the hearing. But, because this is one of those

stories that the grifter was pitching before we knew about her, I'd still be careful and go back and check everything that she gave to people like Thom Hartmann or Bob Fitrakis.

[Rex]

32. It will never been anymore proven than the elections in 2000 or 2004.

And people here will act like 5 year olds when they don't like hearing something bad about their state/government. Always.

[EFerrari]

34. Both very true. Agreed -- unless it's my turn

and we're talking about Cindy or Hugo.

lol

:P

[Rex]

37. LOL, well I know how passionate you get over your political heroes.

:P

[Trajan]

24. Woo Fucking Hoo .....

Fuck your Senator .....

[TwilightGardener]

26. My Senator is helping Obama--so, I'll defend him.

[Inuca]

38. So you find him attractive?

If you get to meet him and he agrees, what can I say... enjoy!

[Trajan]

40. I am NOT of the mind to support Republican politicians ....

Not here, and not anywhere else ...

No matter HOW much he seems like a nice guy, nor even how much he may support some Democrats, or even disagree with the present administration: He belongs to a party that possesses a wide ranging conservative philosophy which I reject across the board ....

I dont care if Democrats on this board live in Nebraska ...

I dont care if they like him ....

He is a Republican, and I will NOT support him, nor will I forget the FACTS of his entry into office ... It was deceitful, and yes: Fraudulent ....

This is a forum FOR Democrats and support of Democratic party members .. NOT a forum for support of Republicans ...

You call it 'Narrow minded' ? ... Fine ..... Call it what you wish: we make such distinctions in our day to day lives, and we live by them .... We call it discretion ... We discern differences and we act on those discernments .... Hagel, no matter HOW much the OP adores him, no matter how much of a 'Maverick' he is presumed to be by some; IS a Republican ... He supports MANY of the Republican platform planks which I despise ....

I am a Democrat because I disagree with those philosophical planks, and I reject the usage of these forums to heap praise on a member of a party that, on the whole, has beliefs that DIRECTLY counter my own beliefs ....

I draw the line on 'open mindedness' at the inclusion of politicians into my own sphere of beliefs that hold opposite beliefs ..... There is no virtue in denying your own set of values for the mere purpose of being seen as 'inclusive' and 'open minded' .... Bipartisanship is bullshit; a subterfuge to usurp power through fraud ....

FUCK that .... I dont intend to sell out like that ...

FUCK Chuck Hagel ..... Right up his fraudulent, Nebraskan, republican arse ....

[newmajority]

35. Yeah, sure he did.

81% of the votes were counted on his own machines. Yeah sure that was a fair election. Just like Saddam Hussein's last one. Or any election in Florida.

[TwilightGardener]

41. Ben Nelson approved of those voting machines. Why didn't he say something?

[Catch22Dem]

11. Please provide some back-up on the "fraud" accusation

Otherwise it's just bunk.

[TwilightGardener]

3. He's my Senator. He's VERY conservative on domestic policy--

against federal minimum wage, voted against SCHIP, voted to open ANWR to drilling, is pro-life, against federal funding for stem cell research, against hate-crime legislation. Very similar to Democrats on foreign policy and on torture and intelligence issues. He and Obama share a similar view on Iraq, Iran, nukes, foreign policy in general, and they've worked on legislation together and seem to be friends. Always speaks up if he thinks someone is doing something dishonorable, regardless of party. An honest guy. Probably will be in Obama's cabinet somewhere.

[Muttocracy]

6. would you like his as Sec. of Defense or head of Veterans Affairs? nt

[Catch22Dem]

12. I could handle that

A position where he'd have no real influence on domestic policy, but could look after veterans or international policy. Yeah, that might be a good slot for him. I'm almost certain if Obama is elected, Hagel will be rewarded for his role in the campaign with a position in the administration.

[TwilightGardener]

14. He'd be best as Secretary of State for Obama, IMO--he and Obama

are identical on their foreign policy views, he's regarded as a foreign policy expert, and that frees up Biden to be VP. Z-Big (Brzezinski or however you spell it) recommended him for Obama's cabinet.

[jwirr]

16. That is what I wanted to know. I cannot afford the possibility that he

might have some influence on social issues. He has my thumbs down as VP.

[LostinVA]

8. A Republican, and NOT an Olympia Snowe Republican

VERY Freeper on social issues.

Enough said.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Consider Hagel Our Lieberman

Politically, Hagel is the antithesis of a Democrat...on the wrong side of most issues. In the beginning he was also that way with Iraq...he voted for the IWR. However, he was never a boooshie and it was apparent early on that he had issues specifically with Rummy that came to the front after the Iraq invasion.

Hagel is truly the Veteran's Senator...very, very pro military and he was seeing how badly this regime was abusing the services is what's gotten up his ire. He slowly began to fall off the GOOP wagon...and made a near complete split after the revelations of the mess at the VA. He sees how this war for profit has destroyed the military's infrastructure and views things from that perspective that has, in turn, created common cause with many Democrats.

The bad feelings between Hagel and boooshie haven't helped either. He saw he was going to face an expensive primary and didn't want to fight two tough campaigns (primary and general) and IMHO I think he's digusted with both parties....thus his retirement.

Hagel would make a great member of a "What Went Wrong In Iraq" inquiry I hope is pushed ahead in a future Obama administration. No, he's not VP material or even worthy of a cabinet position. By sticking up for the military, he's shown he's a man of some integrity, but also, still a man of the military.

[Catch22Dem]

13. He's been the "Veteran's Senator" for a long time too, not just out of political expediency

He resigned his post (admirably) in Reagan's VA in protest against the head of the agency over things like Agent Orange and vets being called greedy. He has always been there for vets, and would make a great Sec. of Vet Affairs.

[Warpy]

10. He's against the war.

Other than that, he's GOP through and through, a woman hating, worker hating obscenity whose votes reflect his deep and abiding mistrust of most American citizens.

[BlooInBloo]

20. +1

[JerseygirlCT]

17. Read up:

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Chuck_Hagel.htm

This is a dangerously reactionary right winger, who happens to have come around the the smart position on Iraq.

There's nothing else positive to say about the man, IMO.

[dmosh42]

19. Hagel was a decorated Vietnam vet, like Kerry.....

and probably didn't forget what it was like when troops are used in a 'war without end'. But other than some agreement with many Dems on Iraq, is basically a Republican Senator, towing the line for big business, and anti-working people philosophy.

[Breeze54]

21. He's a RWer who now happens to be against the War ON Iraq.

Go here to look up his voting history: http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm

[mod mom]

22. Here's info on his Pac:

I think it says a lot:

http://www.sandhillspac.com/displayContent.asp?type=candidates&id=4

[Canuckistanian]

30. Here's a pretty good KOS post on his voting record

Hagel's voting record is awful on Iraq and everything else
by DemocraticLuntz
Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 07:17:17 PM PDT

What's up with all this praise for Chuck Hagel? Yes, he's saying things that sound good on TV, and I supposed that puts him above Jeff Sessions, Jon Kyl, James Inhofe and a few other Senators.

But that's no reason to ignore his awful, awful voting record.

~

His voting record on Iraq started out terribly from the beginning with his votes on the Iraq War Resolution. Robert Byrd's amendment to limit the time for the authorization to be in effect (30 Dems and Chafee voted YEA), against Levin's amendment to require a UN resolution for the authorization to take effect, against Byrd's amendment to make it clear that the authority was limited to Iraq (13 Dems and Specter voted YEA), against Durbin's amendment to limit the authorization to an imminent threat rather than an existing threat (30 Democrats voted YEA), for cloture on the Lieberman amendment and for the war.

Since then, it's only gotten worse.

In fact, it's worse than John McCain's.


more:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/16/185310/186

[baldguy]

33. Hagel?

[lame54]

36. Here's his voting record...

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/carpenter/131


*Voted NO on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)

*Voted YES on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration.

*Voted NO on repealing tax subsidy for companies which move US jobs offshore. (Mar 2005)

*Voted NO on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education. (Mar 2005)

*Voted NO on banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Mar 2005)

*Voted NO on funding for National Endowment for the Arts. (Aug 1999)

*Voted NO on favoring 1997 McCain-Feingold overhaul of campaign finance. (Oct 1997)

*Voted YES on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers. (Jul 2005)

*Voted YES on limiting medical liability lawsuits to $250,000. (May 2006)

*Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. (Mar 2006)

*Voted NO on raising the minimum wage to $7.25 rather than $6.25. (Mar 2005)

*Voted YES on permanently repealing the ‘death tax.’ (Jun 2006)....

*Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)

*Rated 36% by the NEA, indicating a mixed record on public education. (Dec 2003)

*Rated 0% by the , indicating anti-environment votes. (Dec 2003)

*Rated 100% by the Christian Coalition: a pro-family voting record. (Dec 2003)

*Rated A by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun rights voting record. (Dec 2003)

*Rated 12% by the , indicating an anti-public health voting record. (Dec 2003)

*Rated 8% by the AFL-CIO, indicating an anti-union voting record. (Dec 2003)

*Rated 22% by the , indicating an anti-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)

And, finally, the right-wing pièces de ré·sis·tance:

*90% conservative voting record; 95% support of Pres. Bush. (Dec 2006)"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGeVtzqFlUY

[Trajan]

42. Wow .... no wonder I am getting slammed by Nebraskans ...

... who feel I should lick his arse ...