Hagel Says GOP Is Not ‘Presenting Any Alternatives, Any New Options Or Any New Thinking’

[cal04]

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/09/03/hagel-says-gop-options/

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), the chairman of the Atlantic Council, recently sat down for an interview with the Washington Diplomat. In the interview, the former senator touched on a variety of topics, including what he feels is the need for the United States to “unwind” from the war in Afghanistan. Towards the end of the interview, Hagel says that while he has “no plans to renounce his membership in the party,” he finds that the Republican Party of which he is a part is not “presenting any new alternatives, any new options, or any new thinking“:

“I don’t see them presenting any alternatives, any new options or any new thinking,” Hagel said. “If the Republicans get back in power, what are they going to do? There is no articulation. It’s just a ‘no no no, I’m against Obama because he’s a socialist and he’s taking America in the wrong direction.’ That’s certainly an opinion, but what about you, Mr. Republican? What would you do?”

In fact, leading Republicans like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, and Peter King have proudly embraced the “no, no, no” agenda. Hagel told the interviewer that he remains confident that his party will once again rebuild itself. “The Republican Party will find a new center of gravity,” he said. “I think they’ll let this nonsense play out. It’s like a bad storm — it just has to go through.”


Senator Hagel Interview: Hagel May Have Left Senate Behind, But Not His Candor About Politics
http://www.acus.org/highlight/senator-hagel-interview-hagel-may-have-left-senate-behind-not-his-candor-about-politics

[babylonsister]

1. Wow, a rethug speaking the truth. How refreshing! nt

[tanyev]

5. Amazing the things they'll say when they're no longer running for office.

[Inuca]

12. He was not exactly shy WHILE in office

and that's why he no longer holds one. Remember "go sell shoes"?

Also from the original interview liked in the OP:

Hagel said he became a Republican standing on the edge of a rice paddy in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War when he voted for Richard Nixon for president, and followed that choice with Republican selections straight down the ticket. At the time, he said the Republican Party stood for fiscal conservatism and engagement with the world at large. Now, he’s not so sure what it stands for. That’s why he decided against running for president in 2008, even though some moderate Republicans — and more than a few Democrats — encouraged him to run.

“I was out of touch with the Republican Party,” Hagel told The Diplomat. “There was no way I could have run in a Republican primary and had any hope of representing the Republican Party. I wouldn’t disconnect from my beliefs. I would have been wasting the party’s time, voters’ time, my time — at least that’s what I thought a couple of years ago. The current leadership of the Republican Party is just not one I identify with.”

[TheMuse]

2. Hagel is pretty conservative

But when you look at him vs. the nutjobs that are running the show now, he looks downright moderate. That is how far the Rethugs have moved to the right.

[BlueCheese]

3. It's really quite a wasteland.

I can't think of a single serious plan the GOP has put forward of late. They've become a caricature of themselves.

In the 1990s, at least parts of the GOP were serious. In fact, the health insurance reform bill passed this year was pretty much the moderate GOP plan from the 1990s. They proposed a sort-of balanced budget. Even under Bush, who I can't stand, they at least had an agenda or sorts, even if I disagreed with almost all of it.

Now all they are is a bunch of shouters. I wouldn't mind a GOP made up of people like Hagel, Lindsey Graham, McCain, Bob Bennett, Walter Jones, and a few others. I disagree with a lot of what they think, but they've each shown the capability of acting on principle. The people in charge now have nothing to offer.

[Canuckistanian]

6. It's almost embarassing

They don't even give a CLUE that they're even working on something.

BTW, isn't Boehner's plan due about now? He said he'd have something in September.

[bushisanidiot]

4. He's RIGHT! They only talk down the economy.. cheering for the U.S. to sink into a big hole.

they are a sick and twisted lot.

[deacon]

14. Right. Thats all they care about. Power. n/t

[h8okra]

7. He should be shamed

by his parties lack of real involvement in solving the problems of this country. If he wasn't "impotent and limp" he would have tried to lead his party to a more mature reaction to Obama's ass kicking. Those who do not stand against the hate filled and racist tide of the Tea Party are complicit in the attack on civil rights currently sweeping this country. Vote.

[DailyGrind51]

8. Voters are going anti-incumbent, so that does not seem to matter.

[provis99]

9. they don't need to have any ideas; they're winning.

[necso]

10. “The Republican Party will find a new center of gravity,”

he said. “I think they’ll let this nonsense play out. It’s like a bad storm — it just has to go through.”

Wishful thinking; and the sort of thinking that allows people who consider themselves good (and maybe even try to be) to support unregenerate evil.

The republican party has been being steamrolled in the direction of wrong-wing extremism for decades, and I see nothing that's going to change this. (Notably, significant wins in two straight elections (and then losses) didn't seem to change this course... or diminish its momentum.)

Because this isn't some wildfire of wrong-headed thinking (eg, poorly perceived self-interest; irrationally directed anger) that will eventually burn itself out, it's the work -- the continuing work -- of arsonists. (These arsonists include some of the most vile, unscrupulous, and petty self-servers, charlatans and grifters to ever darken the planet.)

And what's going to stop this.

[BeFree]

11. heh

Hagel asks: "“If the Republicans get back in power, what are they going to do?"

They'll do what they did the last time -- start wars, steal working people's money, enrich the bankers, cut social problems and in general make a huge fucking mess of everything, again. Like they've always done, you damned puke.

[deacon]

13. They ruined the country. n/t