NE's Chuck Hagel Considering WH Run

Republicans better hope that Chuck Hagel runs for president and gets some traction in the party. The Republican right is now so out of step with the majority of Americans over the War in Iraq, that I cannot see how Republicans can nominate an electable candidate. Fortunately this ragged right is becoming marginalized (although over-represented in the blogosphere)and is now a small minority of the Republican party and and even smaller minority of American opinion overall.

Chuck Hagel is a rock solid conservative in the Goldwater tradition. He is more conservative than McCain, Giuliani, Romney, and certainly more conservative than Bush. He has been on the right side of this war since 2002 and that makes him the only electable Republican in the field. It'll be too bad if he can't make it through the gauntlet of Republicans who have redefined being a Republican with a single litmus test of blind support of the President's policies on Iraq. You don't have to be a fiscal conservative to get their support. You don't have to be a social conservative to get their support. You just have to put on your blinders and march lockstep on a flawed war strategy. If Republicans like these carry the day, it will be the end of the Republican Party as a relevant political force for a generation.


Hagel is prominently featured in my most recent YouTube effort "It's the war, stupid."and recent blog post with the same title.

If I am to choose a candidate to vote for, it will be the one that comes out strongest on Iraq and the GWOT.

I believe the opposition to our efforts in Iraq have been and are detrimental to our nation.

As far as I am concerned Hagel has been on the wrong side of the argument since '02. He has also joined in on the rhetoric that does not require facts. He feels this or that way and speaks it as they all do as the truth. He and they do not know that this is the truth.

Do you honestly believe this debate that has gone on over the years is not tainted by emotional distress over Bush?

I'm saddened by the American public that has just run roughshod over this entire enterprise; claiming it lost as it was begun. It has been more of a "self-fulfilling prophecy," with those opposed doing all in the power to convince everyone that Iraq is nothing but a waste of time that has nothing to do with the GWOT.

Politics and life are not "The West Wing" or "whatever that pathetic Geena Davis show was." Life and that which is worth accomplishing takes time; which is something that will never be given to the battle against this global scourge. I'm not surprised that many people do not like what is happening given it has gone beyond the alloted primetime 60 minutes.

I will say that if Maliki doesn't stand up as he needs to we probably shouldn't waste much more time there.

What part of a generation's time do people not understand? We are so wussing out at the wrong time, with the wrong people, in the wrong place. It is only going to get more difficult from this point on, as far as I'm concerned.

What do we want and what are we willing to do for it?

Oh, yeah, Chuck Hagel is an *ss and will not receive my vote. I wish we agreed. thanks for the comment

Yes we disagree, but I do not want my intent with that subject title misunderstood. It was not directed at you or anyone in particular. I was playing on the James Carville mantra from the 1992 campaign "It's the economy, stupid." (If tags were permitted, I would link to the wikipedia essay on the subject). My point was this: Just as in 1992 (when failure to recognize the central issue of the campaign was the economy resulted in the Republicans losing the White House), in 2008, we are failing to recognize that the American people will no longer tolerate this policy in Iraq and will face a similar outcome. We are on a hell-bound train for a single party Democrat government in 2009. The Iraq war policy IS going to change because the American people are insisting on it. The only question is, do you want a conservative Republican like Hagel in the White House effecting that change, or a Democrat? Choose wisely.

Sorry, as much as my response title gives the impression that I took what you said to mean I was stupid, that was not the case. Even if that had been your intent, which I didn't even consider that it was...it's not a big deal. Perhaps a little self-deprecating humor...as I do like to bust on myself and others. I was just having fun with it.

I question why the American people are tired of it and whether or not this is really the case. Our days are filled with soundbytes that don't always (if ever) reflect reality, only what they want you to hear over and over. If Iraq was/is as the Dems say, it was pretty much lost from day one. I have a hard time agreeing with an argument whose origin is not true at the beginning. Now I'm supposed to believe that the Iraq of today is the same Iraq of March '03; yet that is how so many expect us/me/you/they/(?) to view it.

My concerns do stem from the vacuum upon our departure and just where in the M.E. it is we are supposed to redploy to. Isn't our presence in that region one of the very things bin Laden gripes about? So, in a sense we're right back where we started; except that now we cannot imagine what the consequences of such a move would be.

I've got lots more to say but I've got a child prattling away at my right side and another in a walker. What's your blog? I'm sure we have lots to agree on.

As far as Hagel? Yes, I'd take him over a Dem any day....but that's not saying much

Chuck Hagel intervened with the then INS to stop enforcement actions against meatpacking plants in his state during the Clinton administration. He has supported importing workers for the jobs that can't be exported. He is not representing American citizens, he is representing corporations that pay for his campaigns. I wonder how many people in Nebraska know how he has undercut any effort to stop illegal aliens? He does whatever he thinks will benefit his image or his benefactors. He is exactly the kind of Senator the Republicans need fewer of.

Operation Vanguard? I had forgotten he was one of those that griped.

This action and others are why I am so adamant about enforcement first at the border and in the country. It doesn't matter what they pass, because they never honor it. Thanks for adding to the list of why Hagel doesn't cut it.