"That is the essence of our responsibility. And if we're not willing to do it, we're not worthy to be seated right here. We fail our country. If we don't debate this, if we don't debate this, we are not worthy of our country. We fail our country."
His fellow Republicans on the committee would not go as far as him. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), the ranking member of the committee while critical of the president and recognizing "the tremendous investment that sending more American soldiers to Iraq represents" worried that the U.S. was depending "on theories or hopes that something good may happen" still opposed the nonbinding resolution saying "it's the wrong tool for this stage in the Iraq debate" and would lead to an isolated president who "is deeply invested in this plan" and who "may have less incentive to consult with Congress on future Iraq decisions." He urged his colleagues not to give in to frustration with a White House that has not listened to the Congress in the past.
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who supports the troop surge said "The goal is to try to salvage this thing and not send additional troops over with a message of disapproval from the Congress." His fellow supporter of the escalation, Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said "We can't have 535 commanders in chief, and if you think the U.S. is doomed to fail, please remember that the enemy is listening."
Hagel was the lone Republican in the 12-9 vote in the Foreign Relations Committee in favor of the resolution.
A Republican Peace Candidate for President?
Senator Hagel is considering a run for the White House. He won his re-election in 2002 with 83% of the vote, the largest margin ever in a Nebraska Senate race. He worked in the Reagan administration and was a darling of the party when he was first elected to Congress in 1996 when he won a traditionally Democratic seat from an incumbent Democrat. His military record and mid-America personality had people talking about him as a presidential candidate in 2000 and 2004. Like the leading Republican candidate, John McCain, he was viewed as a straight talking maverick. Now, the two are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the Iraq War and more and more of his fellow Republicans in the Senate are uncomfortable with Hagel's criticism of President Bush.
The Washington Post reports that Hagel will decide in the next six weeks whether he is going to run for re-election or run for president. And he told the Post that he was considering a number of possibilities – seeking the Republican nomination or taking a more creative path, teaming up with moderate Republican Michael Bloomberg the Mayor of New York and even the possibility of a unity ticket with a Democrat.
His big hurdle may be getting sufficient support in the Republican primaries. Currently McCain and Guiliani lead in polls with 20% to 30% support with Hagel attracting only1% of registered Republicans. Of course, these polls are very early and may not mean all that much. Even among Republicans opposition to the war is growing so McCain may find his support for sending more troops to hurt him politically. Hagel has a more conservative rating than McCain according to the American Conservative Union with Hagel at 96 and McCain at 80. But, winning support from the conservative base of Republican primary voters will be a challenge for Hagel because of his criticism of the president in a time of war.
The argument that may convince Republican voters is that Hagel may be the only Republican who can save their party from the errors of George W. Bush. And, when they see his conservative voting record they may get more comfortable. Further, Republicans have long supported following the advice of President George Washington to avoid "foreign entanglements" and President Eisenhower resisted a major escalation in Vietnam. Hagel may find a niche in the Republican Party that is enough to overcome the shrinking base of supporters of the Iraq War.
Despite his conservative credentials, Hagel is garnering support from liberal anti-war advocates. Robert Scheer, who writes for TruthDig.com, wrote recently "Chuck Hagel for president! If it ever narrows down to a choice between him and some Democratic hack who hasn't the guts to fundamentally challenge the president on Iraq, then the conservative Republican from Nebraska will have my vote. Yes, the war is that important, and the fact that Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, the leading Democratic candidate, still can't or won't take a clear stand on the occupation is insulting to the vast majority of voters who have."
And, McCain has also but noted for sparring against conservative independent-Democrat Joseph Lieberman, who supports the escalation in Iraq, on Meet the Press. The segment has been making the rounds on YouTube under the title "Hagel Spanks Lieberman." Lieberman is more and more at odds with Democratic voters. He is even talking about possibly supporting a Republican in the presidential election.
And, Hagel has not been positioning himself on the war in order to run for president. His criticism of the war has been ongoing. Last August he called for the troops being home in six months and described the Iraq War as the worst foreign policy error since Vietnam. He is not shying away from the politically uncomfortable truth saying "We're losing in Iraq." Two months before that he urged the president to start bringing the troops home before the end of 2006. A year earlier Hagel described Iraq as "looking more and more like Vietnam" and August 2005 said: "We should start figuring out how we get out of there . . . I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur." At the outset of the war he urged the president to send two to three times as many troops.
Hagel may present an upside-down world for anti-war voters. His vocal opposition to the war is a stark contrast to leading Democrats who are, at best, fuzzy on the war and trying to put aside their pro-war voting records and rhetoric as they have seen the mood of the electorate change. If the Republicans are smart they will nominate an anti-Iraq War candidate and pull independents and some anti-war Democrats to their party in 2008.
Kevin Zeese is Executive Director of the Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics (www.FreshAirCleanPolitics.net) whose projects include Voters for Peace (www.VotersForPeace.US., True Vote (www.TrueVote.US and www.TrueVoteMD.org) and Climate Security (www.GlobalClimateSecurity.org). He is also president of Common Sense for Drug Policy (www.csdp.org).
"Senator Chuck Hagel's Comments Should Be a Wake-Up Call to
Oh really?
Chuck Hagel's remarks to his fellow Senators to take a stand came in advocacy of a non-binding sense of the Senate resolution stating their disagreement with the President's surge policy.
The Senator's position, like the Resolution itself, has a large content of yada yada yada.
Has the anti-war movement become so myopic that it is willing to sacrifice every progressive political principle to follow this man, Hagel, who otherwise supports only hard core conservative extremism?
Let's focus instead on ending the war without immersing Iraq in a bloodbath or the Persian Gulf in regional war and get back to enhancing the Homeland's security by defeating and destroying Islamic terrorism.
Robert Chapman
Lansing, NY
by
Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 556 comments)
on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 9:02:08 PM
1 comments
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