There have been numerous stories lately about Senator Chuck Hagel's life after he leaves the Senate this year. Most of them have centered around his becoming a member of a Presidential cabinet.
Barack Obama's cabinet.
This of course is unusual seeing as Hagel was one of John McCain's original supporters against then Governor George W. Bush of Texas, back in 1999 (when, by the way, Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns had endorsed Bush).
Hagel started much of this when interviewed last week by CNN. John King asked:
Barack Obama's cabinet.
This of course is unusual seeing as Hagel was one of John McCain's original supporters against then Governor George W. Bush of Texas, back in 1999 (when, by the way, Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns had endorsed Bush).
Hagel started much of this when interviewed last week by CNN. John King asked:
KING: Will you support John McCain?
HAGEL: Well, I've not been involved in the primary and I am still not involved in any of that. At the appropriate time, then I'll have something to say about it.
KING: Are you saying you might not support the Republican Party's nominee?
HAGEL: I said at the appropriate time, I'll have something to say about it.
And then regarding Obama, the following exchange:
KING: Could Barack Obama potentially get your support in a race against John McCain?
HAGEL: I think he is a worthy candidate for president, as is Senator Clinton, as is certainly Senator McCain, others.
The Times of London then stepped things up with this:
Senior (Obama) advisers confirmed that Hagel, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and one of McCain’s closest friends in the Senate, was considered an ideal candidate for defence secretary. Some regard the outspoken Republican as a possible vice-presidential nominee although that might be regarded as a “stretch”.
Asked about his choice of cabinet last week, Obama told The Sunday Times: “Chuck Hagel is a great friend of mine and I respect him very much.”
And while seeming to play coy, Hagel, last night at a forum at the University of Florida, more or less confirmed his interest in a job in an Obama administration:
Hagel said he thought the next president ought to appoint a person from the opposite party for one of the "big three" slots: secretaries of defense, treasury or state. He says he wouldn't rule out serving in any of the current candidates' cabinets.So as Hagel abandons his friend John McCain, and abandons the Republican party, one question that maybe should be asked is, is Hagel qualified to be Secretary of Defense?
"If I'd have an opportunity to play a significant role in a significant position - if all the right pieces were there - sure you'd have to consider something like that," Hagel said.
This is a legitimate question, seeing as Hagel's main experience in his Senate tenure has been on Foreign Relations Committee matters, and not Defense matters. Sure his service in the military is part of the equation, but no one is going to claim that every sergeant in the Army is ready to be the SecDef. The rest of Hagel's background is business related --cellular phones, investment banking and the like.
But his Senate tenure has been focused on foreign relations, as opposed to questions of military strategy, troops, equipment, relationships with Generals and the rest of the Department of Defense. Now if you said Secretary of State, Hagel may be a much better consideration. Problem is, it's unlikely that the Dems would give that plum of a job, the face of America abroad, to a Republican.
And of course, this all depends on Obama winning the Presidency, right? You don't hear Hillary picking cabinet officers. And we're guessing that Hagel's inability to endorse his former friend McCain is going to keep any Republican White House doors closed to Chuck.
And by the way, we're still wondering if Chuck will tape some ads for the Mike Johanns campaign.
Or if Johanns would want them...
Posts
58 comments:
I don't think Johanns will use Hagel in any ads in the third --- or he will find the sting of HOT WATER.
I think the Times of London may have gotten this bit wrong "Senior (Obama) advisers confirmed that Hagel, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and one of McCain’s closest friends in the Senate, was considered an ideal candidate for defence secretary."
Don't they mean highly decorative Vietnam war veteran (insert Chuck Hagel and television camera joke here) our "highly decorated Vietnam veteran goes by the name of Bob and would be more suited to this job and or Secretary of Peace ... baby.
Re: "no one is going to claim that every sergeant in the Army is ready to be the SecDeff"
At the risk of being clobbered with Godwin's Law, and merely as an interesting observation, you've got to remember that Hitler was only a corporal. That is the reason that, under his reign, every German military uniform bore a corporal's patch.
Now there is nothing that could preclude our good Senator Hagel from pulling a Witek or Raimondo on us, is there?
What would even be the point of appointing a Sec. of Defense in an Obama administration? It is not like Obama supports the war on terrorism.
Actually Secretary of Defense would be a good job for Chuck under Obama. He wouldn't have to travel overseas because there would be no troops to visit there, no military budget to oversee, and he can hang out in his Mansion in Virginia. Not a bad gig!!!
Annie Mouse,
Obama supports the war on terrorism, he just doesn't support GW's imperialistic, profit driven, personal war in Iraq. There IS a difference.
BTO --- you better check with 4.0 UNL for help with the definition of "imperialism". What we are doing in Iraq, allowing people to vote and letting them keep their own oil money is different from any other imperialism in the history of the world --- even defined by wikipedia. (I know that is a very poor source).
Brian, are you one of the revisionist that is trying to rewrite history according to the progressive left?
What a great place for a loose cannon like Chuck!
Did you all know that Hagel ran in 1996 on a platform to eliminate the Department of education, Energy and the EPA?
Ironic that he would set out to limit his future employment opportunities like that - good thing for him that like everything else in his Senate career he was a complete failure.
I continue to be stunned by this prattle about imperialism and money. Good lord, if the US were an imperialist nation then we would presently have a worldwide empire...we're only the most powerful nation and military in the history of the human race. In order to take over the world we would simply have to choose it. And this business about oil and profits...do you think oil would be over $100 if we were in Iraq siphoning their crude?! We're in recession, where is all this oil revenue we are stealing? The US has saved the world repeatedly with not a parcel of land to show for it, and we never asked for a dime in rebuilding entire nations. Imperialists?! You mean like how we don't charge the frickin' UN rent for setting up shop in our country to rip on us and criticize us for not giving them enough money?! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I am sick and tired of nihilists dragging this great nation down. BT, you come off as a nice fellow, but you are just an embarrassment to repeat these tired lines of teen-age sophistry.
Dunno who this last "Anonymous" is ... but I'd like to buy him a brewski.
An interesting project in democratic cabinet selection can be found at: http://puredem.wordpress.com
Instant, anonymous polling for all important cabinet posts.
When America has a Democratic Senate, House and President, then what? Ritual suicide for Republicans? Prayer for America's destruction because the GOP doesn't get to be in charge?
Bush raised taxes and grew government and lessened freedoms and fought terror in a fear mongering, wasteful way. The GOP had its chance to be like Reagan but the GOP failed in Bush.
The GOP crucifies Hagel while Bush is killing the GOP. A party that stupid deserves to lose.
Imperialism is something Scott Kleeb and Obama are going to change. I want to travel this summer in Europe and not be ridiculed for being an American. When my friend and I backpaked Europe last summer we had many people in our face in Amsterdam about King George Bush. We should be making frioends and not enemies. If we would talk to Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea they wouldn't have to fund liberation movements to protect themselves from us. Scott Kleeb believes in this approach. We need change so we will have a future tomorrow.
Remember that Hagel was one of the first, if not the first, Senator to support Bush, which came in 1998. He switched when McCain jumped in b/c he felt McCain was the better candidate.
"4.0 UNL",
Really, you're afraid to stand up to the drug-addled leftist at some Dutch "coffee house"? Well boo-hoo for you. The West Germans used to march against Ronald Reagan for being too tough on the Soviets too. But now their capital is in Berlin again, so how about that.
Here's a suggestion. Try backpacking around Africa where they're feting Bush because of change he's made there. Or better yet, spend some time in the USA and find out what it looks like before you go apologizing for your country in Europe.
4.0 UNL --- I am so glad you clarified where Kleeb stands on TALKING with thugs, tyrants and murdering despots --- now I definitely would never vote for him.
4.0 --- You better buy a clue somewhere ---- or study for yourself a little history of all the above --- not just take LEFT leaning professors' biases as imperial fact.
America gave the world Representative Democracy. Europe gave the world Communism, Nazism and smelly women with who never shave thier pits or leg hair.
Look Sue Mike Johanns went to some crappy midwest college and a bottom tier law school, Scott Kleeb went to an ivy league school and is a professor. So what if Mike Johanns ran Lincoln and the State of Nebraska, Scott has a vision for change and will create an economy that will benefit all the people equally. The cubans do this and look at them. They all have free health care and all the material possessions they need. You never hear of dissention or racial strife there. Sue I know what I'm talking about and so doed Mr. Kleeb.
Street Sweeper: It would do a lot of Rs good if they spent some time in a dutch coffee shop. You would probably benefit more than most.
TO: krmrcja
We need to send Scott to DC so he can HELP us and our comrades. YES, YES, YES!!!
1. He IS a professional. Which profession is it TODAY? Two years ago he was a cowboy/bull rider. This year he is a part time professor. I wish he was elected somewhere or had at least a full time job once in his lifetime so we could see the real PROFESSIONAL as opposed to just his empty Obama RHETORIC of CHANGE.
2. If only we could live like the citizens of Cuba. This one is scary when Castro goes to Europe for his own health care --- but his citizens' stay at home driving their family car, a rusted out 56 Chevy, to the clinic for the free care.
3. It will be nice when Scott can help us rid our party of the super delegates. I know we will all be equal even tho we haven't been for 20 years. We are the elitist party that keeps pimping the poor and giving them kool aid until we get all the POWER then we won't have to be elitist anymore ---- we can all be equally smart and happy for once in the history of this country.
4. The people of Cuba have it made. As the song goes --- "Seldom is heard a discouraging word". You are right again --- dead people don't complain. Castro learned that from Stalin (along with 30 millions dead Ruskies)
5. If you tell me you are a UNL Graduate ---- I definitely think Pearlman should be fired for not only giving away the farm when hiring football coaches but for allowing people like you out of HIS institution that know absolutely NOTHING about reality. (Or History)
Sheeeeeeesh!!!!!
Mr. Oberweis tried to gain mileage by pointing to his endorsement from Mr. Hastert, while Mr. Foster’s campaign worked to focus voters’ attention on his endorsement by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.
The opening image on Mr. Foster’s Web site showed him standing beside Mr. Obama and the words: “Bill Foster represents the change we need.” Mr. Foster’s campaign also seemed to share language familiar to Mr. Obama’s campaign. His signs read: “Foster, Democrat for Change.”
Foster Wins Special Saturday Election: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/us/09hastert.html?scp=1&sq=foster&st=nyt
See how easy it is this year?
Kleeb is making all the right moves.
Perelman is a fellow progressive. He is very forward thinking like Scott Kleeb he is pro-affirmative action, pro-benefits for same sex couples and believes that UNL should be the highest priority in state funding. Professor Kleeb and Chancellor Perelman are the bright spots on this backward thinking state. Just give us more time instead of saying GO BIG RED in Nebraska we will chant WE VOTE BLUE!!! Face it liberals are the norm now.
This is a little too deep for "4.0" (surely a socialogy major) to grasp, but I once took a dookie on a Scott Kleeb sign.
Secretary of Commerce, maybe. I just don't see Hagel as SecDef - how is he qualified for that? We don't need another CEO Defense Secretary - like Rummy.
"If only we could live like the citizens of Cuba"
Yeah, lots of Democrats are proposing a socialist takeover of industry. Just look at this quote on Barack Obama's economy page:
"I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery…We are all in this together."
He's obviously a closeted Marxist, how can you stupid Democrats not see that?!
You conservatives are jealous. You have no brain power in your party. All the top journalists, dem politicians, and professors have ivy league credentials. We need to get progessiveism going by turning over the descision making to them. It's that whole "gods and clods" argument. We need the best and brightest to make this work. Look the people want free health care, good housing, quality public transportation, and the rich not running this country. Give us 8 years and we will make the USA a model for the whole world. A progressive paradise!!!
4.0 ---- please stop embarassing us UNL grads with your "backward" thinking and calling it "progressive". IE --- socialism/communism didn't/doesn't work any where is the world ---- never has and never will.
If you think "the people" are running the Dim party --- you are totally wrong. It is not you pea on UNL students or us hardworking stiffs it is the super rich like Geo Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and the millionaire Clintons!!!!
Get your head out of --- where you put your head when you are unwilling to listen to facts.
"socialism/communism didn't/doesn't work any where is the world - never has and never will."
No kidding. However, the Democrats are not proposing anything of the sort.
By the way, you ought to tell that to the GOP - they're all for laissez-faire when it comes to the poor, but they don't seem to have any problem with socialism for the rich (i.e., massive handouts to defense contractors, pharmaceutical companies, oil refiners, managed care organizations; special privileges for hedge funds that wouldn't exist in a true free market; etc.).
to Anon ---- "hedge funds" isn't that where Chelsea gets her paycheck when she is not on the stump???
You must be the only Dem that has such strong feelings on this issue.
Just because I want wealth redistribution and the government running the economy does not mean I'm a communist or a socialist. Progressives want qualified, educated people running the government and to make sure each person has what they need. You republicans keep the poor down. They need help and we progressives will do whats best for them.
To 4.0:
As a Republican and a progressive, I am so bothered by your sniveling.
Why are you heralding the praises of Ivy League schools when you go to UNL (and can't even spell the Chancellor's name correctly)?
Maybe instead of backpacking around Europe for the SECOND summer, you should get a job. Or two. I don't remember a summer when I attended UNL that I didn't work three jobs.
Spend a summer in middle America, in Nebraska, doing back-breaking work and maybe you will understand the beauty of your own country.
A country where if you work really hard you can make a better life for yourself and your children. A country where you can have some respect for yourself by making an honest living and giving back to your community.
A country where a kid from a tough background who enlists in the military and serves honorably can become a true stateman(see Chuck Hagel).
A country where a guy with a small, Midwestern college degree who starts out in public service at the county level can earn the trust of the voters of Nebraska and the President of the United States to serve in the cabinet (see Mike Johanns).
Don't just faff around Europe lamenting the freedoms someone died to provide you and throw around the words like progressive as though your soft life gives you the experience to understand that of which you speak.
Earn your vocab words. Understand your heritage and history. Get a job.
To get a job... I am on a regent's scholarship so I don't have to work. Furthermore, I didn't spend the whole summer backpacking, I spent 4 weeks at Oxford studying comparative politics of the EU and global economic development. I'm glad you worked at Wendy's or whatever fast food place you were at. I have been to Central America several times. I went to Mayan ruins and cancun for spring break. I also went with a church group to Nicaragua to build a school. I met Daniel Ortega then. He is a great man who was villianized by the Reagan administration. Sorry but Johanns and Hagel are dimwits with no vision and little education. Kleeb and Obama have earned their place in society and have the credentials to run thev progressive movement
UNL "4.0"
I'm glad we finally got that squared away:
You're for the Kleeb-Obama-ORTEGA ticket!
Awesome.
Say no more.
I'm pretty sure we all understand now...
4.0 I'm with you. We have two bozos in the Senate and 3 musketeers in the house.
Here's why:
1. Last year with Pelosi's great leadership the House passed HR 800. This billiant legislation took the written secret ballot away from the workers of America when forming a union. We really didn't care about the working grunts we only cared about paying off the UNION BOSSES. All but two Democrats voted for this fine legislation. Then the Senate didn't even take up this critical issue --- if only SCOTT KLEEB would have been there to make things happen.
2. We needed Scott Kleeb again when the two Nebraska Senators didn't even want to go forward after the house passed HR 5351. We had a chance to tax the big oils into submission and yet give a rebate to Hugo Chavez. If we could keep money with Hugo he could keep our military busy so we would not be in IRAQ. Again where was the leadership of Hagel and Nelson.
3. Pelosi has tried to pay off the trial attorneys by playing chicken with FISA ---- who cares about keeping our people and our country safe. We Democrats do owe our souls to trial attorneys - period.
It is unconceivable that the three Nebraska house members would vote for a secret ballot, taking money away from Hugo and keeping our country safe ---- it is just not right. But most of all we need SCOTT to help Nancy Pelosi!!!!!!!!
See this headline:
Former British prime minister Tony Blair is to take up a post teaching at Yale, one of the top educational institutions in the United States, the university said Friday.
When's the last time a republican did that? After 3 terms in the Senate and a stint in the white house Mr. Kleeb will probably teach there. I may go there for law school.
Hagel suggested, with regard to Iraq and terror, that there is more than one way to skin a cat.
The cat skinning process chosen by CinC Bush is to have America stick its head up the cat's butt and keep shaving the feline until it dies of old age.
It looks like we are still skinning the CAT of Bosnia and Kosovo ----- Recall when Clinton said we would be out in 18 months ---- 10 years ago.
That must really make you irrate ANON!!!!!
I have totally missed the uprising on the way Clinton tries to skin cats!!!!
Thanks for being objective.
4.0,
If you won't be ready for law school in the next 20 years, you probably can't get into law school.
AND
If you could get into Yale, then why didn't you go there instead of Nebraska-or is that the evil Republican's fault because they screwed you out of being able to get student loans to go there?
BTW, did anyone see the story this morning about the Pelosi Plan to spend 42 Million dollars to let people know that they will get there vote buying checks from the Dems in May?
I don't have a real problem with the stimulus checks, but I do have a problem with the government, remember the Dems are in charge now, spending my tax money to tell everyone when they'll get there 2008 bonus check and then spending another several (should be close to another $42 mill)million to send the actual checks a month later. Roughly $80 million before a single check even gets cashed? I think I'll use mine to buy one of those $500 hammers that they government bought a few years back!
Way to go Dems!!!
anon,
Why not just tear your check up when it arrives...or better yet, you could contribute your amount to Johanns'campaign.
By the way, it's "their" not "there". How much do you owe in student loans?
C'mon everybody...Isn't it blatantly obvious that 4.0 UNL Student is BTO? You have to humor Ol' Brian...he got confused with all this talk about "change" that he thought when it came time to "change" to CDT he thought he was supposed to set his calendar ahead one month. Now he thinks he should be April fooling us.
If 4.0 believes what he/she is saying...his/her parents would have been served better by feeding the milk to the hogs.
The government already redistributes our wealth with so many taxes and fees...so many that I am left wondering how most of the average wage earners in Nebraska will ever be able to retire.
He/she and his/her pal...the ambiguous Kleeb...need to stay away from the Kool-Aid Machine in the campus cafeteria because "Change" is about all the average Nebraska taxpayer has left to live on. Then again...with UNL not being Ivy League...maybe 4.0 should abandon UNL and consider a career in fertilzer distribution.
Actually I took the LSAT and scored above a 170 so I can pick and choose my school. Secondly I have no debt and UNL has great, progressive professors. Finally I'm not BTO!!! BTO while a Kleeb supporter, supports Kleeb for the wrong reasons. BTO wants and needs the hand outs. I want Scott because we need intellectuals to run our society.
1n3 and 4.0,
What can I say? You're both wrong.
4.0...Do you consider yourself at the same intellectual level of Gov. Eliot Spitzer? He scored a 1590 on his SAT and a perfect score on his LSAT. Went to Harvard. Too bad he lacked common sense...of course I was told once that there are varying degrees of common sense.
BTO...just funning and gunning with my favorite anchor clanker.
Intellectuals should run society? Would that be an intellectual like Drs Goebbles or Marx? And how is Kleeb any different?
Voters are slow but if freedom exists, voters run society and intellectuals don't.
Look out Anon...BTO will raise his Godwin Sceptre and shake it at you. I can't remember if Godwin served in the Senate or House???
Elliot Spitzer is a litigating hack, like Tom White and Steve Lathrop. My attendance at law school is not to shake down businesses and make millions. I want to focus on policy like Mr. Kleeb and be apart of the CHANGE GENERATION. Not the greedy AARP'ers that are bankrupting society.
Hey UNL kid:
I'm not going to defend White and Lathrop and Spitzer (nice how you threw HIM under the bus right away), but at least those guys have held JOBS.
You say Kleeb is focusing on "policy"? And how exactly? By teaching a few history classes a week? Yeah, it's real easy to "focus on policy" by running for office continuously. Beats working for a living.
Get back to us once you and Scott have worked 40 hours a week for a few years in the real world. Playing pretend in school (Big XII or Ivy) doesn't count.
As Obama and Hillary join McCain in damning earmarks, an AP story says, "The poobahs of pork in both parties as well as their Senate leaders suddenly found themselves on the spot after stalwartly defending lawmakers' practice of steering federal dollars to their home states."
No one has more willingly porked taxpayers via earmarks than Ben Nelson. He usually brags about his love of earmarks.
Perhaps this deserves its own discussion.
To: 4.0
Give me/us your definition of a political "PROGRESSIVE".
When I see what FDR "progressively" started and and LBJ "progressively" enhanced, it is difficult to conceive MORE GOVERNEMNT is good. We destroyed generations of "personal pride" by dehumanizing receipants of a monthly check for NOT being a productive member of society.
We have destroyed the FAMILY by telling young girls if they have another child and there is no husband --- they are rewarded with bigger checks.
4.0 --- tell me what government social program has been successful. We know by reading the news daily that SS as most other programs is a dismal failure.
Thanks
To:
One Out In The Third said
I think your hypothesis was closer than you think about the identity of 4.0. You’re off one notch. By her writing style and with the total goo goo love affair exhibited by 4.0 for Kleeb --- there is 93.5% probability 4.0 is "Lisa the prolific B" from GI!!!
Secret code: "B" = Bulldog:):):) not what you were thinking!!!! Only the streetsweeper will know for sure by her IP --- from her previous posts.
There is no need to dig around for identities for personal attacks here on bloggers. It is enough that this blog shows in stark contrast those who know government is the essential enemy of freedom and those who believe that government can and will guide people better than people can. The difference is between freedom and tyranny.
Wasn't this thread about Chuck Hagel getting the nod for Sec. of Defense by Barack H. O.? Not to interfere with your niggling with high schoolers posing as 4.0 college grads, but I think the appointment is apropos.
If the US seemed even slightly inclined to get into a war, Chuck could remind us how we would only be getting into another Viet-Nam quagmire.
The trouble is, Hagel is such a maverick that it wouldn't be long before he strayed off the Obama plantation and started sounding like a jingo hawk.
I agree with Gretchen that SS as most other programs such as Gov. Student Loans are dismal failures.
Time after time many students take out loans semester after semester only to party the semester away on their loan money (easy to do if you drop a class or two...just another semester down the road to obtain more loan money). Then after graduation aren't able to obtain a well qualified job in order to pay back their monthly obligation to the Gov. Now what do these college grads do?..go to Graduate School and start the process all over again. Another 3 to 4 years to party...yeah for them! It's not until they have reached their limit on obtaining loans do they finally decide to become part of the working world...but just how qualified are these graduates after 7 to 8 years of obtaining an education or should I say partying?
Shame on you graduates and even more shame on those of you are poor and disabled! Let's get rid of SS and up the limit on student loan monies available. After all, it is obvious the poor and disabled will never be productive citizens.
Party On.
Sam --- the POINT just flew past you. Am I surprised? NO!!!!!
Before FDR extended the ETERNAL teat society took care of the poor and the infirmed (not pimping them for their vote)!!!!!!!!!!!
California Surfin' Dude,
Speed kills you know!
ch...
I'd knock the probability factor back a notch or two...although LH is like a rogue elephant when SK's character is besmirched.
LH has a busy schedule...If Adrian Smith ever made a sudden stop he wouldn't know what hit him. With her husband recuperating from one of the GI weekly stabbings...she may still be a bit distracted. I'm surprised she didn't hold Adrian responsible for that.
Sorry PTG...I got off track again...How about a State of The Climate update? Have you put your living room tent away for the season yet?
Climate, 1-out? There's no climate in Nebraska, only weather. The tent stays until after the equinox, at which time the propane furnace goes off for the season.
Re-reading the comments reminds me of the time I asked highly decorated Nebraska Viet-Nam veteran Hopalong Bob if it was true that the secret to shooting women and children was not to lead them so much. "Not if you catch 'em sleeping!", he said.
Secretary of Peace and Harmony would be a natural for Bob. He could reach out to the Jihadists, Chicoms, NorKors and Rooskies with his popular "footbridges to friendship".
4.0 UNL Student is a troll. C'mon, folks, nobody is that stupid, not even pre-lawyers. This should have been a big clue:
"Just because I want wealth redistribution and the government running the economy does not mean I'm a communist or a socialist."
HAHAHAHAHA!
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