Posted on 05/22/2004 4:57:58 PM PDT by areafiftyone
Battered by the bad news out of Iraq, President George W. Bush decided it was time to stiffen the spines of some anxious Republicans on Capitol Hill last week. So he went to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and held an hourlong pep rally in a basement conference room at the Capitol. Many of the 200 House and Senate Republicans in attendance emerged to say they were reassured. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander called it "choir practice." But not for Chuck Hagel.
The 57-year-old Republican senator from Nebraska said the appearance by the president left more than a little to be desired. Bush "talked for an hour and did not take a single question," says Hagel. "He didn't listen, and I think this president needs to listen more. If he had taken questions he would have heard some things that might have been helpful."
The comments were vintage Hagel--calmly stated but brutally frank and increasingly troubling to an unsteady White House. Fellow Vietnam War veteran John McCain has long been the chief maverick among Senate Republicans, but it is Hagel, with his lower profile and sober demeanor, who may now be emerging as a more potent symbol of the angst that congressional Republicans are feeling over the direction of the war in Iraq--and its political consequences.
There's little doubt that Hagel has earned the right to speak up. A child of the Sand Hills of western Nebraska, he was working as a radio disc jockey when--along with his younger brother Tom--he volunteered for service in Vietnam. The brothers ended up in the same Army unit, and in March 1968, their armored personnel carrier rolled over a mine and went up in flames. Hagel, his face and chest on fire, dragged what he thought was his brother's lifeless body from the vehicle. Both survived, however, and spent months recovering in hospital beds next to each other. Chuck Hagel later became a successful businessman and moved into GOP politics.
"He is one of the few people [here] who actually fought in a war. I listen to him differently because of that," says Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee. Hagel also speaks from a powerful perch as the second-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There have been 19 Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Iraq in 17 months, and Hagel has used that platform to tell the president that, had he heeded some different voices before the invasion of Iraq, he would not be in the current mess.
Hagel, who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, says that Bush "may be more isolated than any president in recent memory" and therefore susceptible to faulty advice. Much of that advice, Hagel says, has come from Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and former Pentagon official Richard Perle. But the problem, in Hagel's view, was compounded by the president's lack of foreign-policy experience.
"I think you've got a president who is not schooled, educated, experienced in foreign policy in any way, versus his father," Hagel says. "I think he was philosophically, intellectually more in tune with the neoconservatives'approach to 'let's go get them, and we'll worry about it later.' "
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Hagel seems to have crossed lines with the DNC's talking points FAX machine.
He must be hanging out with Vampira(Pelosi)
Just what IS Chuck Hagel's problem??? I am so sick of these whining, demanding, pathetic republican windbags. His story is not nearly as important as he thinks it is. Just a sad spectacle.
Oh, God! What a ghastly, yet accurate, image. I'll have bad dreams all night!
Ha ha ha. Like what? These Republican congressmen are running the most powerful legislative body in the world. They can call a press conference and speak to the media and get out their advice every day of the week. Can anyone recall any words of wisdom lately coming from any of these Republican congressmen that President Bush needs to listen and take notes about in order to conduct the war on terror? the problem is these congressmen have no balls. Instead of sniping about the leader behind his back they should grow a pair and do their job which is reduce taxes, cut spending and slap the dems around.
I turn the channel or hit the mute button when Hagel is on.
He's a legend in his own mind and a joke in mine.
Since McCain has said "definetly not", maybe Chuckie is bucking to be Kerry's running mate. Hmmmmmmm.
You know you are "over" as a Republican when the likes of Lincoln Chafee start singing your praises.....Hagel has crossed over to the dark side.
I have no doubt that if you were to put a Cross to her face she would hiss, and violently turn away.
The only way a Republican can get noticed by the media today is to bash President Bush.
I do the same...saves on the need for Pepcid .
Yep. Hagel has followed McCain and has become another Monica for Russert and Co. in the liberal media.
If anyone talked about me the way that Hagel talks about the President, he would be the last person I would turn to for advise. What a fool. As for this military experience crap, our most successful war president was a man who had only a few months experience as a militia man.
I think helen thomas runs a Rhino senate class on the side. Just like her, Hagel attacks Bush relentlessly then gets his panties in a bunch when Bush ignores him. He really does need to STFU and do his job as a Nebraska Senator and let President Bush do HIS job.
I am living in Nebraska and I even voted for Hagel.......and he has emerged as a McCain wannabe. This guy has bigger things in mind for himself and has no understanding that real republicans do the right thing..........especially in war time.
Don't you know? Republicans have a problem from the moment they become Republicans: they eat their own. They don't know how to do battle with the opposition (dems), but they most certainly know how to destroy their own and they have become quite good at it.
Think I'm kidding? They let the dems drive out Trent Lott as Senate leader and now, under the inept leadership of Bill Frist, they could not stop the filibustering of dems against judicial nominations so Bush has to cut a deal with them to get a few lower level judges appointed.
There's nothing wrong with the Republican party that a pair of cojones wouldn't cure!
Calm down...think Clinton (Bill)...an have wet dreams all night long!
I know. I know. I just keep waiting for them to see the light. The only light they see is the little red light on the cameras.
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