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On the eve of a Senate vote to confirm Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, a 2009 report co-authored by Hagel has surfaced titled “A Last Chance For A Two-State Israel-Palestine Agreement.” It called for Israel to make “the hard compromises and painful concessions for peace” without asking anything comparable from the Palestinian side. Indeed, the report warned against “the Jewish-American and Christian Zionist groups that feel comfortable amplifying the positions of Israeli politicians hostile to hard compromise and painful concession.” One of Hagel’s principal co-signatories on the report was Zbigniew Brzezinski, who had advised Obama on foreign policy during...

As press secretary to President Obama, Robert Gibbs was often in the obfuscation business. Now that he's been freed from that role and become a news analyst—albeit at MSNBC—Gibbs has become considerably more candid. Readers will recall, for example, that he described Chuck Hagel as "unimpressive and unprepared" at his Senate confirmation hearing. Today, Gibbs took that frankness a significant step further. On Up With Chris Hayes, Gibbs stated that as press secretary, he had been ordered not to acknowledge the existence of the drone program. View the video here.

MAHER: Based on every statement I’ve heard out of any Republican in the last two years, the Israelis are controlling our government. (Daily Caller’s James) WEINSTEIN: Not the State Department, that’s for sure. (HBO’s Real Time, February 15, 2013) …

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel declined to sign a letter circulated by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2007 calling upon then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to press Arab allies of the U.S. to recognize Israel’s right to exist “and not use such recognition as a bargaining chip for future Israeli concessions.” Seventy-nine Senators eventually signed the letter, which was sponsored by Schumer and by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Chuck Hagel’s archive is housed here at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. But despite his nomination for secretary of defense, reporters, as well as the public writ large, are being denied access to the thousands of papers, speeches, audio and video files, and artifacts in the archive ... university officials yesterday indicated that if Hagel himself were to grant this reporter access to the archives, his request would be granted.

A brand new conservative group calling itself Americans for a Strong Defense and financed by anonymous donors is running advertisements urging Democratic senators in five states to vote against Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee to be secretary of defense, saying he would make the United States “a weaker country.” Another freshly minted and anonymously backed organization, Use Your Mandate, which presents itself as a liberal gay rights group but purchases its television time through a prominent Republican firm, is attacking Mr. Hagel as “anti-Gay,” “anti-woman” and “anti-Israel” in ads and mailers. Those groups are joining at least five others that...

If nothing else, the congressional break for the week of Presidents’ Day is a cooling-off period for the fight over former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of defense. Questions about President Obama’s handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including the US ambassador – an issue, by the way, which Mr. Hagel had nothing to do with – are being answered to the apparent satisfaction of Republicans … at least to the point where they’re willing to end their de facto filibuster of Hagel’s nomination. snip Sen. Graham, along with Sen. John McCain,...

WHEN a Vesuvius like John McCain tells you that you belch too much smoke and spew too much fire, you know you’ve got a problem. And Ted Cruz, a Republican freshman in the Senate who has been front and center in his party’s effort to squash Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense, has a problem. He’s an ornery, swaggering piece of work. Just six weeks since his arrival on Capitol Hill, he’s already known for his naysaying, his nit-picking and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him, who have sacrificed more than he has and...

From a "live chat" Obama had yesterday afternoon. He corrected himself to say "Purple Hearts." Simply a slip of the tongue or yet another evidence of profound and invincible ignorance?

Chuck Hagel's nomination to be secretary of defense is in trouble -- as it should be. The former Republican senator has so much baggage it is amazing that the administration hasn't dumped him, as they did Susan Rice when her proposed nomination ran into trouble. Unfortunately, having won that battle, the GOP may be in weaker position to defeat another Obama nominee. And Rice, her misstatements about the attack on Benghazi notwithstanding, would have been a less dangerous cabinet member than Hagel. Hagel has made clearly anti-Semitic statements before public forums time and again. If his target had been, say,...

Sen. Ted Cruz lost his voice a couple days ago. Some senators probably wish it wouldn’t come back — at least for a little while. In six short weeks since he became the junior Texas GOP senator, the no-nonsense freshman has quickly become a lightning rod — on issues ranging from guns to Chuck Hagel’s nomination for defense secretary — upending the Senate’s conventional ways, in which freshmen typically work quietly to build bridges with their colleagues. Cruz’s sharp-elbowed Senate style underscores the dilemma facing Republicans as they seek a way out of the political wilderness: Rising stars like Cruz,...

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s vote to temporarily block Chuck Hagel’s nomination for secretary of defense elicited blowback from an unlikely source: antiwar conservatives and libertarians, many of them supporters of his father’s GOP presidential campaign. Paul, the son of former Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, joined all but four Republican senators Thursday in voting against a motion to end debate over Hagel’s nomination. GOP leaders are saying that they will not filibuster Hagel indefinitely, but instead want to delay a vote until they have more information about his speeches and finances. “That is also why I voted to not...

Two U.S. senators have written a letter to Chuck Hagel to ask the defense secretary nominee to explain his assertion that "the State Department was becoming an adjunct of the Israeli Foreign Ministry." Hagel, the Washington Free Beacon reported yesterday, made the comment in 2007. "Dear Senator Hagel," Senators Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte write. "Yesterday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that in a 2007 speech at Rutgers University regarding America's relationship with the Middle East you remarked that 'the State Department was becoming an adjunct of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.' According to notes posted on the internet by a...

<p>Obama — ticked off by Rice’s treatment and still emboldened by his convincing victory over Mitt Romney — courted confrontation when he tapped Hagel.</p> <p>If true, this is outlandish. The president would imperil national security out of spite? .........</p>

Andrea Mitchell/Barack Obama: same struggle! In an stunningly blatant display of solidarity with the Obama line, Andrea Mitchell declared on today's Morning Joe that she shared the same "concern" with the White House: that poor Chuck Hagel wouldn't get a final vote on his nomination. Mitchell prefaced her "concern" by roundly condemning Republicans in general--and Senator Ted Cruz in particular--for supposedly attacking Hagel with allegations "completely unsupported by fact." Could somebody please tell me why Mitchell, supposedly a reporter, should so shamelessly be toting the White House's water this way? View the video here.

An attempt by Senate Democrats to push through their controversial nominee for defense secretary, former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., failed today on a 58-40 vote as Republicans said they haven’t been given answers to their questions. Among his opponents are 14 retired U.S. admirals and generals, including high-profile names such as Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin and Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely. Hagel has endorsed subjecting the U.S. to the U.N.’s International Criminal Court, and he’s sat on the board of numerous globalist groups promoting U.S. funding for the Third World.

Senate Republicans blocked a vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense on Thursday, launching an unprecedented filibuster and a severe rebuke to the White House. Falling one vote shy of the 60 needed to move forward on the nomination, the Hagel filibuster brought stark condemnations from President Obama and Senate Democrats for its precedent-setting nature -- the first time a defense secretary nominee had been filibustered. The setback came during what many believe is a critical period for the Pentagon as it winds down troops from Afghanistan and implements costly budget cuts. It was also a hard slap...

The Senate is embroiled in another dog fight this week. For the first time in American history, it appears we will have a filibuster of a Presidential nominee for Secretary of Defense. The full Senate is expected to vote on the nomination of Chuck Hagel this Friday. Democrats are claiming to have enough votes to confirm Hagel, but Republicans are planning to block the vote with a filibuster. The filibuster is being led by Republican Senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma and is supported by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina along with other Republican senators. Republicans have raised serious...

The reviews are in for Chuck Hagel’s appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee. If he were a Broadway play, as opposed to a mere nominee for Defense Secretary, Hagel would close after one performance. The Obama administration was not amused. White House officials told CBS’ Major Garrett that they were disappointed with Hagel’s performance. Indeed, one Obama staffer described Hagel’s testimony on Iran as “somewhere between baffling and incomprehensible.”

On September 11, 2012 four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens were murdered in Benghazi, Libya. Five months have passed since that fateful day and we still do not have an accounting for Obama's whereabouts during the seven hour firefight in Benghazi. What we do know however, is that Obama failed in his duty to come to the aid of incredibly brave Americans in distress. We know now that not only did Obama not call an in-person emergency meeting in the Situation Room (hence no 'Situation Room photo' during Benghazi) or ANY room, his re-election was more important to him than...