Posted on 06/09/2005 2:45:01 PM PDT by Jean S
A conservative Republican Vietnam vet who challenges party orthodoxy almost certainly will run for president in 2008. The question at this early stage is whether that person will be Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) or Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) — or whether both of them will run.
If he decides to run, a major obstacle Hagel will have to overcome is the outsized political presence of his friend McCain, someone whom he has some shared war experiences with and who has an adjoining office in the Russell Building.
“We’re a long way from that decision,” Hagel said when asked whether he might run for president. “John McCain is a very dear friend of mine and one of the most effective senators in the United States Senate. … What he’s gonna do, I don’t know. … What I’m gonna do, I don’t know.”
“I don’t know if he’s running, and I don’t know if I’m running,” McCain said when asked about Hagel. “No matter what, we’re going to remain very close friends.”
A host of Republicans will be competing for the affection of social conservatives and party loyalists, with Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), George Allen (R-Va.), Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) courting dominant base voters. But it is unclear how the field will shake out if there is more than one “maverick” in the race.
“If Senator McCain runs, Hagel comes out of sort of that same niche,” said professor Randall Adkins, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska who studies the presidential nominating process.
Yet Hagel is well-positioned to make a strong impression on GOP primary voters, drawing on his considerable television experience, easygoing demeanor and respected foreign-policy portfolio.
In what could be a key advantage, he is well-known in the western half of the early primary state of Iowa, where people read the Omaha World-Herald and watch Nebraska TV stations — even if many of them root against the Cornhuskers.
“Except for the Big Red football team, he’d be a very popular candidate in Iowa,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
McCain didn’t compete in Iowa in the 2000 primaries.
Although Hagel doesn’t come from a big state that might be a better political platform, he could emphasize his political independence in an effort to win New Hampshire, a state he has visited that McCain won.
“The same thing that happened to McCain in 2000, if McCain doesn’t run in 2008, could happen to Hagel,” Adkins said.
Asked whether he had sufficient backing from social conservatives to win in states such as Iowa, Hagel replied, “I’m not worried about that. If I decide that I want to pursue the Republican nomination, then I’ll worry about it. Right now, I’m not thinking about that.”
“Whatever you do in life, you have a record,” he continued. “That record will be examined, whether I run for reelection [to the Senate in 2008] or whether I run for president.”
When McCain led negotiations on a compromise to get votes on some filibustered judicial nominees, but not others, while holding off the “nuclear option” to end the Democratic filibuster, Hagel was not one of the group of 14 Republicans and Democrats who joined in the deal. Social conservative groups criticized McCain for his efforts, and an Iowa group wrote several senators, including Hagel, urging them not to support the deal.
“I don’t think it’s fair or the right thing that 14 members of the Senate dictate who gets up-or-down votes for nominees,” Hagel said. “It could be a dangerous precedent that you could have these kind of rump groups work on their own and dictate to 86 other members of the United States Senate what the agenda is going to be.”
Although he voted for the resolution authorizing the war in Iraq, Hagel was among the first senators to criticize troop levels and preparation for the reconstruction as inadequate — a view he still holds.
“I was probably the first United States senator warning about this before we went into Iraq, asking those questions,” said Hagel, who earned two Purple Hearts serving in Vietnam, a war that colors his views. “I’m not surprised by the difficulties we’re having. I don’t think the administration was prepared. They hadn’t planned. They underestimated the complexity and difficulty right from the beginning.”
During last year’s presidential debates, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) quoted a statement by Hagel that the planning for reconstruction had been “beyond pitiful” and “beyond embarrassing.”
But while he has been willing to deliver what he considers tough medicine to the administration on defense and foreign-policy issues, Hagel has not been a gadfly. He indicated that he held doubts about John Bolton’s nomination to the United Nations and was one of three senators to urge a delay in his confirmation hearing. But on the floor, he voted to cut off debate to get a vote on Bolton’s nomination.
Hagel rejected a suggestion that he held back some of his doubts about Bolton until after Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) raised them at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing — surprising party leaders who had been expecting unified GOP support in committee.
“I raised my doubts right from the beginning,” Hagel said. “I for a long time didn’t say how I was going to vote on Bolton. … I was way out front on this being undecided.”
Hagel voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and opposed McCain’s campaign-finance reforms. He opposed a Medicare-reform bill and a new prescription-drug benefit, which many conservatives thought would be too costly. A self-made millionaire, he has pushed for expanded international trade.
Hagel has parted ways with the administration often enough to draw attention — but usually not in a way that inspires the same animosity that some establishment Republicans feel toward McCain. He voted against the 2002 farm bill and the president’s No Child Left Behind education legislation.
He won some kudos and good press for proposing his own Social Security plan, although President Bush’s effort on the topic has been stalled. “I think it takes a certain amount of substance and integrity to develop a bill that deals with a politically serious issue like Social Security,” said Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), who also put forward a bill.
At 59, Hagel is young enough to run for president even if he passes on 2008. McCain is 69 and would be older than Ronald Reagan was when he took office if he captured the presidency. Bush considered Hagel for the vice-presidential job in 2000.
As the campaign season heats up, pollsters, consultants and donors will have to pick sides, potentially putting a strain on the McCain-Hagel relationship. But for now, each man offers high praise for the other.
“John McCain is a highly regarded, very popular national leader,” Hagel said. “If John McCain wants to seek the presidency and the Republican nomination, then he is going to.”
“I know that he’s highly respected,” McCain said of Hagel.
Hagel has one little problem
He is the only member of the United States Senate (now that Fritz is gone) who has publically expressed his belief that the draft should be reinstated.
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) France
"I know that he's highly respected," McCain said of Hagel.
"A conservative Republican Vietnam vet . . . "
Senator Hagel?
I had to get out my Funk & Wagnels.
conservative: a. an adherent or advocate of political conservatism.
Well, that's tautology.
b. cap: one who adheres to traditional methods or views.
Arguable, but give them the benefit of the doubt.
c. a member of or supporter of a conservative political party.
Two outta three ain't bad!
Two unelectable RINOs.
I'd NEVER vote for McCain. Nor Hagel neither. Perhaps McCain should run with Hillary...
The G.O.P. had better come up with something better than what I've seen so far.
I like George Allen or Rudy. Rudy may be too liberal for many here but he's loyal to Bush and agrees with me on the issues I must care about, taxes, crime, and the War on Terror.
conservative? Perhaps you could make an argument about Hagel, but certainly not McCain.
I do. You aren't winning. I sure wouldn't vote for either of you liberals.
Rudy is a gun-grabbing, homosexual agenda-pushing abortionist. It's not suprising New Jersey is a red state. The republicans in that state are more liberal than most Southern democrats. If Rudy gets the GOP nomination the dems will win a landslide.
I think Rudy has a great chance in a general election. He's pro choice, which does not equate to abortionist. He will probably modify that to be against partial birth and for parental notification. Precisely where most people are, somewhere between Randall Terry and Patricia Ireland.
As for guns, it's hard for a North-easterner to win anything with a pro 2nd amendment position. I was a gun grabber myself until I moved to the south and even entertained another viewpoint. Now I am an NRA member. Rudy will get there.
Homosexual agenda??? He will come out for civil unions and against homosexual marriage. Watch.
Actually, to me and most people the issues that really matter are taxes, crime, judges, and the War on Terror. Rudy is with us. And he can win.
" Actually, to me and most people the issues that really matter are taxes, crime, judges, and the War on Terror. Rudy is with us. And he can win."
Didn't Rudy raise taxes in New York city? What's a pack of smokes go for up there....like $8.00 or something? Rudy's idea of getting tuff on crime is banning guns. That faggot-loving yankee should run with Hillary.
No, that was Bloomberg. Rudy is 100% anti tax. And Rudy is very tough on crime. Pay attention. Call him "faggot loving" if you want but that other stuff is completely BS.
So you're saying that taxes on smokes weren't raised while he was mayor? You sure on that point?
To this Republican Jew, Catholic Rudy is one of my heroes. He has principles and is not cowed by PC thinking. I have loved him for a long time. Despite his social liberalism, I have no doubt he would have voted for ALL Bush judges if he was a Senator. As I would. One can be moderately pro choice and understand the benefit of conservative judges that follow law rather then make new law. Rudy would appoint people like Pickering and Brown, not a Ginsberg.
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