Posted on 07/04/2005 9:04:08 AM PDT by ovrtaxt
GOP's Sen. Chuck Hagel: 'We're a Bunch of Democrats'
Thanks to GOP-backed spending policies, Republicans have transformed themselves into the Party across the aisle, an often dissident Republican senator says. "In terms of the deficit, we have blown the top right off," charged Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb). "We're a bunch of Democrats." In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times, he responded to Deborah Solomon's remark that she had never heard anyone call President Bush a Democrat. Hagel said "That's my point. We're less honest about it. We built the biggest government history has ever seen under a Republican government. The Democrats are better because they are honest about it. They don't pretend. I admire that. They'll say: "We want more money. We need more money."
Hagel added that he wants to take the GOP "back to the party of Eisenhower, Goldwater and Reagan. It was a pretty simple party in those days. It was all about limited government, fiscal responsibility, strong national defense and pro-trade foreign policy."
Hagel also didn't spare his artillery against the administration's Iraq war policies, stating that "If someone says I am a disloyal Republican because I am not supporting my party, let them say it. War is bigger than politics."
Citing his service in Vietnam, where he was twice wounded and lost some of his ability to hear, he recalled that "Congress was absent during the Vietnam War, and they didn't ask the tough questions, and consequently we lost 58,000 Americans and lost a war and humiliated this nation. It took a generation to get over it. As long as I am here as a U.S. senator, I am going to do whatever I can to make sure that isn't going to happen."
The Nebraska Republican complained that the U.S. doesn't "have enough troops. But I don't think the answer to increasing manpower is to pursue some of the things the Pentagon is doing, such as doubling and tripling bonuses for those in the military. Kids do not serve their country because they are in it to make money."
He danced around the question of whether he will run for President in 2008. "I haven't said I am running," he told Solomon. Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Monday, July 4, 2005 10:48 a.m. EDT
Senator Hagel: You're the Democrat!
This guy is starting to come across as a kook.
-George Washington
Hagel is running for he Presidency.
This statement is for position.
Not just a kook, a naive kook.
Well, at least he's right about that part.
Just what is it that he said you disagree with?
In the last few months, he has staked out a pretty vocal, obstructionist position on the Iraq war. He's supported UN involvement in global warming activity, and torpedoed the Michael Bolton nomination. He's making soft, squishy sounds about Gitmo and the current Iran government.
You know, it's a lot more fun to watch the '08 Democratic hopefuls pull this kind of thing than it is to watch our own do it.
Good grief!
He's saying some things I've believed for a long time. Republicans have lost their way in domestic policy. I don't agree with his opposition to the war but it's good to hear a Republican admit they've become more like Clinton Democrats than Reagan Republicans.
Does the combined IQ of Hagel and Biden even hit triple digit?
That's true enough.
It's all well and good to say that-- what's his voting record?
Maybe in binary.
What part of what he said isn't true?!?!? Like it or not, Bush has been a fiscal disaster, a big government man (despite all his talk) a part-time free trader (only when free trade benefits the U.S.) and a most of the time protectionist in the pocket of the U.S. steel and timber industries.
Bush is nowhere near what Reagan was. He has disappointed me to no end.
You make a good point, but Hagle himself has voted for a lot of that overspending. He's not a messenger of moderation; he's a sleazy triangulator.
Ping. You were just raising these very same points. Thought you might wish to join in on this thread.
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