I agree with Chuck Hagel about next to nothing politically, but he's proving himself again and again to at least have horse sense and a spine.Amongst the current crew of cuckoos thinking of a White House run, Hagel stands head-and-shoulders above the fray (politically I prefer Feingold, but his chances of garnering the Dem nomination are slimmer than Towson University's chances of advancing to the Final Four). Hagel's pretty strongly conservative, but he's not much to the right of HRC or that oily credit card company hack Joe Biden. If the Democrats win the House and Senate (insert canned laughter here), Hagel would perhaps be the sort of President who could stage-manage an exit from Iraq.
I don't know that I could vote for or actively support Hagel--especially given the likelihood that the next President will replace three or four Supreme Court Justices--but if he were running against Hilary in '08 I'd be sorely tempted to pull the R lever for the first time ever.
3 comments:
After a decade of third party/independent idealism, I find myself playing political triangulation with the two major parties and their candidates. Now that the Greens are a sponge for despicable right-wing money there's no choice.
Ugh.
How high up is this guy? How much do you think his views, especially vis a vis middle east would be taken notice of by other republicans?
Seth: There are many Greens I know who are squeaky clean, including my wife who was co-chair of the MD party for two years. But I also know several who are contemptible Stalinist reactionaries, and while they profess nifty progressive ideals would likely round everyone not in their ideological worldview up and put them in camps. I wash my hands of party politics. H.L. Mencken was right about democracy.
Pippa: Hagel's a Senator, and his views on Iraq and the Middle East are extremely rare in the Republican caucus. Of course as the mess in Iraq becomes increasingly unpopular in the electorate, more of his party comrades will begin changing stripes on that particular war. It's highly unlikely, however that anybody will dare suggest we not let Israel do what they wish.
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