Why It’s in Everyone’s Interests that the Hagel Nomination Be Defeated
Once again, though, Hillary Clinton’s 2008 election advertisement test applies: Who do you want to answer the call at three a.m.? We have before us at this moment a perfect example. The attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where four Americans were murdered, was dropped into the lap of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. How many Americans might die when Hagel is given the responsibility for action?
Third, one could point out that the ultimate choices for Benghazi were with Obama. But that’s also a reason for understanding why Hagel shouldn’t be confirmed. A secretary of defense should not just be a “yes-man.” He should represent an independent point of view and also represent his department’s interests.
If the secretary of defense is only a “yes-man” for the White House, that means the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commanders in the field will be left out of decision-making. With Hagel at the helm, the uniformed military will have no spokesman when the top-level priorities and choices are set.
Fourth, the appointment of Hagel is a sign of profound disrespect for America’s soldiers. Here are people who put their lives on the line and expect to be properly led. Their lives should not be jeopardized or sacrificed lightly. By putting in a man clearly incapable of performing the job—who even admits that he cannot do it properly — it is telling them that their government doesn’t care whether they live or die.
And by the same token that selection makes it more likely that more of them will die.
Finally and ironically, Democrats and Obama supporters should oppose this nomination to save the president in spite of himself. Ensuring that he will get poor advice and have an incapable person in such a key position means that Obama will look far worse as his policies fail and crises blow up into defeats. Whether or not Obama likes it, he should have someone there to explain why the president should or shouldn’t do something. It’s for his own good.
And, of course, for America’s good.
After all, it worked for D'oh-bama, pulled from relative obscurity, having his entire life fabricated from whole cloth to appeal to the low-information voter. It's what works in advertising in the US so they simply applied it to politics. One obvious irony is that it was the left that drove truth-in-advertising laws and made everyone put labels on things. Oh, but would that work so well with politics.
WARNING: THIS CANDIDATE CANNOT LOWER THE SEA LEVELS OR CAUSE THE CLIMATE TO COOL. THIS CANDIDATE IS A LIAR AND THEREFORE CANNOT BE TRUSTED. USE... (show more)
After all, it worked for D'oh-bama, pulled from relative obscurity, having his entire life fabricated from whole cloth to appeal to the low-information voter. It's what works in advertising in the US so they simply applied it to politics. One obvious irony is that it was the left that drove truth-in-advertising laws and made everyone put labels on things. Oh, but would that work so well with politics.
WARNING: THIS CANDIDATE CANNOT LOWER THE SEA LEVELS OR CAUSE THE CLIMATE TO COOL. THIS CANDIDATE IS A LIAR AND THEREFORE CANNOT BE TRUSTED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
But still, the low-information voter, wrapped up in feel-think, cannot ascertain the difference between a promise and a lie to get elected/reelected. They imagine a sublime world with unicorns and free food for themselves...not for everyone, mind you..but for themselves.
Utopianism is the ultimate selfish attitude. It's also evidence of brain-damage. Whether they were dropped on their heads as children or through heavy drug-use, they have never been taught to think. Only to feel. That's why they take such offense when someone tells them they are stupid; Because that's something they cannot blame on someone else.
But Hagel as SecDef? Well, McNamara under LBJ was bad enough. But Hagel is also being installed because, again, its <i>destructive</i>
and D'oh-bama knows it, while also affording him the coverage of blaming Hagel when things go wrong. He is kicking himself for missing the opportunity he had for blaming the republicans when Hitlery was SecState....but at least everyone knows that Kerry is a moron. It'll be much easier to throw him under the bus when the next terrorist jihad happens on his watch. But Hagel is being set up to take the blame for the gutting of the military, Chicago-style. (show less)
Chuck Hagel has shown himself to be a man of honor and integrity. He is a patriot who put his life on the line when he could have honorably stayed safe. When he was a deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration he resigned rather than toe the line on the Administrator's lies about psychiatric care and Agent Orange. He has kept his commitments to his constituents when he could have easily gotten out of doing... (show more)
Chuck Hagel has shown himself to be a man of honor and integrity. He is a patriot who put his life on the line when he could have honorably stayed safe. When he was a deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration he resigned rather than toe the line on the Administrator's lies about psychiatric care and Agent Orange. He has kept his commitments to his constituents when he could have easily gotten out of doing so.
Vietnam
When Chuck Hagel completed Advaned Individual Training in the Army in 1967, he was assigned to duty in Germany. Instead of accepting safe duty there, he volunteered for duty ion Vietnam, "because that's where the war was". While serving there he was twice wounded.
The Veterans Administration
At what was then the Veterans Administration, Hagel soon had run-ins with his boss, VA Administrator Robert P. Nimmo, who had described Vietnam veterans as “crybabies” and likened the health effects of the herbicide Agent Orange to “teenage acne.” Nimmo imposed tight budget restrictions limiting psychiatric counseling available at veterans’ centers, yet he spent more than $54,000 to refurbish his office.
Hagel raised concerns with the Reagan administration, but the White House backed Nimmo, according to accounts at the time and interviews with associates. In response, Hagel resigned in June 1982. Later that year, Nimmo resigned in advance of a General Accounting Office report criticizing him for the renovation spending, which violated a presidential directive.
Senator Hagel
When He ran for Senate in 1996 he said he would serve 2 terms and get out, that he believed in term limits. In 2002 he won re-election with 83% if the vote. He kept his promise to serve 2 terms, and left the Senate in 2008.
Chuck Hagel may be out of place in an administration mired in lies and dishonor, but that's the president's problem. He does not deserve to be rejected for the sins of the Administration. (show less)
His admitting that he is incapable of the job seems to show a bit of humility that seems to be lacking today. Overconfidence would seem to me to be a much more disastrous trait for SecDef.
His admitting that he is incapable of the job seems to show a bit of humility that seems to be lacking today. Overconfidence would seem to me to be a much more disastrous trait for SecDef.
You really need to read his Wikipedia entry. He's "been there, done that" in government, academia and the private sector.
You really need to read his Wikipedia entry. He's "been there, done that" in government, academia and the private sector.
real friend we have in that part of the world. Hagel is a known Israel hater. He shuoldn't be allowed anywhere near the Sec Def office, but then his future boss is not any better.
real friend we have in that part of the world. Hagel is a known Israel hater. He shuoldn't be allowed anywhere near the Sec Def office, but then his future boss is not any better.