Hagel Confirmation Hearing: The Mother of All Bombs
When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped before two congressional committees on Benghazi this month, she was ready for every question fielded at her and, save for the infamous “what does it matter” moment, didn’t crumple under the pressure.
Today, President Obama was likely wishing some of that preparedness would have rubbed off on his Defense secretary nominee.
Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearing before his former Senate colleagues was, in a nutshell, a minefield despite the simple, predictable questions lobbed his way. In short, he appeared exceptionally uncomfortable and unsure for a man who would command the most powerful military on Earth.
In an hours-long hearing before the Senate Armed Service Committee today, Hagel was consistently on the defensive, especially under questioning from Senate hawks John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
McCain and Hagel were once friends serving together in the upper chamber, but the Vietnam veterans divided over the path forward in Iraq and there were no signs today that rift has healed — especially since Obama tapped Hagel to replace retiring Secretary Leon Panetta at the Pentagon.
Hagel’s Democratic supporters on the committee — or, more accurately, supporters of the will of Obama — tried to publicly show a benefit of the doubt to the nominee.
“Senator Hagel’s reassurance to me and my office that he supports the Obama administration’s strong stance against Iran is significant,” said Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). “…But as we struggle with the difficult security challenges facing our nation, the president needs to have a secretary of defense in whom he has trust, who will give him unvarnished advice, a person of integrity, and one who has a personal understanding of the consequences of decisions relative to the use of military force.”
The ranking member on the committee, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), let it be known quickly he doesn’t believe Hagel is that person.
“As I told Senator Hagel in my office some time ago, two weeks — over two weeks ago, I guess it was, that after a long and careful review of his record and the things that he has said and the things that I have personally experienced with him, that we’re too philosophically opposed on the pressing issues facing our country, and for me to support his nomination,” Inhofe said in his opening statement. “…Too often, it seems, he’s willing to subscribe to a world-wide view that is predicated on appeasing our adversaries while shunning our friends.”
“Though I respect Senator Hagel, his record to date demonstrates that he would be a staunch advocate for the continuation of the misguided policies of the president’s first term,” the Oklahoma senator continued. “Retreating from America’s unique global leadership role and shrinking the military will not make America safer. On the contrary, it will embolden our enemies, endanger our allies, and provide opportunity for nations that do not share our interest to fill a global leadership vacuum we leave behind. It is for these reasons that I believe that he’s the wrong person to lead the Pentagon at this perilous and consequential time.”
Hagel had former Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who served for 24 years on the committee, and John Warner (R-Va.), who served for 30 years, at the witness table to promote his nomination. Former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) also showed up in the audience to support Hagel.
Nunn said a Defense secretary must be “someone who’s well informed, has an open mind, engages in critical thinking, who is capable of and who seeks out independent thought,” and “someone who sets aside fixed ideologies and biases to honestly evaluate all options and then provides his or her candid judgment to the president and to the Congress.”
“Chuck Hagel comes as close as anyone I know to having all of these qualities,” he said.
Inhofe asked Hagel why he believes the Iranian Foreign Ministry so strongly supports his nomination.
“I have a difficult enough time with American politics, Senator,” Hagel responded. “I have no idea.”
And he had an even harder time keeping up with McCain.
“Members of this committee will raise questions reflecting concerns with your policy positions. They’re not reasonable people disagreeing. They’re fundamental disagreements,” McCain said, launching into a series of statements Hagel made about the Iraq surge, including calling it “the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.”
“I stand by them because I made them,” Hagel said of his history of remarks.
“Were you right? Were you correct in your assessment?” McCain asked.
“I would defer to the judgment of history to sort that out,” Hagel responded, admitting under further grilling that “the surge assisted in the objective.”
When McCain persisted about whether he was right or wrong on the surge, Hagel said, “Well, I’m not going to give you a yes or no answer.”
“I think history has already made a judgment about the surge, sir, and you’re on the wrong side of it. And your refusal to answer whether you were right or wrong about it is going to have an impact on my judgment as to whether to vote for your confirmation or not,” McCain said. “I hope you will reconsider the fact that you refused to answer a fundamental question about an issue that took the lives of thousands of young Americans.”
On Syria, Hagel said the Obama administration is “very engaged” in trying to stop the bloodshed.
When McCain asked how many more Syrian civilians would have to die before he would support a no-fly zone, Hagel said, “Well, I don’t think anyone questions the terrible tragedy that is occurring there every day. It’s a matter of how best do we work our way through this so that we can stop it to begin with.”
“Did you disagree with President Obama on his decision for the surge in Afghanistan?” McCain continued.
“I didn’t think that we should get ourselves into — first of all, I had no original position as far as no formal position,” he said, before McCain confronted him with his own 2011 quote stating his position as opposite of Obama’s.
“That was my personal opinion, yes,” Hagel admitted.
Democrats gave the nominee breathers by encouraging him to expound upon his service in Vietnam and frame his support for Global Zero in terms that didn’t make it sound like America’s nuclear arsenal would be zeroed. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he would have liked to serve with party-bucker Hagel because “sometimes I feel very lonely.”
But even Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), retiring before he faces a possible primary challenge, piled on Hagel, quizzing him about voting against designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.
“We have never made any part of a legitimate independent government, designated them or made part — made — made them part of a terrorist organization. We’ve just never done that,” Hagel said. “…We were already in two wars at the time and I thought that this made sense, and so I voted against it.”
At one point, the nominee said he was just “handed a note that I misspoke and said I supported the president’s position on containment. If I said that, I meant to say that obviously his position on containment — we don’t have a position on containment.”
“Just to make sure your correction is clear, we do have a position on containment, which is that we do not favor containment,” the Democratic chairman, Levin, corrected him.
“We — we do not favor containment. That’s the president’s position, and that’s my position,” Hagel stammered.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) went after Hagel over the comments he made about the “Jewish lobby” in America. “So when you talked about the Jewish lobby, were you talking about AIPAC? Were you talking about NORPAC? Were you talking about Christians United for Israel?” Wicker asked. “And do you still believe that their success in this town is because of intimidation and that they are, as you stated, ‘urging upon our government that we do dumb things’?”
“I’ve already said I regret referencing the Jewish lobby. I should have said ‘pro-Israel lobby.’ I think it’s the only time on the record that I’ve ever said that,” Hagel responded. “…On the use of intimidation, I should have used ‘influence,’ I think would have been more appropriate. …I — I should not have said ‘dumb” or stupid,’ because I understand, appreciate there are different views on these things.”
As if a coordinated strike, Graham was the next to hammer the point with Hagel — yet disassembling him like the trial lawyer he is, first asking how much we spend on defense.
And the nominee to be the next Defense secretary couldn’t answer for sure, but gave a guesstimate of 5 percent.
“Is that historically high or low?” Graham asked.
“Well, I think, generally, it depends on real dollars and wars…”
“Are we at war?”
Hagel acknowledged that the Afghanistan conflict is still ongoing.
“You said the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” Graham continued. “…Name one person in your opinion who’s intimidated by the Israeli lobby in United States Senate.”
“I do not know,” Hagel said.
“Well, why would you say it?”
“I didn’t have in mind a specific person,” Hagel admitted.
“But you said, back then, it makes us do dumb things,” Graham said. “You can’t name one senator intimidated, now give me one example of the dumb things that we’re pressured to do up here.”
“We were talking in that interview about the Middle East, about positions, about Israel…”
“So give me an example of where we have been intimidated by the Israeli-Jewish lobby to do something dumb regarding the Middle East, Israel, or anywhere else.”
“I cannot give you an example,” Hagel said.
Hagel claimed he refused to sign a letter encouraging the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization “because I have generally had a policy, during my time in the Senate, that I didn’t think it was the right approach for the Congress of the United States to be sending leaders any instructions or any documents versus letting our president do that.”
“Do you believe that the sum total of all of your votes, refusing to sign a letter to the EU asking Hezbollah to be designated a terrorist organization; being one of 22 [on the] vote to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization; being one of two on two occasions to vote against sanctions that this body was trying to impose on Iran; the statements you’ve made about Palestinians and about the Jewish lobby — all that together, that the image you’ve created is one of sending the worst possible signal to our enemies and friends at one of the most critical times in world history?” Graham asked.
Hagel disagreed, but hedged when grilled about whether he’d reconsider those votes if he had the opportunity to do so again.
Then he said he simply didn’t recall a congressional letter siding against PLO leader Yasser Arafat in the Intifada, though he was one of just four senators who refused to sign.
“Well, all I can say, it was a very big deal at a very important time. And the lack of signature by you runs chills up my spine because I can’t imagine not signing a letter like that at a time when it really mattered,” Graham said. “And we will continue this conversation.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) noted that he wasn’t in the upper chamber when the letter was circulated.
“I would have signed it, but I would certainly join in urging that you reconsider and commit to the statement of support in the letter for the state of Israel. And if it’s appropriate now and applicable to today’s events, I hope you will consider expressing your support for it,” the Democrat chided Hagel.
“You know, I noted in your opening statement that no single quote and no single vote define you in the entirety,” Blumenthal continued. “And, perhaps not as a whole, but votes and quotes do matter. And I think that the questions about what you’ve said and what you’ve done in the past are entirely appropriate and I think also reconsidering, or your views evolving, is also appropriate.”
Just by the makeup of the committee, Hagel likely has enough votes to make it to the Senate floor. There, he might face a filibuster — which has been threatened by Graham if Panetta leaves without first answering questions about Benghazi.
Over in the House Armed Services Committee, Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said he was open to Hagel before the hearing, but early this evening asked Obama “to submit a viable nominee as soon as possible.”
“It pains me to reach this conclusion, given Senator Hagel’s service in the armed forces and in the Senate; but at this vital time when our national security hangs in the balance, it is my opinion that Senator Hagel is unfit for the job of Secretary of Defense,” McKeon said. “When it comes to the safety of this nation, the security of our troops, and the well-being of the American people, we can and must do better.”
Over in the White House briefing room today, spokesman Jay Carney, who said Obama wasn’t watching the hearings, was being grilled about Hagel’s comment that the government of Iran was elected and legitimate.
“Look, it’s the government that we deal with, and it is the government that continues to flout its international obligations, and that behavior is illegitimate,” Carney snapped after being pressed for a yes-or-no answer.
Manchin cannot wait to vote for this guy, how scary is that, he apologized for the tone of the hearing while blowing kisses to Hagel, he cannot take his blinders off to see how dangerous the world is and how wrong this man is for the job…toss in Gen. Dempsey, social engineering in the military, cuts and a focus on biofuels and not military readiness…wow, just wow.
Hagel was a total embarrassment in his hearings today in the Senate. He obviously does not have what it takes to be Secretary of Defense and should be voted down.
They say that the pentagon is where generals go to cry….This man is woefully ignorant and week. I don’t think he has the stones to make a 2 year old cry.
Pentagon’s Hand Behind French Intervention in Mali F. William Engdahl Posted on: January 21, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qDjKdZKRiI&feature=player_embedded
If Hagel had any honor, he’d withdraw. Utterly incompetent and venal.
Nobody who Obama has appointed, or would consider appointing, to any position, is honorable. That’s one of the litmus tests. Didn’t you get the memo?
Just for starters, look at Hillary.
That’s just the beginning Indy. Now Obama is about to give up more of our nukes in favor of Russia doing what? Nothing. He’s even considering re-directing our missles aimed in Russia’s direction, to draw Putin into nuclear disarmament talks. Putin is playing Obama for a fool and loving it. Obama will give up way more than he gets in these negotiations, in an attempt to level the playing field so that we are no stronger than any of our adversaries. He will do it so he can talky talk with them. As usual, all style and no substance.
After the election, I’ll have more flexibility…I’ll transmit this to Vladimir.
Putin must be giggling himself to sleep.
Pray for our troops and their families.
Trevor Loudon was the first person I came across who raised immediate concerns on Hagel (Panetta too, and of course POTUS) he warned Americans prior to the election it was the goal of O to dismantle our military. Loudon understands progressives and he does his homework, Hagel is bad news + he is incompetent.
Russia is not our enemy. Owing to the way we have treated them since the breakup of the USSR, they stopped trusting the US. As soon as they dropped their misplaced faith in what had ceased to be “the last, best hope of mankind,” Russia began to come back to life as a nation.
Our enemy is Islam.
Not al Qaeda alone, not “radical Islam”, but Islam, in all its manifestations.
Russia’s biggest problem right now is Islam. Specifically, the fact that most of the southern half of the former USSR (Turkestan, Kazakhstan, Chechnya, Georgia, etc.) is partly or mostly Islamic. And is more likely to side with Iran, Syria, and etc. in any sort of “disagreement”.
The Islamic Crescent is actually shaped more like the blade of a talwar;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talwar
And it’s a good bit longer than most people think.
clear ether
eon
Yes, he is incompetent. Yest he is not the brightest bulb in the room full of dull bulbs, but Pres. wants him in the DoD not DESPITE utter lack of minimal qualities but BECAUSE of utter lack of minimal qualities. He will perfectly fit Obama’s designs.
It looks like there will be wars in the near future the Admin. is preparing to loose.
9/10/2001: Rumsfeld says $2.3 TRILLION Missing from Pentagon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU4GdHLUHwU
Does anybody know what has come of this? Is this why we went to war on 9/11?
Who better to dismantle the military but this very average man who bumbled and stumbled his way through the hearings? He’s perfect for the job. Blind obedience to the King.
Anyone who has followed Hagel’s public career was not the least bit surprised by his performance today. He’s never exhibited any behavior that would indicate an IQ above room temperature. I expect that’s exactly why President Petulant nominated him for this job.
But that’s why Obama and the Left want Hagel.
He fits their narrative of a dumb, nondescript Republican.
– Clinton wasn’t prepared so much as just a born liar.
Both Clintons.
And probably also Chelsea, considering that she helped with her mother’s campaign and always seems to have a good income despite having no talent and no skills.
I dont know why my comment was deleted. They voted for it, and prominent Jews like Ed Koch and Abe Foxmann and Alan Dershowitz are signing off on it. Heck they even had the fact that Hagel is a Republican to whip him with, and they chose loyalty to Obama, instead.
Just as people in a democracy get the government they deserve. Jews who voted for Obama are getting the Secretary of Defense they deserve.
That is just the plain fact of the matter. It isnt like we need to see the video locked away in the LA Times vaults showing Obama schmoozing with Khalidi at the Pro Palestinian function to know where Obama stands with regards to the Jewish State of Israel. But hey, at least that Euro-Christian Banshee Sarah Palin isnt VP, what with her warm embrace of Israel as a Jewish State and all.
Mark Levin opened up his show today on fire, he has strong words for the Senate.
http://www.therightscoop.com/mark-levin-the-muslim-brotherhood-has-infiltrated-our-government-its-called-barack-obama/
He’s the best person for the job of getting the DOD through all the cost cutting without hurting the troops or the mission tasks.
What?!? Upon what did you base this opinion? Did you not read the article? The guy didn’t even do his homework for the hearing. He did not know the amount of the military budget, nor the percentage of the GDP it represents, nor its historical comparison. He knows nothing of the job, and you think he is the best guy to get through the cost-cutting?
If you offer such an opinion, here, you probably should have something to back it up, okay? At least read the article. Jeez.
Do you know the budget? Nobody in DOD currently knows for sure what their budget is going to be. There is NO ‘budget’ having passed congress. They’re not even sure what cuts are or aren’t coming. They’re operating still, on only good faith in the congress to fund requests beyond tactical funding. The $525.4 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund base defense programs and $88.5 billion to support Overseas Contingency Operations for FY 2013 is contingent on several variables.
What a stupid question. Do you know the DOD budget? Would you have looked into it if you were about to be confirmed for the SoD? The guy is a fool who will bumble his way from one catastrophe to another at the expense of our troops and national security. He has ZERO management experience, he never offer one single bill while in the Senate, he has no experience except as a sergeant in Vietnam as a reference to handle this job. He is pathetic.
I’m not arguing for or against the mans competency. I’m only highlighting that the matter of a DOD budget is not etched in stone and very much a concern this very moment in time for the DOD dealing with all the budgetary unknowns going forward.
What is an overseas contingency operation?
It’s a war. The same way Korea and Vietnam were “police actions”.
Hint to Obama supporters; when you kill people in foreign countries for opposing your country, it’s a war. Whether you do it with riflemen on the ground (like Bush) or drones (like Obama).
The least you can do is be honest about it. Something Bush understood, and Obama apparently has no intention of admitting.
BTW, I’m speaking as someone who used to engage in actual “police actions”. We called them “arresting criminals”, and “prosecuting criminals”.
Which rarely involved shooting criminals (I never did, but I know officers who had to).
And never required drones.
Just thought you should know.
clear ether
eon
It’s the terminology taken from the congressional records and is also the language used by the Treasury in dispursing the funding authorized by congress to that particular DOD account.
I wish Fake Zeke would stop coming on here and misspeaking on my behalf.
Hagel suitable for the DoD?
I believe nothing of the sort.
He is a bumbling, grating idiot who has been nominated by the Bloviator in Chief as a slap ion the face of the American people, and right thinking people everywhere.
Fake Zeke is a paranoid jerk who needs to shrivel up and go away, permanently.
Jerk! Have you nothing better to do than act like a child on here and being a fraud that apparently you’ve perfected in your real life?
It’s hard to keep track of all the false statements. He’s used to saying what he thinks: Israel is terrorist, Iran is legit and America is a bully.
From what I’ve read, and based on the reading lists of his class at Georgetown, that’s basically what he taught.
Obama does not have a plan. The people who handle Obama have a plan. Characters like Obama and Hagel are interchangable. Their job is to lie, prevaricate, dissemble & obfuscate. Obama is no better or worse at it than Hagel. I would love to hear some of the backchannel conversations between President Doofuss Hottentott and his Chicago handlers. Obama will be blindsided again & again as he dutifully carries out his orders from Hyde Park. Hagel is a chump. Obama is a chump. Democrats are chumps. Republicans are chumps. And we the people are the biggest chumps of all for tolerating the Obama Coterie for even one more hour. When is enough enough?
“When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped before two congressional committees on Benghazi this month, she was ready for every question fielded at her and, save for the infamous “what does it matter” moment, didn’t crumple under the pressure.
Today, President Obama was likely wishing some of that preparedness would have rubbed off on his Defense secretary nominee.”
I think it was far more a case of Hillary getting the Bunny Rabbit treatment, as did Kerry even more so, and Hagel getting the Hyena treatment.
“In an hours-long hearing before the Senate Armed Service Committee today, Hagel was consistently on the defensive, especially under questioning from Senate hawks John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).”
And both of them treated John Kerry, the phoney soldier, like a fellow prince.
I have no particular love for McCain or Graham, but they may have just decided to keep their powder dry on that one. The Secretary of State is pretty much a figurehead; the entrenched career Marxists are the ones who run it.
“But even Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), retiring before he faces a possible primary challenge, piled on Hagel”
This is what it seems to have been – a pile on – mob courage on the part of senators who seemed to have none at all when questioning Kerry and Hillary, both of whom are much better examples of a sorry case for a human being.
It’s always the unasked question.
For Hillary, “where are the Benghazi survivors and why are they being hidden?”.
For Hagel, “what in your background has qualified you to run a $500 billion a year organization with over 3 million employees?”. What, he’s going to say he was an enlisted man in ‘Nam? Nah, he’ll let the Democrats say it.
Lieberman has been touted for SecDef before and he never served in the military at all. Cheney was SecDef and never was even in the National Guard and had about 6 deferments.
McCain went after Hagel like a pit bull yet treats Hillary like a princess, Kerry like a prince, Obama like a king and illegal aliens from Mexico like honored quests. There is something seriously wrong with that man.
“There is something seriously wrong with that man.”
Ya think, considering McCain’s history in Viet Nam?
The SOD is not a ‘political’ position in the government. The position only serves the nations security interests ‘as directed’ by other political authority.
National security depends on our defense installations and facilities being in the right place, at the right time, with the right qualities and capacities to protect our national resources.
The Defense Department manages an inventory of installations and facilities to keep Americans safe. The Department’s physical plant is huge by any standard, consisting of more than several hundred thousand individual buildings and structures located at more than 5,000 different locations or sites.
The chief executive officer of the Department of Defense is the President of the United States. Along with the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council, the President determines the security needs of the nation, and then takes courses of action to ensure that they are met.
Directions for military operations emanate from the National Command Authority, a term used to collectively describe the President and the Secretary of Defense. The President, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, is the ultimate authority. The Office of the Secretary of Defense carries out the Secretary’s policies by tasking the military departments, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the unified commands.
• The military departments train and equip the military forces.
• The Chairman plans and coordinates military deployments and operations.
• The unified commands conduct the military operations.
(in part from http://www.defense.gov/about/dod101.aspx)
Personally, I think if any individual can make a professional showing of being able to manage the nations largest, most funded and most populated employment corporation within the confines of the job specification, his/her personal stated ‘political’ opinions are irrelevant as such a position does not make any national security and foreign relations policy – just organizational and tactical management policy.
I say so much, and take so long to say it, using too many words I do not understand.
There is no hope for a clinically insane pseudo-intellectual like me.
Jerk! Back at your childish games I see. Seems to me you must spend a lot of time being a fraud and no doubt in your ‘real’ life to!
Fake Zeke admits to being a fraud.
He’s a little touchy too. Considering how often he jumps up & down on other people’s nerves, that is a rich irony.
LOL!!! Knew If I kept you engaged long enough your conditioned vocabulary and writing style would give you away! It did! A rather sad circumstance considering you otherwise when not playing this childish game, try to pawn yourself off as one of PJM superior intellectual elites.
Bumbling, Fumbling Incompetence – standard qualification for a high government post.
Hagel is the Iranian revenge for Stuxnet. A sophisticated computer virus, cleverly disguised as an ex-senator, is poised to infiltrate and neutralize the Defense Department
An old axiom from Management 101: A first-rate manager chooses first-rate subordinates. A second-rate manager chooses third-rate subordinates.
Graham is desperate. He knows that if we do have further elections, with his term being over in 2014 he will draw a major, vengeful primary challenge. While Democrats can game Republican primaries, it is harder than general election fraud. And for most Conservatives, given Graham’s record of often being functionally a Democrat in the Republican party; getting rid of him would be a victory just shy of winning the seat for a Conservative.
Keep in mind that the Democrats will vote en-masse for Hagel even if he showed up wearing a Keffiyeh [ كوفية -Yassir Arafat's headgear] and started screaming “Death to Jews, Death to America!”. Hagel is Obama’s pick, and that is enough. This is not a vote that a grassroots movement will form against. By the time that Hagel screws up badly, who it was who voted for him will be forgotten. The only thing that will count in the end is if some Republican Senator(s) find the testicular fortitude to filibuster him. And if other Republicans do not join with the Democrats to vote for cloture. Nothing else matters. And it is not likely
Graham is grandstanding to try to avoid a primary challenge. Nothing more. He and Hagel will probably go out and get drunk together tonight, and maybe see if they can get Menendez to invite them on his next Caribbean trip.
I only have one member of my immediate family left on active duty right now. He is a Master SGT in the Marines. Which is no small thing. He has defended a US embassy from mobs during Clinton’s Kosovo intervention, done multiple tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa. And he has a few years to go before he retires. I suspect that the last few years before retirement will be more dangerous than all the rest put together. And the prime danger will be coming from his own chain of command.
Subotai Bahadur
Fixed. We’ve long gone past the stage where there is any point in believing that the Democratic Party has anything in its “heart” for America, or Israel, except a soul-burning hatred and a yearning for the destruction of both.
And no, even coming from a family of Democrats, I never thought I’d be saying that. The last two Democratic Presidents, and Democratic-controlled Congresses, have taught me differently.
The part I have a problem with is that the GOP leadership apparently doesn’t have a problem with this. As long as they get paid on time, that is.
clear ether
eon
What is truly telling about our nation is that the Demorats in the Senate simply do not care who runs the DOD. They only care about their political agenda and the country can go to hell. Folks, this is the same as treason! They are willing to place the security of our nation in the hands of an incompetent fool as long a s their KING say so. Damn the country. I am a senior citizen who is so sick about what has happened to my country and I am heart broken about the future for you younger people and your children. It will take an armed rebellion with a strong military leadership to stop this creeping cancer from killing out nation. Unfortunately the modern military leader is so political that I do not think there is anyone out there who would fit that bill. God save us from liberals!
I think this President does care who runs DoD, he wants a Republican in charge to make the cuts and weaken our military. Hagel and POTUS share the same view on nukes, they want the US to disarm all while Iran and N. Korea get nukes. Dangerous time for our country.
The most telling thing about this whole fiasco is that Obama WANTS this guy nominated. That says it all … Obama just wants a fall guy because his plans for the military (or should I say the MB plans for our military), may be failure.
I bet Obummer thought Hagel would be a cake-walk since he is/was a small ‘r’ – but an ‘r’ nonetheless and seemed like a great idea at the time. Someone dumb enough to take orders without questioning them.
Dick-tators do not like anyone near them with any power to be smarter than themselves. This really cuts down on the available ‘talent’.
Chuckie’s career at the Pentagon goes something like this:
Obummer: “Hey Chuckie – those old nukes sitting around in the back room – get rid of them – ok”?
Chuckie: “Sure thing boss. Uh – you don’t think we’ll ever need them? Get rid of all of them”?
Obummer: “Yeah – all of em. Ain’t nobody gonna use their nukes on us – I’m The Won. I got the gift of gab (with teleprompter of course) and the charm to go with it. Ain’t nobody ever going to harm us after I get done with this country. We’ll be real nice to them. Nobody is going to attack a country thats as nice as we’re gonna be”.
Chuckie: “OK boss – got rid of em, anything else”?
Obummer: “Yeah – those aircraft carriers, how many do we really need”?
Chuckie “Hey boss – I don’t think we need any of them. I just talked to the Air Force and they say they can fly anywhere those Navy guys can. And the Chinese said they’d be very interested in a few of our carriers since they don’t have any”.
Obummer: “Then get rid of them, sell em if you can find anyone interested and have the money. We really need some coin – and by the way – tell those Air Force boys to pack it up and go home too. We don’t need them any more either”.
A year later Chuckie calls Feckless Won:
Chuckie: “I got all that stuff sold boss. Got a great price for it all too. Any thing else”?
Obummer” “Yeah – lay off the Joint Chiefs and then hand in your resignation. Looks like I won’t be needing you from now on either”.
Chuckie: “But…but…butt… … (in a very whiny voice) but what about my new career”?
Just as Feckless Won is deciding how to respond a voice comes over CNN at that moment and Woofie Blitzer announces “China has suddenly demanded the US leaders surrender to their envoys in Washington DC or face military action. Since China received 6 nuclear powered carriers one year ago in return for relieving us of a large part of our debt it seems they will be using them against us and have in fact sailed into Honolulu, San Fransisco, San Diego, and are offshore from the Seattle/Portland coast. Three more are on their way to ports in New York and other Eastern Seaboard ports. Chinese military leaders have given our president 24 hours to comply”.
“In short, he appeared exceptionally uncomfortable and unsure for a man who would command the most powerful military on Earth.”
This is the heart of it. Not only did Hagel look unprepared and foolish, he looked stupid too. THAT is NOT the image you want to project to the world for your Secretary of Defense. Just think about how the powerhouse and intellect Donald Rumsfeld was compared to this jerk. You may not agree with what Rumsfeld had to say, but NOBODY could ever say that Rumsfeld was dumb or didn’t know what he was talking about. You COULD, however, say that (and more) about Hagel. Hagel really thinks that he’s just some sort of figurehead and that the Pentagon will be run out of the White House. If he really thinks that, then he knows nothing about the Pentagon, military defense, or strategic thinking. And if that’s the case, then it would literally be a crime making this moron Secretary of Defense.
Of course that’s the image Obama wants to project:
“See? Hagel is a typical Republican: Stupid and ignorant.”
Obama didn’t just want Hagel to help cut the military budget.
Obama wants Hagel to be his example of a “typically stupid Republican.”
it is not the first crime, and it will not be the last crime….
Hagel is one dim bulb.
And Hagel will get the nod.
It’ll be a Partisan Vote, but that’s what the Obloviater wanted in the first place.
“It’s not my fault. It’s all that Partisan Politics”
Never mind that he encouraged that Partisan Politics. At least right now. He is President, and his fans are still too busy jacking off over that fact to realize that who and what he is and has and will do will bit them in the ass.
I enjoy knowing that Senator Rand Paul and Senator Ted Cruz are in office, and are fighters who know not only to fight, but how to fight.
It sucks that we have the GOP leadership we have.
It sucks that the Atheistic, Libertarian and the Religious Conservatives are too busy squabbling over whether or not there is a God and whether it is right or wrong to kill innocent human beings to spend the kind of time and effort it takes to stop Planned Parenthood from killing 10,000 of them a day.
Mostly because people like to argue for the sake of arguing, as is brought out in an essay on this site about the famous Monty Python skit.
Maybe many Conservatives don’t deserve up and coming leaders like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. But thank God God doesn’t always give you what you deserve, and gives you what you need.
Chuck Hagel does not grasp that international relations rests on geography and is carried out according to the laws of physics. Add skill at moral equivalency and the geographic protection of the vast oceans and he is a Blanche DuBois Foreign Policy person, believing in the kindness of strangers. It worked for FDR’s approval rate and re-elections, though it eventually had a down side with a thousand points of agony.
Those people did not notice that the protection afforded the vast oceans was like totally absolute for every year through 1491, but then seemed to disappear.
An example of an agony point was that up to December 8, 1941, the US Army, Air Corps, and Philippine Constabulary in the Philippines did not have enough .50 caliber machine-gun ammunition to practice shooting with fighter planes at towed targets, to aim the guns of the planes, to even fire the aircraft guns once to see if they worked, or to train anyone on the ground who had the machine-guns.
The US is a transactional nation, based on rule of law. Trader nations following power relationships rather than law habitually include force up front in international relationships and the US does not, which is a terrible habit when dealing with trader nations. When the US sits down at the poker table in the Western saloon of international relationships, we should be clear and open, and should plop our six-gun on the table. We should not put a materials recycler in charge of our guns.
Re: The Fix Is In.
Very nice rhetorical rambling offering little ! Until something moves the “Great
Unwashed” to go to (or return to) school and acquire some semblence of critical thinking based on courses in civics, history, and Americanism, we have no hope of a return to the common sense of the 1950′s. I am ashamed to say that in my own family, my own grandchilren prefer a gov’t check to working for a living.
In my opinion, what this country desperately needs is a better class of riff-raff ! The public unions from universities, to government, to quasi-governmental entities who all feed at the public trough are in collaberation. It is a concerted effort to steal from the American people the strengths that made our country what is is today. Or should I say, what it was yesterday. Beware the voices that would change our Constitutional Republic to a Populist view and mob-
control. Too strong ? I think not !
I agree with you, Florida Fred.
I’m just saying that you and I may not now be part of the under-performing Riffraff, I can say with absolute certainty that I have been in the past.
I am thankful that people like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are out there. Lord only knows I cannot play the game as well as they can, and have not been as honest or true to the values I am only now starting to be true to.
So us Riffraff should be grateful, for leaders rising up who are better than our behavior justifies us getting.
And it’s not like today’s “educated” are really any better. Because most of them haven’t really been educated; they’ve merely submitted themselves to indoctrination in exchange for material and libertine comforts.
This is my observation as well. I know few Harward “educated” lawyers as well as some professors who enthusiastically voted for this freak show.
We confess not to know that much about Mr. Hagel, but what we’ve read so far
tells us that he is likely a sychophantic shill for Obama. Together they will
draw down ouur military and further undermine our military dominance at home
and abroad. And mutually they carry harmful grievances towards Israel, and
favoritism for the Muslim Brotherhood, all of which is very dangerous to our
national security. Hagel is not right for the job of Secretary of Defense.
He seems painfully unsure of himself and a trifle ignorant of world affairs.
But he’ll probably be approved by the Senate, and that’s disturbing.
Good luck, America.
The military and the DOD is ‘drawn-down” after every long and economically taxing war period with the very same politcal party screaming national destruction! The militarys structural reorganization originated during the Republican Ford administration followed by Papa Bush and kicked into a higher gear during the Clinton administration with republican SOD Cohen. Then came the GW Bush administration and two very long wars of which one is not over.
Our military and the DOD was NEVER by any design, meant to be the crown jewel of our national economy as it has become over the past three decades. Likewise, our constitutional military was never meant to be a global nation building force or a global police force. It was designed with three tiers of readiness for the defense of national soveriengty threats!
Today, the DOD is grossly bloated and is a national economic liability to the taxpayers, supporting and propping it up as one of the nations major economic revenue bases which can only be sustainable in times of war. It further perpetuates global arms races decades into the future which also, is not economically sustainable.
A trillion plus is easily achievable to cut right off the top of DOD without any damage to force sustainment and rediness! Their biggest bloat is in the flag ranks bueraucrats, several tiers of contractors and several tiers of contract support labor costs and benefits to the government. Overall, it has become an environment of gross waste of billions and billions of dollars. Then if thats not bad enough, the members of congress use the DOD as their pet pork-spending in their districts that the DOD does not endorse, ask for or need.
We need an SOD who understands all this gross waste and is not a part of the military complex bureaucrat club! An SOD who undertands force organizational requirements from the bottom up and not the top down. An SOD who understands what a constitutional military is! If he understands these things I don’t care what any of his personal political opinions are or how polished an orator he/she may or may not be.
It occurs to me that although some of what I have been saying applies to the Department of Defense, it applies even more so to the Entitlements programs.
The Department of Defense serves a useful purpose. Soldiers and sailors and pilots are trained, and use the best equipment money and a flawed acquisition program can buy to help defend this country.
Social Security and all of the other Entitlement programs are designed to help the people of this country but in the end hurt them, making promises to them that can not be kept, and causing whatever money is given to them to buy a smaller portion of a McDonald’s Hamburger every year.
The Secretary of Defense, I also realize, should be someone who has not pissed off every one who has ever been on his staff, and every one of his peers, and wilts under the pressure applied by the newest and most junior of the Senators on the committee questioning him.
The Secretary of Defense requires nerve, brains, and the ability to play well with others.
Mind you, when the President of the United States of America regards the United States of America as an evil aberration which should be wiped off the map, the traits that make a good Secretary of Defense don’t really matter to him, do they.
Only the chance to humiliate his country and his enemies matters.
Fake Zeke is not quite as bad as Obama. He does not hate this country, I think. He is only callous and cynical and bitter.
Was as insightful and intelligent as he thinks he is, he would have learned what this site is like, and decided that, if he does not like the spirit of the place, he should find one whose spirit is more to his linking.
Cynical Wonder, Lonnie Wild, HillelA, Random Engineer – all the Trolls except him don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone here says about them.
Fake Zeke needs to grow a thicker skin, or find a new place to prance about and proclaim his intellectual superiority.
BTW, a lot of people here are not only less hypersensitive than Fake Zeke, but far more intelligent as well.
I couldn’t care less what you think about anything I write! What is wrong, is that you don’t have the muster to man up and present yourself and ALL your commenting using your own recognized name on PJM instead of your childish cowardeness behind my recognized name on PJM. I’m pretty sure I know why you don’t and that is a real shame for PJM!
If Fake Zeke “could not care less” about what I, or anyone else, thinks about what he writes, and if he had a thick enough skin, he would recognize that this site which allows anyone to write under anyone else’s name and pretty much say anything they want to say is all about childish cowardice – and ignore the jibes.
I find amusing Fake Zeke’s hysterical reaction, his willingness to be so easily distracted by childish gestures.
The real shame here is PJM.