Damn, I love Chuck Hagel! My favorite Republican lawmaker (and a man who should be running for president) is at it again, calling out the Bushies in no uncertain terms:
"This is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I've ever seen personally or ever read about," the always blunt and frequently quotable Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said yesterday during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
"This administration in my opinion has been as unprepared as any administration I'm aware of," Hagel added, "not only the ones that I have been somehow connected to and that's been every administration -- either I've been in Washington or worked within an administration or Congress or some way dealing with them since the first Nixon administration. I would rate this one the lowest in capacity, in capability, in policy, in consensus -- almost every area, I would give it the lowest grade. ...
"And you know, I think of this administration, what they could have done after 9/11, what was within their grasp. Every poll in the world showed 90% of the world for us. Iran had some of the first spontaneous demonstrations on the streets of Tehran supporting America. They squandered a tremendous amount of opportunity."
Hagel, who toyed with the idea of running for president himself, also said:
He would be open to the idea of either working in a Democratic administration or even running as the vice presidential nominee on a Democratic ticket -- though, he conceded, "I probably won't have to worry about it" because he's unlikely to be asked.
"If there was an area that I thought I could make a difference and influence policy, leadership, outcome ... then I would entertain" those possibilities, Hagel said. ...
Don't count on not being asked, Chuck. You're one of the few clear-thinking, independent-minded Republicans in Congress, and one of only a handful of people who truly embody the term "Senator" -- quite the opposite of the kow-towing, royal boot-licking Joe Liebermans around you. If you ran for president, I would seriously consider crossing political lines to support you.
The full transcript of Hagel's remarks can be found on the CFR website.
The Senate votes 50-48 to reject a Thad Cochran (Miss) attempt to stop Congress from setting a timeline for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Good looking out, Chuck Hagel and Gordon Smith. Lieberman: I literally cannot wait for your next reelection fight. Now, the House and Senate versions go to conference, and Bush will whip out his veto pen. But if the Dems play their cards right, they could back him into a corner where it's take it or leave the troops broke. Check.
Obama to Edwards: "aren't you cute" ... I'm guessing Edwards' reply would probably rhyme with "bite me" ... oh, okay, it WOULD BE "bit me..."
Meanwhile, Barack and Hillary get a bit hung up on the issue of the morality of gay lifestyles.
And as if it wasn't enough for Democrats to have to watch out for the real Fox News and Bill O'Reilly, now, apparently, they have to beware of the fake one as well...
The Senate's Republican minority beats back yet another attempt to craft an Iraq pullout plan, thanks to the Bush-backing votes of Democratoc Sematprs Nelson (Nebraska) and Pryor (Arkansas) and the perennial Bushophile, Joe Lieberman. On an up note, Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon voted with the Dems. Maybe we could do a trade -- give us Smith and hand "Shuck 'n Joe" over to the GOP.
Meanwhile, the Senate, by an 86-16 vote, passed a resolution pledging not to cut off funds for the war. Only 16 Senators voted against the resolution.
Clearly, despite the big win last November, the Dems simply do not have the votes to stop this surge, let alone the war. The answer: get rid of more Republican Senators next election day (a Lieberman recall wouldn't hurt, either...)
Senate Republicans (Joe Lieberman) blocked Democratic attempts to bring the House resolution opposing the president's Iraq surge to the floor today, choosing to continue watching George W. Bush's back, rather than the backs of American troops. AP calls it gridlock ... I call it shilling. The vote was 56-34, four short of the 60 needed to end debate and bring the resolution to the floor. Seven Republicans broke party lines to vote for cloture: John Warner of Virginia, Chuck Hagel, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Norm Coleman. As for the rest, including that weasel John McCain, who couldn't be bothered to show up and vote, and the Senate's biggest villain in my opinion, neocon Joe Lieberman, today, I'm christening them the Rubber Stamp Republicans, also to be known as Dubya's court jesters.
Meanwhile, the plot on which Iraqi leaders are "with us" and which are "with the terrorists" thickens:
US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad have arrested the deputy health minister during a raid at his offices. The minister, Hakim al-Zamili, is a key member of the political group led by radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.
He is accused of aiding Shia militiamen and using ambulances to move weapons, a ministry source told the BBC.
Back in Washington, Chuck Hagel, John Warner and five other GOP Senators who earlier this week voted with their party leadership to stop debate over a non-binding resolution, only to see debate on all resolutions stop entirely, have now jumped ship. And Iran is issuing threats.
In a letter distributed yesterday evening to Senate leaders, John W. Warner (Va.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and five other GOP supporters of the resolution threatened to attach their measure to any bill sent to the floor in the coming weeks. Noting that the war is the "most pressing issue of our time," the senators declared: "We will explore all of our options under the Senate procedures and practices to ensure a full and open debate."
The letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was not more specific about the Republican senators' strategy for reviving the war debate. But under the chamber's rules, senators have wide latitude in slowing the progress of legislation and in offering amendments, regardless of whether they have anything to do with the bill.
The letter began circulating yesterday evening after it became apparent the Senate was deadlocked over the war resolution and Reid was prepared to move on to other matters. McConnell and many in his party have aggressively defended their decision to block the bipartisan resolution as an issue of fairness because Democrats would not agree to GOP procedural demands.
But some Republicans were uneasy about appearing to have stymied the debate. The letter appeared so suddenly that, although it was addressed to Reid, the Democratic leader had not seen his copy before Warner read the text on the Senate floor.
"Monday's procedural vote should not be interpreted as any lessening of our resolve to go forward advocating the concepts" of the resolution, the letter said. "The current stalemate is unacceptable to us and to the people of this country."
And as for the argument that such a resolution, if passed, would harm troop morale, let's hear from General Peter Pace:
"There's no doubt in my mind that the dialogue here in Washington strengthens our democracy. Period," Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the House Armed Services Committee. He added that potential enemies may take some comfort from the rancor but said they "don't have a clue how democracy works."
And neither, apparently, do Mitch McConnell and the other Republicans who are continuing to provide a human shield for the president on Iraq.
This morning on the radio show, James T (our host) came up with a modest, but great, proposal. If the Republicans (and Joe Lieberman...) insist on backing Bush to the hilt on his war escalation, Democrats should call their bluff, step aside, and let them have it: the votes, the escalation, the whole kit and kaboodle. But then, we should begin keeping track, both of who stands where on Iraq, and on how many lives are lost, how much money is spent, and how many American troops are maimed, as this policy grinds on. And then we should hold the GOPer lackeys (Lieberman included), personally accountable for every single limb, life and dollar.
Let's start counting from January 10, when Bush began shipping his escalation troops into Baghdad.
Between January 10 and today (February 6), here's the count:
U.S. troop deaths (since January 10) -- 88
U.S. troops injured -- 294
U.S. $ spent (based on CBO estimates of approximately $195 million per day, times 28 days) -- $5.46 billion.
And here are the Republicans to watch, based on their cloture vote:
Lamar Alexander, Wayne Allard, Robert Bennett, Kit Bond, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Richard Burr, Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, Thad Cochran, Bob Corker, John Cornyn, Larry Craig, Michael Crapo, Jim DeMint, Elizabeth Dole, Pete Domenici, John Ensign, Michael Enzi, Lindsey Graham, Charles Grassley, Judd Gregg, Chuck Hagel, Orrin Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison, James Inhofe, Johnny Isakson, Jon Kyl, Trent Lott, Richard Lugar, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Roberts, Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby, Gordon Smith, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter, Ted Stevens, John Sununu, Craig Thomas, John Thune, David Vitter, George Voinovich, John Warner
oh, and Joe Lieberman (henceforth to be known, as the Lorax...) I'm personally giving Chuck Hagel and John Warner a pass on the cloture vote, because Hagel and Warner have put themselves on the line to sponsor resolutions opposing the surge. Gordon Smith is also OK by me, because he's already put himself on record. (BTW, did you notice that Harry Reid voted no, too???? What's up with that???) ...
Courtesy of TPM I've bolded the GOP Senators who are up for reelection in 2008 and a handy guide to where they stand on the escalation. I've bolded the names in the list above. Feel free to email your Senator daily if you'd like to give them an update. Norm Coleman and Susan Collins are inoculating themselves, Collins I think because she lives in a blue, anti-war state (Maine) and she wouldn't want to become the latest former Blue state Republican (to be fair, she has voiced deep skepticism on the escalation) ... and Coleman, I think, because he's facing a reelection challenge in 2008 (from Al Franken.) Sorry to be so cynical ... Unfortunately, there's nothing that Connecticut voters can do about Lieberman until 2012. They made their bed, now they've got to let Joe lie in it with George W. Bush.
Meanwhile, Mel Martinez, from my state, didn't vote at all. Neither did Mary Landrieu, who is always teetering on the brink of extinction in the red state of Louisiana, or Senator Johnson of South Dakota, who's ill, and ... interestingly enough, neither did that brave maverick, John McCain... Hm...
Wake up and smell the politics. Are these GOPers really down for the escalation, or are they worried about getting reelected in red states where Bush love still exists, even if in smaller -- though still less vociferous -- numbers? Witness Judd Gregg, who is the author of the most toxic of the GOP alternative resolutions, which supports Bush's policy. He is on record in his home state of voicing "deep frustration" over the Iraq war, and yet he's pushing for a vote pinning Democrats down on continuing to fund it. Political courage, anyone? Anyone???
Meanwhile, the total price tag for Bush's war could eventually top $2 trillion, when you factor in healthcare costs for veterans.
Senator Chuck Hagel went OFF yesterday during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on a non-binding resolution on Bush's Iraq escalation strategy. Hagel was the only Republican on the panel to vote the resolution through to the full Senate, and he's not feeling his colleague's duplicity on the issue. Of the nine Republicans, I count six, including Hagel, who have expressed serious doubts about the Bush plan, and yet none would go on the record. Shameful. Watch Hagel's plow-down of his weak-kneed colleagues for yourself:
Do you wish you’d voted differently in October of 2002, when Congress had a chance to authorize or not authorize the invasion? Have you read that resolution?
I have. It’s not quite the way it’s been framed by a lot of people, as a resolution to go to war. That’s not quite what the resolution said.
It said, “to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq.” In the event that all other options failed. So it’s not as simple as “I voted for the war.” That wasn’t the resolution.
But there was a decision whether to grant the president that authority or not. Exactly right. And if you recall, the White House had announced that they didn’t need that authority from Congress.
Which they seem to say about a lot of things. That’s right. Mr. [Alberto] Gonzales was the president’s counsel at that time, and he wrote a memo to the president saying, “You have all the powers that you need.” So I called Andy Card, who was then the chief of staff, and said, “Andy, I don’t think you have a shred of ground to stand on, but more to the point, why would a president seriously consider taking a nation to war without Congress being with him?” So a few of us—Joe Biden, Dick Lugar, and I—were invited into discussions with the White House.
It’s incredible that you had to ask for that. It is incredible. That’s what I said to Andy Card. Said it to Powell, said it to Rice. Might have even said it to the president. And finally, begrudgingly, they sent over a resolution for Congress to approve. Well, it was astounding. It said they could go anywhere in the region.
It wasn’t specific to Iraq? Oh no. It said the whole region! They could go into Greece or anywhere. I mean, is Central Asia in the region? I suppose! Sure as hell it was clear they meant the whole Middle East. It was anything they wanted. It was literally anything. No boundaries. No restrictions.
They expected Congress to let them start a war anywhere they wanted in the Middle East? Yes. Yes. Wide open. We had to rewrite it. Joe Biden, Dick Lugar, and I stripped the language that the White House had set up, and put our language in it.
But that should also have triggered alarm bells about what they really wanted to do. Well, it did. I’m not defending our votes; I’m just giving a little history of how this happened. You have to remember the context of when that resolution was passed. This was about a year after September 11. The country was still truly off balance. So the president comes out talking about “weapons of mass destruction” that this “madman dictator” Saddam Hussein has, and “our intelligence shows he’s got it,” and “he’s capable of weaponizing,” and so on.
And producing a National Intelligence Estimate that turned out to be doctored. Oh yeah. All this stuff was doctored. Absolutely. But that’s what we were presented with. And I’m not dismissing our responsibility to look into the thing, because there were senators who said, “I don’t believe them.” But I was told by the president—we all were—that he would exhaust every diplomatic effort.
You were told that personally? I remember specifically bringing it up with the president. I said, “This has to be like your father did it in 1991. We had every Middle East nation except one with us in 1991. The United Nations was with us.”
Did he give you that assurance, that he would do the same thing as his father? Yep. He said, “That’s what we’re going to do.” But the more I look back on this, the more I think that the administration knew there was some real hard question whether he really had any WMD. In January of 2003, if you recall, the inspectors at the IAEA, who knew more about what Saddam had than anybody, said, “Give us two more months before you go to war, because we don’t think there’s anything in there.” They were the only ones in Iraq. We hadn’t been in there. We didn’t know what the hell was in there. And the president wouldn’t do it! So to answer your question—Do I regret that vote? Yes, I do regret that vote.
I've said this before, but if this man does run for president, and if by some miracle he were to make it to the general, I would have serious thoughts about voting for a Republican for the first time ever.
Update: Newsweek has even more Hagel to love... complete with this quote from Dick Vader ... er... Cheney:
"I believe firmly in Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment: THOU SHALT NOT SPEAK ILL OF A FELLOW REPUBLICAN. But it's very hard sometimes to adhere to that where Chuck Hagel is involved."
Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, is the REAL maverick in the Republican Party. I haven't caught the CSPAN replay yet, but CNN just played back a portion of Hagel's grilling of Condi Rice at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, and he told Condi to her face that in his opinion, Bush's speech last night was "dangerous," and that his escalation strategy, if implemented, would constititute "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder since Vietnam." Damn. Here's the link.
Apparently, Senator Voinovich of Ohio, who has been known to lose spine from time to time, is with Hagel.
A majority of Americans oppose sending additional troops to Iraq as outlined by President Bush in his nationally televised address Wednesday night, and just one-in-three Americans said the plan for more troops and a stepped up combat efforts by Iraqi forces make victory there more likely, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The findings of the survey, conducted after Bush's primetime speech, represent an initial rebuke to the White House goal of generating additional public support for the mission in Iraq. The poll found that 61 percent of Americans oppose sending more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, with 52 percent saying they strongly oppose the plan. Just 36 percent said they back the president's new proposal.
Bush fared better among the 42 percent of Americans who actually watched the speech. Among that group, 47 percent support sending more troops, while 51 percent oppose. But the President's supporters were disproportionately represented among the audience. ...
...The poll found sharp partisan divisions on nearly every question relating to Iraq, which grows out of the political polarization that has occurred during Bush's presidency. On the question of whether congressional Democrats should cut off funds for additional forces, 83 percent of Democrats said yes and 81 percent of Republicans said no. Among independents, 51 percent support a cutoff in funding while 47 percent oppose it.
Democrats almost universally oppose Bush's plan. In the poll, 94 percent of Democrats said they were against sending more troops. Republicans were far more supportive, with 73 percent supporting Bush's plan. But nearly a quarter of Republicans in the poll said they opposed more troops, and those signs of dissent with the president's party are being echoed by some Republican lawmakers.
Although majorities of men and women oppose sending more troops to Iraq, there is a gender gap on that issue. Fifty-six percent of men oppose the president's plan while 66 percent of women oppose it. Women also are more likely to support efforts in Congress to cut off funding, with 57 percent saying they would back Democratic moves to do so compared to 48 percent of men.
Sixty percent of Americans between ages 18 and 39 support cutting off funding, compared to 51 percent of those between 40 and 59 and 43 percent of Americans over age 60.
This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone Jan. 10, among a random national sample of 502 adults. The results have a 4.5-point error margin.
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
And as if it wasn't enough for Democrats to have to watch out for the real Fox News and Bill O'Reilly, now, apparently, they have to beware of the 
