Hagel: Republicans best shot?

[TexasTiger 13,027]

Long-Shot Hagel May Be Republicans' Best Bet: Margaret Carlson

By Margaret Carlson

March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans are in a funk -- the more conservative the Republican, the deeper the funk.

In presidential politics, they are accustomed to falling in line, if not in love, early. And the last time there was anything but bunting, Sousa music and handholding at a convention was in 1976.

If only they could take John McCain's gung-ho militarism, Sam Brownback's evangelical fervor, Mitt Romney's looks (a recently discovered consultant's memo worries that his hair is too perfect), and a month from the life of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- the one starting 9/11/01 -- they would have a perfect candidate.

Not that each of the frontrunners hasn't tried self- improvement, shedding some original equipment in favor of replacement parts.

McCain dropped his disregard for ``agents of intolerance'' and truckled to the Christian right. He's paid a price for that with independents, even as he's failed to allay the party base's suspicions. McCain also decided he liked the president, after all, but that's a bigger liability with each passing day.

It's not in Giuliani's nature to truckle, and it would be fruitless anyway -- he's way too pro-choice; way too pro-gay, and way, way too much in favor of marrying until you get it right. He has decided to coast on 9/11 and a newfound affection for placing strict constructionists on the court.

Romney replaced all moveable parts. His transformation is so complete as to be totally unbelievable.

Dark Horse

With no Secretariat in the stable, there's room for a dark horse. Galloping in is Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel. I went to a small dinner with Hagel last week to see how he's faring, which is well, despite bags the size of steamer trunks under his eyes. They make him look sad when he isn't.

As Bush-Cheney Enemy No. 1, he's the go-to anti-surge Republican who, although he voted for the war, warned President George W. Bush from Day One about the peril of governing Iraq.

If party activists could see past his sharp criticism of Bush's foreign policy, they would like his life story. Hagel's father died when he was a teenager, and young Chuck helped look after the other children and worked as a carhop at a hamburger joint. He and his younger brother joined the infantry and nearly died in Vietnam. He worked several jobs before starting a hugely successful cell-phone company. It made him a millionaire.

No Economic Populist

Although he's often referred to as McCain without the attitude, Hagel is hardly an economic populist. He is an ardent tax cutter and fiscal conservative who votes with Bush, as he reminds me, more than 90 percent of the time.

He's not an evangelical (he's Episcopalian), but they could hardly fault his voting record, which garners a pro-family score of 100 from the Christian Coalition. In a field of candidates with multiple marriages, he looks abstemious with only one. His voice is as flat as the plains, a man more at home at the Rotary Club than a Georgetown dinner party.

But is that enough to counter his current fame as a sharp critic of Bush's conduct of the two disastrous wars? Hagel has hounded Bush to pay more attention to Afghanistan and warned him that Iraq could end in chaos even as he gave him authority to go there.

When Bush announced his plans to send more troops to Iraq, Hagel called it the ``biggest foreign policy blunder since Vietnam.'' With Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, he co-authored a resolution against the troop increase, which eventually became the Warner-Levin resolution. Although seven Republicans crossed the aisle to vote for it, it didn't get a filibuster-proof majority. Hagel says he will keep trying.

GOP's Joe Lieberman

He's not the only Republican to turn against Bush on the war, just the one who most annoys the White House. They have always found the plain-talking Nebraskan preachy, the GOP's Joe Lieberman. When then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar was on a short list to become secretary of state to replace Colin Powell, he was dropped because no one in the White House could stand the thought of Hagel succeeding Lugar as committee chair.

Vice President Dick Cheney said in Newsweek recently: ``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.''

And fruitless. It's hard to make smears like ``you're emboldening the enemy'' and ``sending the wrong message to the troops'' stick to Hagel, who still carries shrapnel and burn scars from pulling his brother to safety in Vietnam.

Savor the irony of a 2008 matchup between Hagel and Hillary Clinton, in which he runs to her left on Iraq.

The country often seems ripe for a third party, but it seldom works out. Ironically, Hagel may bolt the Republican Party despite the fact that, Bush's and Cheney's feelings aside, he may be the one person able to hold its fragile coalition together.

If the party can't prove its independence from Bush and Cheney, a candidate like Hagel might have to prove his independence from the party. It might be the only way for an otherwise loyal Republican to win.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aWwSN1OtsBh8

[AURaptor 1,126]

I see the Dems in the crowd are getting their marching orders. Pushing the least likely, biggest RINO and pretending he's what is needed for the GOP to win.

Why do you folks even waste time w/ this stuff ?

[AFTiger 282]

The Democrat Margaret Carlson promoting the RINO Chick Hagel for President. Only in a liberal's dream.

[TexasTiger 13,027]

I see the Dems in the crowd are getting their marching orders. Pushing the least likely, biggest RINO and pretending he's what is needed for the GOP to win.

Why do you folks even waste time w/ this stuff ?

He's a Rhino and Guiliani isn't?

[AURaptor 1,126]

I see the Dems in the crowd are getting their marching orders. Pushing the least likely, biggest RINO and pretending he's what is needed for the GOP to win.

Why do you folks even waste time w/ this stuff ?

He's a Rhino and Guiliani isn't?

Giuliani had enough stones to refuse a huge check from a Saudi prince, on condidtion that we admit we were partially to blame for the 9/11 attacks. I doubt Hagel would have done the same.

....between Hagel and Hillary Clinton, in which he runs to her left on Iraq.

That says it all, right there.

[Tiger Al 0]

Hagel and Giuliani are the only republicans I could even consider voting for. Brownback scares the hell out of me.

[AFTiger 282]

Hagel and Giuliani are the only republicans I could even consider voting for. Brownback scares the hell out of me.

Every Democrat scares the hell ouut of me!!!!!

[Tiger in Spain 0]

Brownback scares the hell out of me.

Well, he has my vote then.

[Tiger Al 0]

Brownback scares the hell out of me.

Well, he has my vote then.

TIS funding my IRA really, really scares the hell out of me!!!

[AURaptor 1,126]

Isn't Brownback just this campaigns version of Gary Bower ? I admit to not knowing much about Brownback, but it seems he's a tad too religious for most folks.