Rachel discussed hagel's past position against abortion even in the case of rape, and gay rights

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12. I should have made my point more explicit

I was just trying to point out that we probably shouldn't judge anyone by their positions on a single issue, and also to suggest that people evolve on issues over time. And also that politicians (especially Republicans) often have to vote with their party. Once they're out of their party, we may be surprised to find they're not so doctrinaire as their voting records might seem.

Most important, however, is that I don't think much of this is all that relevant. Whether Chuck Hagel is personally opposed to abortion or not, he will not be making policy all by himself on this issue for the military. Believe me, the positions will be the president's positions, and Hagel will execute them. And open service for gays and lesbians is now the law of the land. Hagel has already said he now supports this, and even if he didn't, he would have to respect it.

There are specific things that Hagel is apparently good at. One of them will be cutting the military's budget; another will be advocating for a policy of war as a last resort. Those are important things. I think we've totally lost perspective on the idea, which used to be very prevalent, that a president should be allowed to have his choice of cabinet members unless the person is unqualified to do the job (ask Russ Feingold, who voted for John Ashcroft on this basis; and even though it made me mad at the time, I understand his stand on this better now. It's sort of like the debt-ceiling issue: Congress approves spending, then wants to not pay the bills for the stuff they already approved. We elected a president and then don't want to let him have his choice of advisors.)

Like it or not, we elected Obama as our president. He seems to have a great amount of trust in both Hagel and Brennan, and is close to them. Now both right and left are saying he shouldn't be allowed to have the people he trusts execute his policies, because they don't like this or that about them. This already scotched Susan Rice. I don't like this kind of pre-emptive judgment.