Hagel on Bush WH: ‘most arrogant, incompetent’ ever.

[ProSense]

Hagel on Bush WH: ‘most arrogant, incompetent’ ever.

Yesterday in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) stepped up his rhetoric against the Bush administration, calling it one of the most “incompetent” in history:

Hagel, who considered running for the GOP presidential nomination as an antiwar candidate, told the foreign policy experts that he would give the Bush administration “the lowest grade of any I’ve known.”

“I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I’ve ever seen or ever read about,” Hagel said, according to our colleague Robert Kaiser, who attended the speech. In case his audience didn’t get the point, Hagel also said: “They have failed the country.”

[TwilightGardener]

1. Whoa. Tell us how you really feel, Chuck--don't hold back.

edit to add: here's the real kicker, from the WaPo article: "Then Hagel went to dinner with New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the recently turned independent who has toyed with the idea of a Bloomberg-Hagel presidential ticket."

[peace frog]

2. Golly, and it only took him 6 years to say it

BushCo have been "incompetent and arrogant" since day one, but Chuckie Boy is some kind of frickin' hero for understating the obvious NOW???? Color me so very underwhelmed. :eyes:

[TwilightGardener]

6. Naw, he's been saying this sort of thing for a long time.

He really hates Chimpy. He used to try to hide it and be more diplomatic, but now that he's retiring, he just doesn't give a fuck anymore. Recall that he was one of the first politicians to wonder aloud if Chimpy would be impeached.

[peace frog]

7. His Congressional voting record says otherwise

Hagel has voted in line with BushCO demands something like 94% of the time, for 6+ years. I'm completely unimpressed with his criticisms after he has supported GOP legislation right down the line.

[TwilightGardener]

9. He votes like a conservative Republican from Nebraska, which is what he is, so

his record is what I would expect. But he has broken with the Chimp on numerous occasions in terms of foreign policy--voted against Kyl-Lieberman, voted for timetables to end the war, voted to restore habeas corpus, co-sponsored a bill to close Gitmo, voted no-confidence on Gonzo, voted to make public some intelligence documents that made Chimpster look bad. Also stuck up publicly for Al Gore and Max Cleland. So he has somewhat of a conscience in some areas, but is a typical mean Republican on things like SCHIP and minimum wage (he's my Senator, and those votes really pissed me off). He's an odd critter and a mixed bag, but he is what he is. I do appreciate his willingness to say what he thinks, no holding back or weasel words. And he will forever be my hero (as a military wife) for vocally, loudly opposing the war for several years now, at great cost to his political career.

[peace frog]

10. Still no sale

His opposition to the war has cost him nothing but has evidently garnered accolades from supposed liberals who should be seeing him for what he actually is: an unapologetic member of a thoroughly discredited political party.

[TwilightGardener]

12. I'm not trying to make a sale--I'm just summing up what

I've gathered (as a constituent) from his Senate career. He's done some things I applaud, and many things I disagree with. If you lived in Nebraska, you would see that his outspokenness on the war and on Chimpy/Cheney has cost him dearly in terms of his reputation in this state--he supports (and is friends with) Mike Johanns, but knows Johanns doesn't want him to campaign for him in the Senate race, because Hagel is toxic in Nebraska. His own mentor, John McCollister (a Congressman from Nebraska whom Hagel used to work for) has publicly lambasted him in the newspapers here for speaking out against Chimpy. If Hagel had kept his mouth shut on the war, he might have been the Repub nominee--he was almost a VP pick for Chimpy in 2000. Hagel knows that being a maverick gets you nowhere in the GOP--he co-chaired John McCain's campaign--but he spoke up anyway. So yes, it cost him. Now I agree with you that if he were REALLY principled, he's leave the GOP--but just like he was too spineless to run for Prez, he's too spineless to give up his party affiliation and stand alone.

[peace frog]

13. Thank you for sharing the info

and I agree with your last sentence. I could admire and applaud him if he left the GOP and never looked back, as did Jim Webb and a few others.

[SoCalDem]

3. Chuckie poo must have early-onset alzheimers

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/07/cnna.hagel.biden/

[Inuca]

22. ????

What he said in that 2003 short interview is notinconsistent with what he says now. The specifics of the situation have of course changed, but not the general principles.

[mdmc]

4. Wow!

He sounds like Kucinich, McCain, or Hillary!

[gasperc]

5. oooo, tough words

would have helped back in 2002

[Eurobabe]

8. Good for Hagel

I'm glad he's dumping the Grand Oil Party/Gross Old Perverts.

[satya]

11. Just remember, Hagel, it was your voting machines that helped put him there. nt

[TBUSA]

14. Applies to the Repub party as well.

A coup occurred on their watch. A terrorist attack occurred on their watch.
The Republican party failed to protect our Constitution . They let a group of ideological misfits take over portions of our government in order to realign the world politics.
The Republican party can not protect our country.

[jacksonian]

18. damn right

and very succinctly put. The Republican party can't protect anything but their own asses.

[live love laugh]

32. Hagel's voting machines put Hagel there too which is why this is meaningless. nt/

[Supersedeas]

15. that would be a no-confidence vote for Condi - Sec of State and Nat Security Advisor

[David Zephyr]

16. K&R.

n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

17. You've got to hand it to Hagel

for speaking out against these guys. As a Republican, he must be pretty lonely in expressing these views.

[Virginia Dare]

19. Then why did your party release this scourge upon our nation Chucky?

nice try at "distancing" though.

[goforit]

20. Good for you Chuck! As an enabler during the 2000 election with Diabold,

you must be really regretting the "whole enchalada"

[tblue37]

36. He and Sandra Day O'Connor. n/t

[B Calm]

21. Can you blame him for distancing himself from Bush...

[wiggs]

23. This should be said every day by the opposition party. nt

[Supersedeas]

29. how about the MSM simply reporting what other Repubs are saying

[DeepModem Mom]

24. K&R

[Disturbed]

25. Hagel: would consider a Dem ticket.

He is fishing for a new job.

[Va Lefty]

26. This needs to be in a campaign commercial next year

Whoever our nominee is, this needs to be run in all markets next year. Might wake up a few repukes.

[doc03]

31. He could be our Zell Miller! Why in the hell are so many

bashing the guy? I would like to see some Democrats with the balls to tell it like it is. When I heard Zell Miller and heard peoples reaction to it I knew it was over for Kerry.

[TwilightGardener]

33. I'd welcome him as a Democrat. We'd just have to brainwash him

a little, maybe make a continuous-loop audiotape for him--"SCHIP is good for American children...people deserve a minimum wage...women deserve the right to choose..." His brother is a big-time, proud, liberal Democrat, by the way.

[Inuca]

34. I don't know about that...

I kind of like his brain, works pretty well... Those SCHIP votes were tough to swallow though... somaybe your idea is not so bad after all :-).

[Inuca]

27. Link to the transcript

http://www.cfr.org/publication/14895/conversation_with_chuck_hagel_rush_transcript_federal_news_service.html?breadcrumb=%2Fpublication%2Fby_type%2Ftranscript

Lots of interesting stuff, not all of it incendiary (that part is mostly in the Q&A towards the end). The Q&A is not only full of red meat, but also quite entertaining, seems like Hagel had a bit of fun. Just one quote, no time for more

QUESTIONER: Hi. My name is Nancy Lieberman. Is there any Republican candidate for president or former Republican potential candidate for president which has a foreign policy consistent -- philosophy consistent with your own or even close to your own?

HAGEL: Well, to be fair to these candidates, they've been put in these awkward formats. It's kind of like the poor man's Gong Show. (Laughter.) And I would far prefer -- and I think most Americans if you're interested -- to give each candidate five minutes and say, "Okay, Senator or Governor, Congressman, tell us what your foreign policy is and would be for the next four years." Take any dimension of that or, "What is your policy regarding America's competitive role in the world, our declining dollar? Should we intervene? Should we not intervene? How do you stop that? How can you stop it?" And so on and so on.

Whether these glancing blows, smart-ass, kind of glib answers that a bunch of wise-ass consultants get together and they put in the minds of all these candidates -- "Now, you want to get this one in. This will be a zinger on old Mitt. Wait until he gets that one." (Laughter.) You know, and, "Here's a good one for Rudy. You know, ask him about all the wives," and so on. (Laughter.)

I mean -- and so America and the world is sitting out there -- "Well, I don't know. Does that have anything to do with what the next set of challenges are?"

And so I -- to your question about who is in my opinion closest to my foreign policy, John McCain is the only one that I -- of the candidates that I've worked closely with -- of the Republicans. Now, Joe Biden -- I'm very close to Joe Biden's philosophy about foreign policy. I suppose of all the candidates out there, including McCain, I'm probably closer to Joe Biden's. And I think Biden would be a very good president. I think Joe Biden would be a very good secretary of State.

[TwilightGardener]

28. LOL!--good stuff. "Wise-ass"--he sure does swear a lot--even in formal speeches

and on the Senate floor. He must not have gotten the 'ol bar of soap often enough as a kid.

[Inuca]

30. You know what?

I did not even noticxe it! What will you think now of MY language :-)!

Has he used similar language on the floor? Did not know that, kind of fun...

[Lugnut]

35. Ya think?

Add one more Captain Obvious to the list.