Hagel on Bush Immigration Plan: ‘That’s Not The Role of Our National Guard

[Rose Siding]

Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) sharply criticized President Bush’s proposal, expected to be announced Monday, of sending thousands of National Guard troops to police the southern U.S. border. Hagel said flatly, “that’s not the role of our national guard.” He added that “we’ve got National Guard members in their second, third and fourth tours in Iraq” and “stretched our military as thin as we have ever seen in modern times.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) has also spoken out against the plan.

Full transcript:

STEPHANOPOULOS: against sending the National Guard. Where do you stand?

HAGEL: Well, I want to listen to the details and I want to listen to the President. But I would say this: I think we have to be very careful here. That’s not the role of our military. That’s not the role of our national guard. Let’s approach this in a long-term way where we fix the problem. That’s a short-term fix and I’m not sure it’s a very wise fix. Let’s start with the fact of whether we even have the capacity. What the Governor’s talking about. We’ve got 75% of all the equipment of National Guard all across this country is in Iraq. We’ve got National Guard members in their second, third and fourth tours in Iraq. We have stretched our military as thin as we have ever seen it in modern times. What in the world are we talking about here, sending a National Guard that we may not have any capacity to send down to protect our borders. That’s not their role. I’ll listen to the President but I have a lot of questions about this. I’m skeptical.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/14/hagel-on-immigration/

[leesa]

1. Hagel...says some token words and then goes along with whatever foolish

thing the Chimp wants anyway.

[saltpoint]

2. But he may be among the Republicans who finally defy the White House

in many issues from this point forward.

Bush hasn't even given the speech yet, and Schwartzenegger and Hagel have generated headlines for themselves in opposition to Bush's plan.

That's evidence that more and more Republicans see the emporer is buck naked.

[Rose Siding]

3. True but still good- It perpetuates the 'GOP in disarray' theme

and the lamer the duck, the less legislative damage to undo. Laws don't matter to bush anyway, of course, but undoing them is costly and time consuming.

[populistdriven]

4. Send all the NSA white worms to patrol the border

Grab all of Bush's phone records while they are out!