GOP Sen. Hagel takes aim at Bush: 'This is not a monarchy'

[kpete]

GOP Sen. Hagel takes aim at Bush: 'This is not a monarchy'

David Edwards and Mike Sheehan
Published: Wednesday January 17, 2007

On CNN's 'Situation Room,' Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), who has joined key Democratic senators on a resolution to stop the Iraq troop 'surge' being pushed by the Bush administration, tells host Wolf Blitzer that "a bipartisan consensus" was needed for Iraq policy to succeed. The bill he co-sponsored was called a "slap at the president" by Blitzer.

"The best interests of our country" are not served by American escalation in Iraq, Hagel explained. He said that America cannot just pull out, and "a few more years" would be required before the US withdrew. But he added that more Americans must not be "thrown in" to Iraq, and the Iraqis should deal with the problem themselves.

He also sought to remind the president that the Congress is a co-equal branch of government, "this is not a monarchy," and that on "November 7th, the people changed the management" in Congress. The bill Hagel was now getting behind "is just the beginning," the Vietnam Veteran senator pledged.

VIDEO AT:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/GOP_Sen._Hagel_takes_aim_at_0117.html

[illinoisprogressive]

1. I think all of congress should start saying loudly the same thing:

This is not a monarchy, George.

[Booster]

11. I totally agree. If Americans seem to only get stuff when it's

repeated over and over again, then this is what everyone should be shouting every chance they get. Keep pounding it until they finally wake up. Lord knows it's worked for Bush.

[DianeG5385]

2. When the pubs get it right we need to stand behind them

We are not that far apart and they love their country too. We seem to be converging so let's focus on common ground with those that are leaning against the war in Iraq and after we've saved our country we can bicker about nonsense again.

[illinoisprogressive]

7. I so agree with you Diane. I'm a Diane too.

[DianeG5385]

14. Yay! us "D"s need to stick together!

I have alot of family in Woodstock, Elgin and Harvard

[DianaForRussFeingold]

23. WoW, Dianes' Are All In Agreement ,Patriot Sen. Hagel has My Support

GOP Sen. Hagel takes aim at Bush "This is not a monarchy" It warms my heart that there is a consensus with at least one Republican on this!

:grouphug:
Republican senator rips Bush on Iraq strategy , :patriot: June 30, 2004 "We are pushing away our friends, our allies, the next generation around the world," Hagel said. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/30/MNGTS7E5RK1.DTL&type=printable I'm thinking maybe Split Ticket :pals: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/Press.hom/Vietnam_Presidency/Pages/Vietnam_and_the_Presidency.shtm&h=130&w=195&sz=7&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=hjOexu_CGeDt1M:&tbnh=69&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGeneral%2BClark%2Bhagel%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DX

[TomInTib]

3. Hagel is going to the White House.

Count on it.

[pnwmom]

8. That's what I've been thinking. Do you think he'll win?

[TomInTib]

16. Yep.

I know so many serious people on both sides of the fence who are pushing Hagel.

He has no real baggage, except ES&S (voting machines - and neither Party wishes to address that subject).

I do believe that he is the one to watch.

[bdamomma]

32. He probably can wipe the floor with McCain, but wait one minute

we want a Dem in the WH, one comment does not make a Democrat. Right?

[ConsAreLiars]

18. He has a `100% rating from the so-called "Christian Coalition." Be afraid.

Be very afraid. If he gets in. he and the Talibornagains and corporatists will utterly destroy this country.

NARAL 0 percent,
Planned Parenthood 0 percent,
National Right to Life Committee 100 percent,

American Land Rights Association 100 percent,
American Wilderness Coalition 0 percent,

National Federation of Independent Business 100 percent,
U.S. Chamber of Commerce 94 percent,
Business-Industry Political Action Committee 100 percent,
Public Citizen's Congress Watch 12 percent,
Americans for Tax Reform 100 percent.

And so on, and on and on and on.

Edit to add the links:
http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_detail.php?sig_id=001656W ("Christian" Coalition)
http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=BC031069 (Various issues)

[TomInTib]

21. Oh, I am afraid. I am just saying that is how it is gonna be.

That is why we are leaving one of the finest spots in the U S.

And moving to Costa Rica.

See you in Dominical.

[joe green]

25. That's all true, but

I will only vote for someone who categorically states he/she will get out of Iraq. If the Democratic Party nominates a fence-sitter or someone I judge will not get us out, I would vote for Hagel, depending on his firm commitment/plan to get us out. For me, Iraq trumps all other issues. The way I see it, Democrats will control both House and Senate in '08, so it wouldn't bother me to have Hagel in the WH.

Whomever I vote for will have to have a firm commitment to get out in the quickest way possible. I won't vote for a 12-step plan with a lot of if's.

[newyawker99]

30. Hi joe green!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[NoAmericanTaliban]

4. Good for Hagel. Let's hope more Repugs jump on the band wagon.

[calimary]

5. Good. One by one. I think we ought to start leaning on people like Olympia

Snowe to defect. After all, it would be better than having to face the fate Lincoln Chafee had to eat. If he'd switched parties, he might still have a job. Besides, she'd get back into the majority and be able to share calling-the-shots privileges. AND she's moderate, so she might find the Democratic Party a lot more comfortable a fit than the shrieking extremists she's connected to, at present. The momentum, after all, is on OUR side now. And not showing any signs of shrinking.

Divide and conquer.

Especially since it's just becoming rather odiferous to stand by bush:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3061360&mesg_id=3061360

[rgbecker]

6. Take a minute and send Chuck an email of thanks. Link here:

http://hagel.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home

[illinoisprogressive]

9. did it. I thought it important to tell him to keep fighting the good and

very important fight and that many people are behind him rooting for him.

[pnwmom]

10. This will propel him to the top of any Repub presidential field.

A veteran who has opposed Iraq from the beginning.

[fujiyama]

13. LOL

You overestimate the intelligence and judgment of republican primary voters.

Remember in the past, early republican primary voters have gone for the likes of Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan. And of course, they went with the idiot in office now.

OTOH, if he did get the nomination he'd have a very good chance of winning. He comes off as an independent, though of course his voting record is very conservative.

[liberalpragmatist]

15. I wouldn't vote for him

Still, a traditional conservative who loves his country and respects those that disagree with him would be lightyears ahead of what we have right now. I would happily trade Bush for Hagel. And if Hagel, by some fluke, were the Republican nominee and were to win, I could sleep soundly at night.

[pnwmom]

19. You, who wouldn't vote for him, "could sleep soundly at night."

That's exactly why he's such a strong candidate -- among the Repubs -- IMHO. Because he seems like a traditional conservative, which would be a relief after Bush. Not too scary, too old, or too weird. And he'd probably have a lot of appeal with independents.

[ConsAreLiars]

22. And 100% backing from the craziest and most vicious right wingers. .

The Dobson's know that he's one of them, even if some DUers don't. Scary if you look a bit more closely. Chimpy with the political and con artistry skills to appear sane.

[pnwmom]

20. The primaries don't start for a year. By then, Hagel will be wearing

the robes of a prophet. Don't be surprised if Republicans vote for him in droves.

[w4rma]

24. Not. The Republican base **hates** Hagel. (nt)

[Faryn Balyncd]

31. Robert Scheer: "Chuck Hagel for President!" - - The GOP base despises Hagel, this is ROBERT SCHEER..

Robert Scheer: "Chuck Hagel for President!"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3061261&mesg_id=3061261

"Robert Screer: Chuck Hagel for President!"



"Chuck Hagel for president! If it ever narrows down to a choice between him and some Democratic hack who hasn’t the guts to fundamentally challenge the president on Iraq, then the conservative Republican from Nebraska will have my vote. Yes, the war is that important, and the fact that Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, the leading Democratic candidate, still can’t or won’t take a clear stand on the occupation is insulting to the vast majority of voters who have........

".......Too many leading Democratic politicians continue to act as if they fear that if they are forthright in opposing the war, they will appear weak, whether on national security or the protection of Israel, and so ignore the clear, strong voice of the American people that just revived their party’s fortunes..........

"......Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, late of an oft-opportunistic Democratic Party that saw fit to nominate him as recently as 2000 for the vice presidency, had just finished accusing those who don’t support President Bush’s escalation of the war of being “all about failing.” In his defense of the indefensible, Lieberman baldly repeated many of Bush’s lies that launched this war four years ago..........Hagel refused to bite on Lieberman’s apocalyptic vision, which somehow manages to skip the hard truth that Iraq has collapsed because of our involvement, not despite it........“the fact is, the Iraqi people will determine the fate of Iraq,” Hagel responded, in what amounts to a radical opinion in paternalistic, arrogant Washington. “The people of the Middle East will determine their fate. We continue to interject ourselves in a situation that we never have understood, we’ve never comprehended we now have to devise a way to find some political consensus with our allies the regional powers, including Iran and Syria.........To say that we are going to feed more young men and women into that grinder, put them in the middle of a tribal, sectarian civil war, is not going to fix the problem,” he added.

"Words of wisdom that set the standard for anyone running for president."





. . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Scheer, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070116_robert_sch... /

What will it require to nominate a Democratic candidate that will unambiguously, with pride & patriotism, take on this un-American, lawless GOP administration, end the war, renounce the permanent bases, and restore civil liberties and checks & balances?



Without Chuck Hagel's challenge, will America be stuck with another DLC-backed, war-accomidating, corporatist fence straddler?



Without the threat of Chuck Hagel, will Hillary Clinton ever stop trying to substitute a Clinton "surge" in Afghanistan for a Bush "surge" in Iraq?

[Renew Deal]

12. I'm just glad to see congress doing some work.

:D

[Erika]

17. The GOP was nothing more than a rubber stamp to W

drawing their salaries from the government. There has been and will be a backlash. Congress was never meant to be a rubber stamp of the executive branch. They'll pay for it.

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

26. And the calamity in Iraq is not Iraq's fault, Senator.

The US gets the blame. Go ahead and admit it.

[Strawman]

27. I think a little institutional patriotism is something both parties in Congress should get behind

It's a battle for the relevancy of the legislative branch that is at stake here.

[windbreeze]

28. a question.....

Did Hagel or any of the Rep Congress do anything to stop * in his tracks for anything he's done, until now??? Just curious...Remember, * was THEIR man, from THEIR party...if he needed reined in...they should have done it a long time ago, and not let him take this country down this particular road, that they okayed...and stood behind, 100%...sometimes, things are a little too little, a little too late...I would have been far more impressed if they had stood up and been counted, say uhhh, 4 years ago, BEFORE Iraq and a lot of other nasty legislation, etc., that they reveled in passing...so even as we are willing to congratulate them for doing what they do now...we better NOT forget, they WERE the majority, and they all share the responsibility for the state this country is in..IF it was ok then...why the changes now??? BECAUSE THEY ARE WORRIED ABOUT BEING REPLACED...nothing more, and nothing less...they are covering their asses, in other words...sorry, I am NOT impressed...and I will NOT be fooled....
windbreeze

[cool user name]

29. "A few more years?"

:wtf:

[Imagevision]

33. 'This is not a monarchy' - Bush GOPer's are finally fed up with his crap, spopiled punk-kid with

influential daddy & friends, except jr's time is running out while he continues to throw more lives away for bullshit war!!