Even in 2001, when he voted for the IWR, he stated told Bush he did so for the purpose of giving the president a "stick" to use to force a diplomatic solution. Hagel publicly lobbied the president against actually invading Iraq, even after he voted for the IWR. Since 2001, his actions have consistently suggested he realizes his mistake.
He is
despised by the neocon/theocon/Limbaugh wing of the Republican Party, who are infuriated by his actions.
Even with overwhelming majorities of Americans opposed to escalation, the opinion of the
GOP activists that dominate the precinct/county/state/national power structure and nominating process is precisely the opposite.
The right wing noise machine has been actively gunning for him to
deprive him of re-nomination for the Senate in 2008. This movement to purge him from the GOP was going on even before his recent strongly worded public criticism of escalation.
The chances of Hagel receiving the GOP nomination, rounded to the closest .01%, perhaps approaches zero. His chances of GOP machine challenge to his Senate re-nomination is real.
Yet rather than moderate his rhetoric, Omaha television's Joe Jordan reports that Hagel insiders have leaked that
Hagel will neither run for president nor re-election to the Senate in 2008, although Hagel has made no official announcement.
http://leavenworthstreet.blogspot.com/2006/12/hagel-plans.html Since the above leak, Hagel's criticism appears to be
freed of any attempt to mollify the pro-war GOP activist base.
One might wonder
if Hagel is laying the groundwork to break from the GOP, perhaps to become independent (an independent Senate candidacy might conceivably defeat a pro-war, party-blessed Republican in Nebraska), perhaps a third-party presidential candidacy, perhaps to endorse a Democrat against a pro-war Republican presidential candidate in 2008.