by Damozel | I said it before, a year ago: Retiring Senator Hagel (R-Neb) is what a real Republican looks like. And he knows what's wrong with his party, even if the mouth-breathers and neanderthals don't.
Let's start with the decorated war veteran's remarks on the blowhard Limbaugh. Via HuffPost:
"We are educated by the great entertainers like Rush Limbaugh," said Hagel, sarcastically referencing the talk radio host who once called him "Senator Betrayus." "You know, I wish Rush Limbaugh and others like that would run for office. They have so much to contribute and so much leadership and they have an answer for everything. And they would be elected overwhelmingly," he offered. "[The truth is] they try to rip everyone down and make fools of everybody but they don't have any answers."...
The fact is, something is badly wrong with the GOP and only very stupid people don't know that by now. Even some of its hard-shelled far right members know that. David Frum knows that.
Hagel offered what amounted to an hour-long plea for the next administration and Congress to reconfigure the way it works together and within the international framework when it comes to foreign affairs.
"Eighty-seven percent of the American people said America is going in the wrong direction," said Hagel. "You don't need to know another number about anything....[T]he American people don't like what is going on... they want us to start doing what leaders are expected to do, address the problems, find some consensus to governing. Get along. There will be disagreements, sure... but in the end we can't hold ourselves captives to this raw, partisan, political paralysis."....
The main thrust of his critiques was aimed not at any individual specifically, but at a closed-off mindset that he believed had taken hold of Republican politics and, consequently, the GOP's approach to foreign policy. "Engagement is not appeasement," he said. "Diplomacy is not retreat. Somehow too many in this town and in this country have disconnected all of that." (HuffPost)
Hagel: he rocks. I might not agree with him about a lot of things, but he is a Republican even a progressive can respect.
BUCK NAKED POLITICS
Paulson's Pep-Talk Op-Ed: an Exercise in Specious Statements and Omissions
Lieberman "Compromise" "Punishment" Proposal Means He Will Keep His Main Committee Chair
Did Bush Admin. Mislead us About Iranian Arms in Iraq?
Senate to Consider $25 Billion Auto-Industry Bailout: But Why? (Updated)
Hagel is one of the creatures called RINOs, Republicans-in-Name-Only and really is a situationalist rather than a man of principle. His principle is to split the difference, which is what "engagement" always means in diplomatic doublespeak. When I was on the Board of the Middle East Institute, he impressed me by coming to some of our presentations. Sadly, he doesn't know diddly about the Middle East---and I suspect that like Biden, he is a second-rate mind way above his Peter Principle natural skill set.
Limbaugh makes more sense on any given day than almost every Senator who opines on the talking-head Larry King & other TV blab-fests, including C-Span.
Posted by: daveinboca | November 18, 2008 at 11:56 PM