Report: Hagel Going to GOP Cattle Call — Will He Run In 2008?
Is Chuck Hagel, the most outspoken GOP Iraq War critic, on the verge of announcing a candidacy for President? ABC News reports that Hagel has told two unions, the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Building and Construction Trades Department, that he wants to participate in their upcoming GOP cattle call scheduled for March 14.
Although a Hagel aide said the Senator has not made a decision about a campaign, a spokesperson for one of the unions told ABC, "I think it's fair to say that if Sen. Hagel is accepting the invitation to be a participant in a presidential candidates' forum that he is, in fact, a candidate for president."
GOPers are skeptical, however. Former Reagan Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein, for instance, told ABC that Hagel's dissent from Bush Administration policy on Iraq "flies in the face of ... having any viable way of getting the nomination."
The irony is that Hagel's sharp criticism of Bush's war makes him appealing to independents but not to the GOP rank and file. So his chance in the primaries is practically nil. Most Repubs still support the war; it's everyone else who's turned against it.
March 7, 2007 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hagel knows by the end of the year the war is going to be as popular, even in Republican circles, as the plague. We're losing not just the war but the US Army in Iraq folks. By summer that will abundantly clear. Hagel may figure that the rest of the Repub candidates are hanging themselves on Bush's petard.
I hope I'm wrong but I don't think I am. Hagel can help us end this war and for that I applaud him. But he's still a Republican from a red state and I see no reason to vote for him. 99% of everything else he stands for is anathema to me.
March 7, 2007 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am not so sure that he would not win Republican primaries in, for example, NY, CA, and NH -- and even Iowa caucuses -- so long as there are a half dozen candidates (and 5 of the 6 are various degrees of pro-war). He would change the dialogue considerably. More than that these are all early races and he would have the momentum with those three if the rest of the early states divided.
global citizen
March 7, 2007 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink