Tag: chuck hagel

Chuck Hagel and Murder in Vietnam

Think of it as the Great Obama Shuffle.  When U.N. ambassador Susan Rice went down in flames as the president’s nominee for secretary of state, he turned to ally, former presidential candidate, and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry (who had essentially been traveling the world as a second secretary of state … Continue reading “Chuck Hagel and Murder in Vietnam”

The Larger Question of Chuck Hagel

The Israel Lobby is hell bent on sabotaging President Barack Obama’s tentative plan to appoint former Sen. Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. And – with Obama now dithering about this selection – the Lobby and its neocon allies sense another impending victory. Perhaps The New Yorker’s Connie Bruck described Hagel’s predicament best in assessing … Continue reading “The Larger Question of Chuck Hagel”

Why This Fight

There has been a lot of pushback against the neoconservatives‘ preemptive smear campaign against Chuck Hagel, much of it illuminating, but none as clear-headed as that by Paul Pillar in The National Interest, who starts out his piece this way: "The effort to slander Chuck Hagel and to torpedo his potential nomination to be secretary … Continue reading “Why This Fight”

Chuck Hagel: An Unconventional Realist

The knives are out: “Send us Hagel and we will make sure every American knows he is an anti-Semite.” That’s what a top Republican Senate aide told the Weekly Standard in response to the news that President Obama is likely to nominate former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as his new Secretary of Defense. Normally, the … Continue reading “Chuck Hagel: An Unconventional Realist”