Senator Hagel Setting Himself up for White House in 2008

Like most people from the Plains States, Nebraska's Senator Chuck Hagel walks around with a fierce pragmatism that makes ideology sit uneasy. When confronted with facts that don't fit the official line, he has trouble engaging in Orwellian doublethink. That trait is currently buying him distance from President Bush in a sequence of events that could land the moderate Republican a GOP nomination for president four years from now.

Many Republicans in Washington don't dare proclaim that the Emperor has no clothes, or more appropriately, that the President has no clues. Speaking to the World Affairs Council in LA earlier this week, the senator said that the war on Iraq was poorly planned and that it resulted in spreading terror cells more widely across the globe. "It's harder to deal with them because they're not as contained. Iraq has become a training ground," he said.

A decorated Vietnam combat vet, the senator also said reinstitution of the draft may be needed, "We are seeing huge cracks developing in our force structure. The fact is, if we're going to continue with this, we're going to have to be honest with the American people." Rightly or wrongly, the mere suggestion that the military is over-extended runs up against the Bush White House line. For a Democrat to say something along these lines is to be expected. For a Republican on the select committee on intelligence to say it suggests that the situation is extreme,

Mr. Hagel, no doubt, believes every word he said, but there are political advantages to his position. In declining to entertain a hypothetical offer of a vice presidential nomination from John Kerry, he said, "I'll stay in the Republican Party." And why not? Win or lose, George W. Bush won't be a candidate in 2008, and Vice President Dick Cheney is not in any shape to run. There is no heir presumptive, which goes against GOP standards (e.g., Bob Dole got the nomination in 1996 because it was his turn). A two-term senator from a sensible state like Nebraska has a shot; add in some security credentials, and he's a very serious candidate.

But if the Iraq fiasco ends in tears (like civil war or many more American deaths), the GOP won't be able to defeat President John Kerry in 2008 with a guy who blindly supported Mr. Bush. Mr. Hagel is buying himself the wiggle-room in the middle now that he will need then. For example, Senator Hagel also told the World Affairs Council, "We are pushing away our friends, our allies, the next generation around the world" with America's current approach. The first step in solving a problem is recognizing the problem, which makes the senator a man to watch.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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