Oh my god, Republicans are going against the public interest! What a shock! (Not!) So, what else is new?
Senate Republicans Take a Stand Against the Public Interest
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| AP/J. Scott Applewhite |
| Chuck Hagel, a former two-term GOP senator from Nebraska and President Obama’s choice for defense secretary, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing. |
It is bizarre that Chuck Hagel, a war hero with a long record of sensible views on the deployment of military power, gets blocked by Republicans...
The irony in the rejection of Hagel by some senators is that he has been a victim of the irrational application of military power. Hagel, severely wounded during the Vietnam War that few today would argue ever made any national security sense, has long urged caution in foreign military involvement. Hawks complain that he opposed the surge in the U.S. presence in Iraq after having at first gone along with the war. Hagel should be admired for having honored the “fool me once” maxim in not wanting to escalate an invasion justified by blatant lies, but instead his prudence has been scorned.
The case is the same with Hagel’s courage to dare to suggest that Israel’s outsized influence on U.S. Mideast policy may be counterproductive to efforts to find a way to end almost a half-century of occupation of the Palestinian people. There are plenty of well-informed citizens on the front lines in Israel who would agree, but few in ruling U.S. political circles.
The Republicans have turned on Hagel because he dared turn on them in the 2008 election when he refused to endorse Sen. John McCain. All other objections to his nomination are just noise, and what is really at issue is the failure to consider the national interest in its most dangerous manifestation: the waging of war. Republicans still seem determined to derail the Hagel nomination. It is clear that their motivation in both confirmation processes is nothing but partisan and that the public interest will once again be ignored.
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1 comments:
Reading this article and reviewing Republican past actions makes them look like a bunch of little children. They should be called the "WOW WAA Party" (Whatever Obama Wants We Are Against) in order to show their true identity which STINKS. What a way to run a government. We could do better with a bunch of children.
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