Hagel Not Withdrawing, Despite Renewed GOP Opposition

[Purveyor]

Chuck Hagel, known for his unswerving relentlessness both as a senator and as a soldier, plans to stand fast as President Obama’s nominee to head the Pentagon despite a growing GOP effort to defeat him with a rare filibuster, aides said. “He’s not withdrawing,” says Aaron Dowd, a spokesman for the former Nebraska senator. “He could be defeated, but he’s not withdrawing. It’s not something anyone is discussing.” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor, in a brief interview Thursday, endorsed that view. “He’s our guy,” Vietor said.

Withdrawal at this stage, of course, would amount to a major political defeat for Obama, and so it remains unlikely. Nonetheless, Republicans who oppose Hagel -- who alienated his fellow Republicans by taking a stand against the Iraq invasion a decade ago, among other maverick positions -- seem to be newly confident that they can somehow derail his nomination with a filibuster that they’re not quite yet admitting is a filibuster. Senators such as Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are claiming they are holding up the confirmation because they want more information from the White House on Obama’s actions related to the 9/11 Benghazi attacks, which have nothing to do with Hagel.

That heartens the Hagel camp, which notes that the opposition to him has mostly to do with a lot of old history—primarily, the inability of many Republican senators to admit they might have gotten Iraq wrong—as well as a new insecurity among Republicans who are desperate for a winning issue. “A lot of this has nothing to do with him,” Dowd says.

In the not-so-proud tradition of Washington, Hagel is paying dearly not only for speaking his mind in the past but also for his prescience in defying his own president, George W. Bush, during the course of the decadelong “war on terror.” But Hagel only fed his opponents’ ambitions with a strikingly weak performance at his confirmation hearing, where he fumbled over several questions, including whether he supported “containment” against Iran.

MORE...

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/hagel-not-withdrawing-despite-renewed-gop-opposition-20130214

[FSogol]

1. Hagel did not have a "strikingly weak performance at his confirmation hearing"

That's just how the media portrayed it. Refusing to answer McCain and Graham's pissy gotcha questions does not equal a weak performance.

[TwilightGardener]

2. The hearing, the GOP portion of it, was designed to make him look bad. They asked him

the same questions over and over in different ways, refused to allow him to explain, and took quotes out of context, and the one time he accidentally mixed up his words, they seized on it. It's like tripping someone, and then blaming them when they stumble. It wasn't anything like Kerry's hearing, and was a full 5 hours longer. I think Hagel expected the substance of the attacks, but not the form of questioning (YES OR NO! and refusal to allow him full statements in defense of himself). But they're filibustering now, about supposedly Benghazi and Hagel's inability to provide more disclosures, because Hagel did not really make any big mistakes in his hearing, which would have disqualified him. Glad to see he's not giving up.

[riverbendviewgal]

3. Rachel Maddow is doing a program on the Iraq war, this MOnday

but tonight she is giving a preview on her show...

and She says it will be a real eye opener.

Hang on Chuck Hagel....Cheney and W are the war criminals and the ones who took other countries money for their own personal gain....

I have a feeling Rachel will be showing this.

and
what ever happened to Sybil Edmonds...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds
Edmonds gained public attention following her firing from her position as a language specialist at the FBI's Washington Field Office in March 2002, after she accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving foreign nationals, alleging serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence which, she contended, presented a danger to the United States' security. Her later claims have gained her awards and fame as a whistleblower.[3]

In March 2012, she published a memoir, titled Classified Woman-The Sibel Edmonds Story.[4]


This article seems to show quite a bit of hanky panky in congress where some were taking money from other countries.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/23/260662/-Hastert-took-Heroin-bribes-Sibel-Edmonds-Daniel-Ellsberg

[freshwest]

4. His confirmation is more of a game changer than it first appears. Because of...

the inability of many Republican senators to admit they might have gotten Iraq wrong

They did and their media machine went after everyone that tried to talk sense to them as they terrorized the entirety of the American public with shouts of 'traitors!'

They destroyed Iraq, causing turmoil and violence in the region that will haunt the world for generations. They attacked the shredded the conscience of generations of Americans to have the most lucrative money laundering scheme the world has ever known.

The GOP leadership and their families enriched themselves and hid their stolen treasure from America and the world in private hands, a global high jacking. They boldly revealed their plan how to reap the profits from wars to dominate the world a decade before through their PNAC.

It was bad enough to be panicked and intimidated into going along as the nation reeled from 9/11 and the anthrax mailings that terrorized Congress and killed postal workers to force agreements.

The huge bill of private contracts that was the essence of the Patriot Act had to have been written up a long time before. Just as Romney called to eliminate FEMA so that Jeb Bush's outfit could get contracts, they feathered their nest at every opportunity to rob the people through privatizing the Commons.

Then laughed as they removed the last tangible bit of the so-called bootstrap for the poor or anyone not in their realm of influence. All while threatening death for treason to anyone who stood up to them.

Their legacy are those crimes. Anything else they say now is merely trying to continue the witness protection program. Too insensitive to the GOP?

I think not: