RSS 2.0
Hagel Hounded Out
Everyone: collective exhale. Chuck Hagel is not running for President. Even better, he’s not running for re-election:
Hagel won’t seek re-election
BY DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal StarSen. Chuck Hagel will announce Monday he’ll not seek re-election next year.
Hagel also will tell an Omaha news conference he does not intend to be a candidate for any office in 2008, clamping a lid on speculation he might be pondering a late-inning presidential bid.
Pfheeww!!
Senator Me had made a living by going on the Sunday talk shows and running down the President and the war:
Hagel’s departure at the end of 2008 will bring an end to a meteoric 12-year Senate ride that propelled him to national prominence as the most outspoken Republican opponent of President Bush’s Iraq war policies.
What does this mean? By standing firm, the Leader of the Free World and the Greatest Military in the World are surging on, while Chuck is fizzling out.
We also think this is no coincidence: Hagel’s slide from phenom to footnote coincided with the launch of this website and the debut of the Hagel Hound.
Here is what the Hound wrote back in May about Senator Me’s comments on the Gonzales kerfuffle:
Chuck Hagel: Human Headline
Our man Chuck never fails. He is as predictable as Hamburger Helper. Today, Chuck sounded off with another sanctimonious statement about something of no real importance, jumping on the Democratic-led bandwagon against Alberto Gonzales. “He has failed this country. He has lost the moral authority to lead. . . America is a nation of laws. In the interest of the American people, Alberto Gonzales should resign now.” Yawn.
To be sure, the Rascals are not big Gonzales fans. But goodness. Why in the world does Chuck Hagel feel a need to sound off on this sort of sidestory in the tones of the Gettysburg Address? The words he chose took real deliberation to craft. Has this man nothing else to do with his time?
The answer is straightforward enough: No. In his mind at least, he does not have anything better to do with his time. And that leads to another question: Just why is that? Why does a a man like this feel the need to act like this?
Keep in mind who we are discussing. As a young man, Hagel was a substantial war hero. Later, he was a high-level operative in the Reagan campaign for President. He then became a fantastic success in business in Virginia.
One would think that a war-hero-became-movement-Reaganite-became-wildly-successful-entrepreneur-became-U.S. Senator would be more complex than Hagel is. But in the end, he simply isn’t. He is singleminded and easily explained. Chuck Hagel is a man who, for whatever reason, deeply longs for public validation. His only goal is recognition. Understand that, and you understand everything about him.
True, it was the real quality of Hagel that gave him the profile he now enjoys. But tragically, he now apparently defines personal success solely in terms of the increase of his profile. And we see the output of this approach before our eyes. As his profile increases, the actual quality of his person flattens out, and slips away.
Well, Hound, you couldn’t have been more on the money. When Senator Me didn’t gain traction as a presidential candidate and then completely flopped in his non-announcement, he lost alot of the recognition he so deeply craves.
And now that things have turned around in Iraq, Chuck’s nattering negativity on Iraq rings as hollow as the space between Nancy Pelosi’s ears.
Good riddance, Chuck.
Hagel Hound
September 8th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
You know, the Hound could not have said it better.
But here is the burning question: Now that Hagel is where he belongs (i.e. historical footnote land), just what is the Hound supposed to do?
Lost in the Pound,
THE HOUND
Red State Rascals
September 11th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
[…] Hagel (a/k/a Senator Me) embarassed our Red State bloviating before Gen. Petraeus today. He as much as said that he would […]
Red State Rascals
September 28th, 2007 at 12:30 am
[…] Hagel has waxed eloquent once again in his on-going critique of the Iraq war. Senator Me said we need to be less militaristic in the war on terror and dialogue more with terrorist states […]