Hagel in 2008!

The discussion topic of ‘what makes a moderate’ over on Sonicrusk got me to thinking about the various Republicans I admire.  It’s a list that grows larger or shorter depending on what I happen to witness on CSPAN in a given week.  Some I’ll love one week hate the next, but for the most part they’re people I’ve come to respect quite a bit.    They’re the ones who sound the least like Ken Mehlman I suppose.  The ones who don’t approach every piece of legislation like an industry lobbyist, and don’t get up on the House or Senate floor to create a sound byte, but instead to engage in honest political debate.  Using this standard, I’d rather see Trent Lott running the show than Bill Frist, and a military veteran or ‘elder statesman’ will always make more sense to me than hollow shills like Rick Santorum or James Inhofe.   

There is one though that beats out all the rest in my mind, and in fact is someone I would vote for in the 2008 presidential campaign if Republicans were smart enough to nominate him.  Chuck Hagel from Nebraska.  Above and beyond his history and accomplishments, his military service, his honesty, his belief that a person’s religion is their own business…it’s the idea that government can be run well if the right leaders step up and get it done!    ‘Competent Governance’ is the phrase that Hagel believes in 100%, yet a concept that Republicans have been running and governing the opposite for well over a decade now.  Think about how many years we’ve had to listen to the leaders of this party drone on and on about how government isn’t the answer to anything?  That the private sector is the only option, deficits don’t matter, and remaining in power is the only goal.    

Responsibility being relevant based only on political or financial cost benefit, as we all got to see during Katrina, when apparently the attacks of 9/11 couldn’t even convince these people that they actually had a job to do.  Increasing gaps between upper and middle class, federal tax dollars in versus money spent, insured and uninsured, student test results compared with the rest of the world nor the rising number of earmarks and corruption charges are going to convince them to spin less and work more anytime soon.    Hagel rejects every piece of this current GOP strategy when it comes to the actual work, and isn’t about to pander to voters who only want to hear that government is the enemy.  Our current President is as anti-government as they come, and quite predictably his performance has matched that sentiment.  More inclined to invoke the memory of 9/11 than bring up education, heath care or federal spending, in 2000 and 2004 Americans unwittingly elected a public relations team with zero interest in actually governing.  A group of people who’d never fought in a war, yet were dead set on sending hundreds of thousands into Iraq the first chance they could.   

Hagel not only believes that government can work, but he’s a war veteran, twice wounded, infantry.  During the Reagan administration he served as the second in command of the VA.  When shameful cuts to VA funding made it through the budget, he spoke out and later resigned in protest.  Now a Senator, you’d be hard pressed to find a Republican colleague who’d push back harder on the current administration’s budget, which incidentally includes cuts to the VA even though the war continues.        The religious-right isn’t going to convince this man to turn back the hands of time, kill science or push abstinence over contraception in third world countries.  Likewise, the military industrial complex isn’t going to feast on wasted billions producing equipment and weapons systems we haven’t needed for 30 years.  Most importantly for me though, the life of a soldier will once again be a sacred factor in deciding whether or not to wage war across the world.    

And it’s this part of his philosophy that draws me to him as opposed to McCain (the only other Republican I could see myself voting for in 2008).  While McCain tends to lean towards military intervention rather than diplomacy, Hagel’s position is to reach for the olive branch before the M-16.  Well before the invasion of Iraq, he stated that we lacked an understanding of their culture, and that without proper planning, a civil war would ensue.  He advocated reaching out to Iran and Cuba back then as well.     Wisdom like this back when the country was in lock step with whatever Bush wanted to do…that’s a true leader!  The idea that government CAN work is also the temperament of a true leader.    Mark my words.  If Hagel becomes the nominee, things are going to change here at deadissue, and for at least a campaign, we might all agree on something.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed!