GOP fistfight is brewing in Nebraska as AG Jon Bruning challeges Senator Chuck Hagel.
A GOP fistfight of sorts is brewing in Nebraska as the state's Attorney General, Jon Bruning, targets incumbent Senior Senator and Iraq war critic, Chuck Hagel. The Senator has been praised by some for his courage in openly criticizing Bush and the Iraq war, while others have derided him for this, including his suggestion of a Bush impeachment as a possible solution to ending the Iraq war (which he advocates). Though Senator Hagel (I voted for him in his first senate run) has not decided whether to run for re-election to his senate seat, run for president on a Republican ticket, or team up with New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, on an independent ticket (the more plausible move) as expected, the Nebraska primary senate race portends a more spirited campaign than we had a few weeks ago here in Kentucky. Stay tuned.
Labels: Politics, Public Service, Republicanism
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 12:50 AM
4 Comments:
I've heard a little bit about the third-party movement "Unity '08", and both Bloomberg and Hagel mentioned as possible candidates. Has either of these men expressed a willingness to run as veep with the other? I would presume both of them think of themselves as numero uno.
No, but I presume Bloomberg will INSIST on the numero uno spot, because he'll bring the "brinks truck" full of dead Presidents and his ego won't allow him to take a back seat to anyone.
I agree with that, and I don't think either of them would run as the VP portion of a ticket. Bloomberg, rightly or wrongly, will come across to average Americans as a wine-and-cheese elitist. It'll take a lot of image-making to cause dollars to equal votes for Bloomberg. Hagel, meanwhile, lacks resources to make a viable third-party run.
As you state in your article, Hagel hasn't ruled out running as a Republican for either president or re-election to the Senate. But there are no clear pathways to success open to him, because whatever percentage of Republicans have mixed feelings on the war, as long as troops are in the field they will not be able to emotionally separate hard geostrategic analysis from patriotic deference to our official chain of command.
We'll know more after September, when the "official" analyses of the "surge" are due in. Whatever legislative calculus from both parties develops as a result of those timelines, it's hard to see how the Hagel phenomenon can take off in such a chaotic environment.
Could be a reverse-Lieberman situation, but I doubt it. The war still becomes more unpopular by the day, plus Hagel just has too much gravitas and is basically conservative on everything else. He's safe.
Also, Hillary is just begging for a Bloomberg/Hagel ticket, because a strong third party run is the only way she could slither her way into the White House, ala her husband in '92. So as much as I like the two guys, let's hope for the sake of protecting ourselves from Hillary that they opt against running.
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