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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (60139)	12/15/2012 10:49:50 AM
From: greatplains_guy	2 Recommendations Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 71588

Fake hero John Forbes Kerry would be an insult to every heroic American who ever served this formerly great nation. He would be nominally less insulting than Susan Rice.

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (60139)	12/15/2012 3:19:12 PM
From: greatplains_guy	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

‘Introduction to the Reading of Hagel’ By WILLIAM KRISTOL 4:45 PM, Dec 14, 2012 • THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained a fact sheet circulating widely on Capitol Hill. It details the record on a number of issues of former GOP senator Chuck Hagel, a leading candidate to be nominated by President Obama as the next secretary of defense: Introduction to the Reading of Hagel Terrorism 1. In November 2001, Hagel was one of 11 Senators who refused to sign a letter requesting President Bush not meet with Yassir Arafat until forces linked to Arafat’s Fatah party ceased attacks on Israel. 2. In December 2005, Hagel was one of 27 Senators who refused to sign a letter to President Bush requesting the U.S. pressure the Palestinians to ban terrorist groups from participating in legislative elections. 3. In July 2006, Hagel called on President Bush to demand an immediate cease-fire when Israel retaliated against Hezbollah after the terrorist group attacked Israel, abducted two IDF soldiers, and fired rockets at Israeli civilians. 4. In August 2006, Hagel was only of 12 senators who refused to sign a letter asking the EU to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization. 5. In 2007, Hagel voted against designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization. Chuck Hagel showing how concerned he s about muslim terrorism. Israel and “the Jewish Lobby” 1. In October 2000, Hagel was one of only four Senators who refused to sign a letter expressing support for Israel during the second Palestinian intifada. 2. In July 2002, in a Washington Post op-ed, after several of the most deadly months of Palestinian suicide bombings, Hagel wrote that the U.S. was erroneously “making Yassir Arafat the issue,” that Palestinians could not be expected to make democratic reforms as long as “Israeli military occupation and settlement activity” continue, and that “Israel must take steps to show its commitment to peace.” 3. In November 2003, Hagel failed to vote on the Syria Accountability Act authorizing sanctions on Syria for its support of terrorism and occupation of Lebanon. The Act passed by a vote of 89 to 4. 4. In July 2006, Hagel called on the Bush Administration to take up the Beirut Declaration of 2002, also known as the "Saudi Peace Initiative," saying it was “a starting point” that had been “squandered” by the United States. It calls on Israel to retreat from the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and much of Jerusalem, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the Western Wall, as a precondition for peace. 5. In calling upon President Bush to demand an immediate ceasefire after Israel responded to a Hezbollah attack in 2006, Hagel said: “This madness must stop," and accused Israel of "the systematic destruction of an American friend -- the country and people of Lebanon." 6. “The political reality is that … the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.” (Hagel interviewed in Aaron David Miller’s 2008 book The Too Much Promised Land) 7. In 2009, Hagel signed onto a letter urging President Obama to open direct negotiations with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization dedicated to the violent destruction of Israel and which has perpetrated dozens of suicide bombings that have killed or injured hundreds of civilians in Israel, including many Americans. 8. The National Jewish Democratic Council says Hagel has “a lot of questions to answer about his commitment to Israel.” 9. When questioned about his pro-Israel record during a meeting in New York with supporters of Israel, Hagel is reported to have said, “Let me clear something up here if there’s any doubt in your mind. I’m a United States Senator. I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States Senator. I support Israel. But my first interest is, I take an oath of office to the constitution of the United States. Not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel.” Iran 1. On July 24, 2001, Hagel was one of only two U.S. senators who voted against renewing the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. 2. In June 2004, Hagel refused to sign a letter urging that President Bush highlight Iran’s nuclear program while at the G-8 summit. 3. In a 2007 letter to President Bush, Hagel urged “direct, unconditional” talks with Iran to create a “historic new dynamic in US-Iran relations.” 4. In 2007, declined to join 72 Senators in supporting a bipartisan sanctions bill called the Iran Counter Proliferation Act. 5. In a 2007 speech, Hagel claimed that "Continued hostile relations between the United States and Iran will have the effect of isolating the United States." 6. In 2008, Hagel voted in the Senate Banking Committee against legislation imposing sanctions on countries conducting certain business with Iran. 7. In March 2012, Hagel suggested Iran had “a couple of face-saving ways” out of a new round of economic sanctions over its nuclear program. “You cannot push the Iranians into a corner where they can’t get out,” he said. weeklystandard.com

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (60139)	12/16/2012 5:28:48 PM
From: greatplains_guy	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

Hillary Clinton faints; suffers concussion (But was the horizontal surface she assaulted harmed?) Rick Moran December 16, 2012 Already suffering from a stomach virus that was making her appearance before the Senate committee investigating Benghazi doubtful, the State Department announced that Hillary Clinton fainted yesterday and hit her head, suffering a concussion. The Hill: "She has been recovering at home and will continue to be monitored regularly by her doctors. At their recommendation, she will continue to work from home next week, staying in regular contact with department and other officials. She is looking forward to being back in the office soon." Clinton, who has said she will not serve as secretary of State in President Obama's second term, cancelled a trip to the Middle East last week after becoming ill. She was due to testify before Congress on Dec. 20 about the investigation into the deaths of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11. Clinton will not testify as scheduled before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Jodi Seth, a spokeswoman for Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.). The State Department told Kerry of Clinton's concussion on Saturday morning, and, when he heard, Kerry insisted that she not attend the hearing. "Senator Kerry was relieved to hear that the secretary is on the mend, but he insisted that given her condition, she could not and should not appear on Thursday as previously planned, and that the nation's best interests are served by the report and hearings proceeding as scheduled with senior officials appearing in her place," Seth said. Clinton deputies Tom Nides and Bill Burns will testify in her place, Seth said. Kerry is considered the leading candidate to replace Clinton as secretary of State after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration last week. Speculation increased late Saturday that Obama had decided to nominate Kerry as the next secretary of State. An unidentified source told CNN that a formal announcement could come as early as next week. The conspiracy machine on the right has been working overtime postulating that this fall and injury are too convenient to be true. But the truth is a little more prosaic; Clinton was already doubtful for that testimony and while convenient, it's hard to imagine that Hillary would shed much additional light on what happened that day. If she was going to stonewall, then whether she shows up or not is moot. As far as Kerry, better at State than Defense which is where there was speculation he would end up. A man who voted against every major weapons system over the last three decades has no business running our military. He will fit in nicely with the striped pants set at the State Department and will be mostly powerless to make policy. americanthinker.com

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (60139)	12/18/2012 9:14:45 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Chuck Hagel's Jewish Problem The would-be secretary of defense has some curious views. By BRET STEPHENS December 17, 2012, 7:18 p.m. ET Prejudice—like cooking, wine-tasting and other consummations—has an olfactory element. When Chuck Hagel, the former GOP senator from Nebraska who is now a front-runner to be the next secretary of Defense, carries on about how "the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here," the odor is especially ripe. Ripe because a "Jewish lobby," as far as I'm aware, doesn't exist. No lesser authorities on the subject than John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of "The Israel Lobby," have insisted the term Jewish lobby is "inaccurate and misleading, both because the [Israel] lobby includes non-Jews like Christian Zionists and because many Jewish Americans do not support the hard-line policies favored by its most powerful elements." Ripe because, whatever other political pressures Mr. Hagel might have had to endure during his years representing the Cornhusker state, winning over the state's Jewish voters—there are an estimated 6,100 Jewish Nebraskans in a state of 1.8 million people—was probably not a major political concern for Mr. Hagel compared to, say, the ethanol lobby. Ripe because the word "intimidates" ascribes to the so-called Jewish lobby powers that are at once vast, invisible and malevolent; and because it suggests that legislators who adopt positions friendly to that lobby are doing so not from political conviction but out of personal fear. Just what does that Jewish Lobby have on them? Ripe, finally, because Mr. Hagel's Jewish lobby remark was well in keeping with the broader pattern of his thinking. "I'm a United States Senator, not an Israeli Senator," Mr. Hagel told retired U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller in 2006. "I'm a United States Senator. I support Israel. But my first interest is I take an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States. Not to a president. Not a party. Not to Israel. If I go run for Senate in Israel, I'll do that." Read these staccato utterances again to better appreciate their insipid and insinuating qualities, all combining to cast the usual slur on Jewish-Americans: Dual loyalty. Nobody questions Mr. Hagel's loyalty. He is only making those assertions to question the loyalty of others. Still, Mr. Hagel managed to say "I support Israel." This is the sort of thing one often hears from people who treat Israel as the Mideast equivalent of a neighborhood drunk who, for his own good, needs to be put in the clink to sober him up. In 2002, a year in which 457 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks (a figure proportionately equivalent to more than 20,000 fatalities in the U.S., or seven 9/11s), Mr. Hagel weighed in with the advice that "Israel must take steps to show its commitment to peace." This was two years after Yasser Arafat had been offered a state by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David. In 2006, Mr. Hagel described Israel's war against Hezbollah as "the systematic destruction of an American friend, the country and people of Lebanon." He later refused to sign a letter calling on the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. In 2007, he voted against designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization, and also urged President Bush to open "direct, unconditional" talks with Iran to create "a historic new dynamic in U.S.-Iran relations." In 2009, Mr. Hagel urged the Obama administration to open direct talks with Hamas. In fairness to Mr. Hagel, all these positions emerge from his belief in the power of diplomatic engagement and talking with adversaries. The record of that kind of engagement—in 2008, Mr. Hagel and John Kerry co-authored an op-ed in this newspaper titled "It's Time to Talk to Syria"—hasn't been stellar, but at least it was borne of earnest motives. Yet it's worth noting that while Mr. Hagel is eager to engage the world's rogues without preconditions, his attitude toward Israel tends, at best, to the paternalistic. "The United States and Israel must understand that it is not in their long-term interests to allow themselves to become isolated in the Middle East and the world," he said in a 2006 Senate speech. It's a political Deep Thought worthy of Saturday Night Live's Jack Handey. Does Mr. Hagel reckon any other nation to be quite so blind to its own supposed self-interest as Israel? Now President Obama may nominate Mr. Hagel to take Leon Panetta's place at the Pentagon. As a purely score-settling matter, I almost hope he does. It would confirm a point I made in a column earlier this year, which is that Mr. Obama is not a friend of Israel. Perhaps the 63% of Jewish-Americans who cast their votes for Mr. Obama last month might belatedly take notice. Alternatively, maybe some of these voters could speak up now, before a nomination is announced, about the insult that a Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel would be. Jewish Democrats like to fancy their voice carries weight in their party. The prospect of this nomination is their chance to prove it. Write to bstephens@wsj.com online.wsj.com

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (60139)	12/29/2012 8:58:37 AM
From: greatplains_guy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Koch: Don't Even Want to Imagine Obama Picking Hagel 2:12 PM, Dec 28, 2012 By DANIEL HALPER Ed Koch, a prominent backer of President Barack Obama, blasts Tom Friedman for endorsing Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of state: In his December 26 New York Times editorial, Tom Friedman wrote in support of former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel and the possibility that he will be chosen by President Barack Obama as Secretary of Defense. He stated: “So, yes, Hagel is out of the mainstream. That is exactly why his voice would be valuable right now. Obama will still make all the final calls, but let him do so after having heard all the alternatives.” By “mainstream,” Friedman apparently means overwhelmingly supportive of Israel. Hagel’s position is, as Friedman states, “out of the mainstream” with respect to Israel. Imagine what would happen across our government if President Obama put that course of action into effect. Friedman is in effect saying to President Obama that he should choose, as an example, a Secretary of the Treasury who believes in cutting expenses in the budget with no increase in taxes for the wealthy, noting that as President he makes the policy and can overrule his appointees; choose a Secretary of the Interior who has the same philosophy as many Alaskans which is to open every square inch of Alaska for oil production. After all, as Friedman says, the President makes the final decision. In the Defense Department, put someone in charge who disagrees with the current stated policy of the President and the Congress toward Israel. We’ve heard the President say, “I’ve got Israel’s back.” Hagel couldn’t care less; he’d rather talk to Hamas. Hagel’s point of view, according to Aaron Miller in his 2008 book, “The Much Too Promised Land,” is clearly hostile to Israel. Miller wrote: “The American Israel Public Affairs Committee comes knocking with a pro-Israel letter, Hagel continued, and ‘then you’ll get eighty or ninety senators on it. I don’t think I’ve ever signed one of the letters’ – because, he added, they were ‘stupid.” Hagel also said, ‘The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,’ but ‘I’m a United States senator. I’m not an Israeli senator.’” For the record, more Christians support Israel in the U.S. than do Jews, who are a much smaller part of the U.S. population. Obama has been rumored to be thinking about picked Hagel for the top Pentagon job. weeklystandard.com