Free Republic

New Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that the United States must engage in the world and work with its allies as he addressed Defense Department employees and service members for the first time as Pentagon chief. “We can't dictate to the world, but we must engage in the world. We must lead with our allies,” Hagel said in his first speech as secretary. “Allies are, as everyone in this room knows, particularly important. No nation — as great as America is — can do any of this alone.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s vote to temporarily block Chuck Hagel’s nomination for secretary of defense elicited blowback from an unlikely source: antiwar conservatives and libertarians, many of them supporters of his father’s GOP presidential campaign. Paul, the son of former Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, joined all but four Republican senators Thursday in voting against a motion to end debate over Hagel’s nomination. GOP leaders are saying that they will not filibuster Hagel indefinitely, but instead want to delay a vote until they have more information about his speeches and finances. “That is also why I voted to not...

<p>Obama — ticked off by Rice’s treatment and still emboldened by his convincing victory over Mitt Romney — courted confrontation when he tapped Hagel.</p> <p>If true, this is outlandish. The president would imperil national security out of spite? .........</p>

Senate Republicans blocked a vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense on Thursday, launching an unprecedented filibuster and a severe rebuke to the White House. Falling one vote shy of the 60 needed to move forward on the nomination, the Hagel filibuster brought stark condemnations from President Obama and Senate Democrats for its precedent-setting nature -- the first time a defense secretary nominee had been filibustered. The setback came during what many believe is a critical period for the Pentagon as it winds down troops from Afghanistan and implements costly budget cuts. It was also a hard slap...

I'm getting this off Twitter, but @kerrypicket reported it. Fox still has it underway. I don't really understand how we know it's failed when people are still voting but then again I don't understand a lot of things, like Ashley Judd's visage bouffi. "Failing cloture" would mean Hagel is blocked, as the vote cannot then proceed to an actual vote on the merits. I'm gaining confidence in this report because McCain is talking all cocky and pointing out the Democrats filibustered John Tower in 1989.

See Video of Levin Statement at: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21134540/vp/50784625#50784625

You don’t have to be that good to fend off a committee of showboating senatorial blowhards. Hillary Clinton demonstrated that a week or so back when she unleashed what’s apparently the last word in withering putdowns: What difference does it make? --snip-- Really? So what’s the job for then? Just showing up at the office and the occasional black-tie NATO banquet? Most misspeakers loose off one round and then have to reload, but Chuck Hagel is a big scary “military-style assault weapon” of a misspeaker, effortlessly peppering the Senate wainscoting for hours on end. Late in the day, after five...

Sen. Mark Kirk announced Friday he will not support the nomination of fellow Republican Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense, citing instances in which he believes Hagel has not been tough enough on Iran.

The Republican Party has drifted so far to the right and become so partisan in recent years that President Ronald Reagan wouldn't even want to be a part of it, former Nebraska GOP senator Chuck Hagel told The Cable. "Reagan would be stunned by the party today," Hagel said in a long interview in his office at Georgetown University, where he now teaches. He also serves as co-chair of President Barack Obama's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Reagan wanted to do away with nuclear weapons, raised taxes, made deals with congressional Democrats, sought compromises and consensus to fix problems, and surrounded...

This was hours before Democrats got their heads handed to them in a New York district for the first time since 1923 and by 20 points in Nevada. Via Projo.com: Froma Harrop: Disapproval: It’s all relative I do not think this alone. Their debt-ceiling hijinks were no doubt immensely amusing to the Tea Party fringe, but to those of us not getting the joke, they were an appalling attack on a fragile economy. The Tea Party is turning from the voice of anger to its target, and the GOP has it hanging around its neck. The first trumpet blast of...

Hagel: Palin unqualified to be president Retiring Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel delivered a scathing indictment of the McCain-Palin campaign in a recent interview with The New Yorker. Hagel says he’s “very disappointed” by the McCain campaign and ripped into McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. “I don’t believe she’s qualified to be President of the United States,” Hagel told the magazine. “The first judgment a potential president makes is who their running mate is—and I don’t think John made a very good selection.” Hagel scoffed at McCain’s attempts to portray her as an experienced politician, according to...

RICHMOND, Va. - The wife of Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel plans to endorse Democrat Barack Obama. Lilibet Hagel has scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday with Susan Eisenhower, the daughter of Republican President Eisenhower. Hagel, R-Neb., has made no endorsement. Lilibet Hagel said in an Associated Press interview that her decision was independent of her husband. She said she didn't know whether he would make an endorsement or whom he would support. "You'd have to ask him," Lilibet Hagel said. She said it will be her first endorsement of a Democrat and that perilous world...

The anger felt by many Nebraska Republicans toward Sen. Chuck Hagel rose to new heights Thursday after Hagel questioned whether Sarah Palin has the experience to serve as president. State Republicans are "worn out" with Hagel and his propensity for controversial comments aimed at fellow Republicans, said Mark Quandahl, chairman of the Nebraska GOP. Quandahl went out of his way to distance the state party from Hagel's remarks about Palin, the party's vice presidential nominee. Quandahl said few Nebraskans would agree with Hagel, the Nebraska party's senior elected official. "The views expressed are his own and would not reflect the...

WASHINGTON — Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said his party’s vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, lacks foreign policy experience and called it a “stretch” to say she’s qualified to be president. “She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,” Hagel said in an interview published Thursday by the Omaha World-Herald....

WASHINGTON - Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said his party's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, lacks foreign policy experience and called it a "stretch" to say she's qualified to be president. "She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview published Thursday by the Omaha World-Herald. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska on Wednesday became the nation's most prominent Republican officeholder to publicly question whether Sarah Palin has the experience to serve as president. "She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything." Palin was elected governor of Alaska in 2006 and before that was the mayor of a small town. Democrats have raised questions about Palin since Sen. John McCain picked her as his vice...

"Joe Biden is the right partner for Barack Obama. His many years of distinguished service to America, his seasoned judgment and his vast experience in foreign policy and national security will match up well with the unique challenges of the 21st Century. An Obama-Biden ticket is a very impressive and strong team. Biden's selection is good news for Obama and America."

SPIEGEL: Senator Hagel, your friend and Republican presidential candidate John McCain says that the United States Army has a moral obligation to stay in Iraq. Is he right? Hagel: We have responsibilities, no doubt about it. We invaded Iraq, we are occupying Iraq and we have made Iraq dependent on us. By our actions we have done terrible damage to our own country and undermined our interests in the world. SPIEGEL: What are the consequences? Hagel: Our first moral obligation is to our own people whom we keep sending back to Iraq again and again. Four-thousand US soldiers have given...

WASHINGTON - Chuck Hagel will announce Monday that he is retiring from the U.S. Senate and will not run for president next year, people close to the Nebraska Republican said Friday. Hagel plans to announce that "he will not run for re-election and that he does not intend to be a candidate for any office in 2008," said one person, who asked not to be named. Hagel has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Monday at the Omaha Press Club. According to one person interviewed, Hagel told Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Friday morning that he...

The attorney general of Nebraska, Jon Bruning, stopped by our office yesterday to let us know that tomorrow he will announce he will challenge Senator Hagel in the Republican primary, which is in May of 2008. A poll conducted for Mr. Bruning shows him leading Mr. Hagel among likely Republican primary voters by 9 percentage points. Mr. Bruning assails Mr, Hagel for being, "The Republican that talks like a Democrat," pointing to Mr. Hagel's support for a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, as well as his discussion of impeaching President Bush. "He's become arrogant and out of touch," Mr. Bruning...