By the end of the day's inquisition at the hands of former colleagues, President Obama's pick for Defense Secretary must have felt more like Julius Caesar on his last day at work. Things hot, things got personal, and things got raw, but surprisingly, Hagel never got pissed.
Perhaps, because the former Nebraska Senator's strategy was to bend rather than resist, he couldn't be broken as easily. Badgered relentlessly for not toeing the Party line, not running with the pack, not going along to get along, Hagel stood his ground, albeit inarticulately at times.
Although many of the contentious question had already been asked and answered in closed sessions, the former Senator could hardly have prepared for the sharks awaiting him on the Armed Services Committee. Shortly after Hagel completed his opening statement, the pack of backstabbing character assassins led by Senators, Linsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and Ted Cruz of Texas, unsheathed their razor sharpened barbs and mercilessly went to work on destroying the senator's integrity.
Reading between the lines, the three Israeli loyalist essentially castigated Hagel for lacking the proper attitude towards America's only friend. Ripping into the Senator for failing to support Israel in times of need, while daring to question the sanity of military action against Tehran, Hagel had to sit humbly and just take it.
Was it over coaching, was it shock and amazement, was he playing it cool or just being smart? We may never know the answers to those questions, but it was difficult to watch a strong man bow to a lesser for political expediency.
However, regardless of Hagel's inability or unwillingness to mount and sustain a strong offensive against those determined to recast his reputation as an out of touch outlier, enough of his rugged independence still bled through! Despite the verbal lashing he endured, we strongly support the quick confirmation of Mr. Hagel for Defense Secretary because he the tough man for this tough job in these tough times.
We're also happy to have had the opportunity to witnessed the "silent influence" so insidiously laced within the efforts to derail President Obama's nominee. In our opinion, this particular confirmation process allowed the politically astute to fully comprehend the expectations of slavish devotion a U.S. Congressional Representative must maintain to the Israeli government if he/she is to remain in good standing.
While its understandable some may consider our observations to be beyond the pale, we would argue something is terrible wrong when Congressional Representatives will openly entertain succession from the Union before offering the slightest criticism of the Israeli government. We think its time to start a new conversation.
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