08:00 pm
Hagel Defends Obama (Vandy Prize)
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) isn’t happy with his old friend John McCain:
Sen. Chuck Hagel took on his old friend and fellow Vietnam veteran Sen. John McCain, criticizing McCain’s new TV ad attacking Sen. Barack Obama.
In the ad, the Republican presidential candidate complains about Obama’s recent decision not to visit U.S. troop hospital in Germany, saying, “Sen. Obama made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops.”
“I do not think that ad was appropriate,” Hagel said in an appearance on CBS-TVs “Face the Nation.” Obama’s staff was advised by the Pentagon about the military’s concerns with Obama bringing his political campaign to see soldiers there, his advisers have said.
It’s been two weeks since Steve Clemons reported that Hagel was going to endorse Obama, and it hasn’t happened yet. That may be because Hagel doesn’t plan to, or it may be because Obama wanted to wait until after their trip. Either way, having a man who once was a top pick for VP (albeit in 2000) now criticize him publicly must be driving McCain nuts.
I think it says something about the foreign policy realist wing of the Republican party (think Lugar, Hagel, Scowcroft) that its members keep demonstrating a willingness to move beyond attacks and offer thoughtful commentary on Obama and HagelMcCain’s respective tactics.
And like Lugar and Scowcroft before him, Senator Hagel is now the recipient of the Vandy Prize. One of these days, a Democrat will win it. But that would require Senator McCain to stop behaving like a cross between Richard Nixon and Karl Rove.
For new readers: The Arthur Vandenberg Prize (a.k.a. the Vandy) honors those who embrace bipartisanship in foreign policy, even when doing so might not be popular with or politically convenient for their own side. It is named for the late Michigan Republican Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, best known for his support for the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan in the face of pressure from the isolationist wing of his own party.