Anyone else keeping track of the Chuck Hagel nomination?

The GOP really doesn't want this guy to be Secretary of Defense. He breaks the mold of the GOP.

Was listening to the hearing earlier, and McCain had activated his angry old white guy stance.

Apparently, being against the Iraq surge is a damning offense for this nomination, because he really wouldn't let that question go until he finally filled in the answer himself that Hagel was against it.

There were a lot of other R-Senators (and a few D-Senators) really going at it all day. It was weird hearing some of the things that they considered bad for his chances that I would have expected to give him a boost.

Does anyone here have a problem with Hagel? He seems to be a decent choice, given the selection. At the least, he certainly doesn't like the guns blazing approach that many Republicans prefer.

They hate him as a choice because they fear it would give Obama the semblance of bipartisanship, and we can't have that.

Hagel might as well have chanted, "Death to Israel!" in his past what with the way he was being grilled.

If Obama nominated Ron Paul for the same position, the grilling would even be more funnier with stuff regarding Israel and the Surge...

Here's a good blog post from Andrew Sullivan, who tells about some of the insanity for those who missed it:

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2013/01/clusterchuck.html

He speaks the truth about Israel. That's 95% of the issue.

Pro-Israel Democrats know they can't seriously oppose him, even Schumer has to play along.

Pat Buchanan mounted a pretty strong defense of Hagel on Hannity, watch it if you can find it.

I didn't know Congress had such strong views on discontinued soda.

Since when does being Pro-Israel mean you have to be its bitch?

The west in general has been Israel's nanny since it's inception. How long do you think that country would have lasted had we or some other western power not had it's back? Not bloody long probably. Meanwhile I can't help but think that other ethnic groups are wondering why they can't have their own nation too.

[quote name='detectiveconan16']Since when does being Pro-Israel mean you have to be its bitch?[/QUOTE]
Since they started calling anyone who criticizes or disagrees with Israel an anti-Semite.

[quote name='Clak']The west in general has been Israel's nanny since it's inception. How long do you think that country would have lasted had we or some other western power not had it's back? Not bloody long probably. Meanwhile I can't help but think that other ethnic groups are wondering why they can't have their own nation too.[/QUOTE]

Ask anyone who studies biblical prophecy, and they'll repeatedly say that Israel - being the people of God - will almost never be conquered. Lots of people will start pointing to....look, I don't know this shit, but someone here probably does, I'm in the middle of the work day, so I'll fudge this. But Israel was attacked on all sides by Egypt and some other entities in...the 80s, I think, and beat all their asses back.

The idea was that an all-flanks attack would decimate them, but they managed to come out on top. And this is in modern day, when any number of warheads and so forth could be launched to try and level the place.

So, I dunno. Take this as you will.

This always also leads me to ask the person "Then why even bother allying with them if they are supposedly God's favorite anyway?" And the answer is something something we need to be a godly nation....

They probably beat them back with some measure of help from us. Even if it was just selling them equipment. The rest of that, if anyone beleives it, well I guess we'll see if god loves the Israelites or Iranians more.

You know, it would be funny if Hagel gets confirmed in part to spite the GOP. By going so hard on him, they may have convinced Democrats who had reservations to vote him in instead.

Edit: Word Cloud.

http://blog.thejerusalemfund.org/2013/02/the-hagel-hearing-snapshot.html