Patterico's Pontifications

1/7/2013

Open Thread: Chuck Hagel for Defense!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:40 am

It’s the news of the day, I guess.

52 Comments

  1. I think the reason Obama seems intent on nominating him is that he must have promised Obama he knows how to cut defense without harming the military. Obama is also misreading the political situation – Hagel’s being a former Republican Senator is not going to do much for him.

    He would be a second Louis A. Johnson (Secretary of Defense 1949-1950)

    That is the worst thing about him.

    His foreign policy views, if genuine – and that’s a big question – they could be bought and paid for – don’t matter so much since the president determines policy and other Cabinet members give advice. We already had an anti-Israel, pro Arab tyrant Secretary of Defense under Reagan: Casper Weinberger. Casper Weinberger gave secret U.S. information to Iraq to counter what Oliver North and John Poindexter were doing in selling arms to Iran. He was close to Prince Bandar – I read that once, but cannot find a reference.

    The difference is what the other members of the Administration are like. There’s no George Schultz to counter him.

    I think the worst part is in what his area of responsibility is: defense. He would encourage Obama to have a military that could only confront China, and ignore everything from Pakistan on west, like as if that’s taken care of.

    The stage is being set for some big surprise, like the Korean War in 1950, where the United State might find itself not having enough equipment, or men ready.

    But none of the budget cutting will have an impact in the year 2013. It’s a slower process.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (a69e24) — 1/7/2013 @ 8:13 am

  2. No, that’s not the main problem;

    http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/07/hagels-mideast-blunder-not-on-israel/

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/7/2013 @ 8:15 am

  3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_A._Johnson

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (a69e24) — 1/7/2013 @ 8:20 am

  4. I think we are left with only ‘the comfy chair’

    http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/12/17/chuck_hagel_does_not_like_sanctions

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/7/2013 @ 8:21 am

  5. “Let the Jews pay for it”

    Comment by Milhouse (15b6fd) — 1/7/2013 @ 8:31 am

  6. Here’s one for Leviticus:

    What’s your guy Bill Richardson doing in North Korea?
    First Al Gore sells out to the Arab Oil Money, and now Richardson, who was alleged to have sold his office in NM, is selling what to the Kims – along with Google?
    http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/nkorea-google-richardson-visit/2013/01/07/id/470256

    Comment by askeptic (b8ab92) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:00 am

  7. Scroooooooo the joooooooos

    Comment by JD (7782d6) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:07 am

  8. i can’t decide if i care about whether food stamp has a jew-hating gay-basher as his secretary of defense

    the expectations aren’t really all that high

    samantha rice was the un ambassador for like 4 years hello

    she hates her some jews the ways food stamp’s hooch hates fat kids

    an eliminationist mentality is sorta par for the course with these people

    Comment by happyfeet (ce327d) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:21 am

  9. sorry i mean susan google says I’m getting her confuzzled with some stripper apparently

    Comment by happyfeet (ce327d) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:34 am

  10. she looks kinda like baby spice

    Comment by happyfeet (ce327d) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:34 am

  11. No, you’re confusing her with Samantha Power, another antisemite in 0bama’s inner foreign-policy circle.

    Comment by Milhouse (15b6fd) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:54 am

  12. it’s hard to keep them all straight mr. Milhouse

    Comment by happyfeet (ce327d) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:55 am

  13. Samantha Power is the one 0bama turned to to teach him all about foreign policy when he decided to run for president. Basically everything he knows is what she taught him. And she’s the one who proposed that the USA invade Israel and establish a “Palestinian” state by force.

    Comment by Milhouse (15b6fd) — 1/7/2013 @ 10:02 am

  14. Someone save us from rule by senators!

    Comment by Amphipolis (d3e04f) — 1/7/2013 @ 10:56 am

  15. Fish. Barrel. C4.

    Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 1/7/2013 @ 11:22 am

  16. He’s nominating him to set the Repubs against each other again and make them look bad in public. Why…? He’s elected!

    BTW Samantha Power has been in hiding, hasn’t she, since her Libya R2P fiasco?

    Comment by Patricia (be0117) — 1/7/2013 @ 11:25 am

  17. I wonder who Obama is really planning to appoint after Hegel is rejected.

    Comment by Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 1/7/2013 @ 11:33 am

  18. 16: “He’s nominating him to set the Repubs against each other again and make them look bad in public”

    So true Patricia. That is the goal. And you thought that Obama was going to bring everyone together.

    Comment by AZ Bob (7d2a2c) — 1/7/2013 @ 12:26 pm

  19. He’s nominating him, because he was equally clueless about the Surge, and both hate Israel with a passion, the other elements are immaterial.

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/7/2013 @ 12:35 pm

  20. 20. Its okay folks the guy’s a Gay bashing redneck. The Libs will stop this nomination in its tracks.

    Or say they wants the gays all on point? I’m confused.

    Comment by gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 1/7/2013 @ 12:40 pm

  21. I wonder who Obama is really planning to appoint after Hegel is rejected.

    He’ll say he tried reaching out across the aisle and got slapped down, so he’s done with that and will nominate some communist.

    Comment by Milhouse (15b6fd) — 1/7/2013 @ 1:18 pm

  22. 17- Kevin M .- Harry Belafonte.

    Comment by mg (31009b) — 1/7/2013 @ 2:26 pm

  23. How about Baghdad Bob?

    Totally faithful, clueless at PR, and as our enemy probably has lots to teach us about different “points of view”!

    Comment by Patricia (be0117) — 1/7/2013 @ 2:33 pm

  24. I wonder who….

    Barney Frank needs a job.

    Comment by askeptic (b8ab92) — 1/7/2013 @ 2:37 pm

  25. Bill Ayers, just to make it ‘perfectly clear’ how he feels,

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/7/2013 @ 2:45 pm

  26. 13. Samantha Power is the one 0bama turned to to teach him all about foreign policy when he decided to run for president. Basically everything he knows is what she taught him. And she’s the one who proposed that the USA invade Israel and establish a “Palestinian” state by force.

    Comment by Milhouse (15b6fd) — 1/7/2013 @ 10:02 am

    Give the Devil his due, Milhouse.

    Obama also has learned a great deal about how the world works from a former PLO spokesman and his wife, as well.

    LA Slimes: Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama

    A special tribute came from Khalidi’s friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi’s wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.

    His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It’s for that reason that I’m hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation — a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid’s dinner table,” but around “this entire world.”

    Comment by Steve57 (2073db) — 1/7/2013 @ 3:45 pm

  27. Obama also has learned a great deal about how the world works…

    Rather, Obama has had his dysfunctional world view that prevents him from understanding reality reinforced by not just Samantha powers but anti-American elements.

    Comment by Steve57 (2073db) — 1/7/2013 @ 3:48 pm

  28. 12. it’s hard to keep them all straight mr. Milhouse

    Comment by happyfeet (ce327d) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:55 am

    I have the same problem with the Jeckyll and Hyde of Obama’s foreign policy advisers, too.

    I think they may be the same person, as I’ve never seen them in the same room at the same time.

    Comment by Steve57 (2073db) — 1/7/2013 @ 3:51 pm

  29. Why would we have any qualms;

    http://www.islamist-watch.org/blog/2012/12/hagel-the-horrible

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/7/2013 @ 4:00 pm

  30. Remember how Obama still to this day likes to argue that Obamacare was based on “Republican ideas” as a way to deflect criticism of it and the way in which it was passed even tho the country hates it and it was pushed through without any R support? Remember how all the lefty journos and sites picked up on that bogus talking point and love to use this as a way to show Obamacare was really bi-partisan and Obama generously incorporated conservative ideas even though he didn’t?

    Well, as Patricia pointed out above, the “b-b-b-but Hagel is a Republican!”, and the “isn’t it just awesome that Pres. Obama is such an open-minded non partisan guy that he’d nominate a Republican!?” is intended to be used by the Obama admin in the very same role and purpose with defense cuts and foreign policy messes that he did with Obamacare. He’s nothing if not transparent! (Well with respect to manufactured talking points at least.) Ugh.

    Comment by elissa (b8982b) — 1/7/2013 @ 4:09 pm

  31. *Rather, Obama has had his dysfunctional world view that prevents him from understanding reality reinforced by not just Samantha powers but other anti-American elements.*

    OK, done for now.

    Comment by Steve57 (2073db) — 1/7/2013 @ 4:44 pm

  32. ‘Things you might have told people earlier’

    http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/01/07/ed-koch-i-knew-obama-would-betray-israel/

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/7/2013 @ 4:50 pm

  33. The BCS game is on TV now. Alabama to beat the Golden Domers but not cover the spread.

    Comment by ropelight (b1dd35) — 1/7/2013 @ 5:30 pm

  34. I think you should revise that prediction,

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/7/2013 @ 6:53 pm

  35. Men against 1st.graders.
    N.D. should learn how to tackle.
    The announcers are upset they won’t cover.

    Comment by mg (31009b) — 1/7/2013 @ 6:58 pm

  36. I’m thinking Notre Dame needs Hagel for Defense.

    Comment by Ag80 (b2c81f) — 1/7/2013 @ 7:14 pm

  37. I think they do, that’s the problem,

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/7/2013 @ 7:15 pm

  38. N.D. defense looks as open as our borders. 35-0

    Comment by mg (31009b) — 1/7/2013 @ 7:37 pm

  39. ND would finish fourth in the SEC West (behind Bama, LSU, and A&M), and fourth in the SEC (behind UGA, Florida, and the real USC).

    Comment by Whitey Nisson (7bb1d5) — 1/7/2013 @ 8:16 pm

  40. Addition/correction to Comment No. 39: fourth in the SEC East (behind UGA, Florida, and the real USC).

    Comment by Whitey Nisson (7bb1d5) — 1/7/2013 @ 8:17 pm

  41. I think he nominated Hagel as a sacrificial lamb so that Jean Francois Kerry has an easy run.

    Comment by Gazzer (e26ba9) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:10 pm

  42. Three Our Fathers and two Hail Marys for the ND defense penance. And then they might be forgiven.

    Comment by Patricia (be0117) — 1/7/2013 @ 9:11 pm

  43. The bigger picture;

    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/337169/hagel-brennan-and-obama-view-middle-east-victor-davis-hanson#

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/8/2013 @ 10:12 am

  44. 13. Comment by Milhouse (15b6fd) — 1/7/2013 @ 10:02 am

    Samantha Power…proposed that the USA invade Israel and establish a “Palestinian” state by force.

    Where?

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/8/2013 @ 12:15 pm

  45. The New York Times’ Daavid Brooks: Obama picked Hagel because since he won’t cut MNedicare he needs two cut Defense.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/opinion/brooks-why-hagel-was-picked.html

    So far, defense budgets have not been squeezed by the Medicare vice. [sic - should probably be "vise"] But that is about to change….The current budget calls for a steep but possibly appropriate decline in defense spending, from 4.3 percent of G.D.P. to 3 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office….As the federal government becomes a health care state, there will have to be a generation of defense cuts that overwhelm anything in recent history….. Chuck Hagel has been nominated to supervise the beginning of this generation-long process of defense cutbacks. If a Democratic president is going to slash defense, he probably wants a Republican at the Pentagon to give him political cover, and he probably wants a decorated war hero to boot.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/8/2013 @ 12:23 pm

  46. It seems like Obama and others threatened people in the Syrian military and Bashir Assad stopped getting his chemical weapons ready after a week of making some.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/world/middleeast/chemical-weapons-showdown-with-syria-led-to-rare-accord.html?_r=0

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/8/2013 @ 12:31 pm

  47. Anybody realize that today is Richard Nixon’s 100th birthday?

    I only realized this accidentally, because I was reading a book (or rather dipping into it) “The Return” by Petru Popescu, and in it he mentioned a series of foreign leaders who had visited Romania’s dictator Ceaucescu and traveled down a certain street, and Richard Nixon was the first on the list, and I was thinking how old they were, or when they were born, and Ricjhard nixon was born in 1913 (Golda Meir was older born in 1898) and I was thinking how it was getting to being nearly 100 years since that time, around the start of World War I, and then I was thinking of his exact borthday, because Gerald Ford was also mentioned, and he was born in July 1913, and I remembered Nixon’s birthday, January 9 – very early in the year – and then I realized: today is January 9! I know because yesterday was January 8th.

    Louyis Nye, the comedian, was also born on January 9, 1913.

    He’s dead too, now.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/9/2013 @ 1:18 pm

  48. * Louis Nye. I really only know (or remember) his name because he had the same birthday as Richard Nixon.

    He has other dates of birth though. IMDB has him born (in the same article!) both later in 1913, and in 1922.

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0638574/bio

    The sources now are giving his birth date as May 1, 1913.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/9/2013 @ 1:25 pm

  49. New York Times confirms what was already suspected:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/us/politics/obama-to-name-jacob-j-lew-as-treasury-secretary.html?hp

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/9/2013 @ 1:26 pm

  50. I heard on one of the Sunday news shows – a week ago actually – that Eric Holder may not resign so fast as Attorney general, because of the difficultly of confirming a successor.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/9/2013 @ 1:27 pm

  51. http://video.msnbc.msn.com/mitchell-reports/50388183#50388183

    Andrea Mitchell of NBC News interviews Sen. John Cornyn, (R-Texas) about Chuck Hagel’s nomination. He gives his reason against.

    He says it is premature to talk about whether Hagel would need 51 votes or 60 votes.

    It isn’t about politics – it’s about being wrong on the principal natiopnal security issues, and it’s not the job by the way of the Secretary of Defense to worry about fiscal matters even though he considers that the most serious national secuity issues.

    He considers that Chuck Hagel left the Republican Party when he endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008.

    Comment by Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 1/10/2013 @ 4:08 pm

  52. There is rarely any principle he is willing to stand by;

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/10/chuck-hagel-s-career-shows-he-s-not-afraid-to-change-his-mind.html

    Comment by narciso (3fec35) — 1/10/2013 @ 4:18 pm

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