Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Video of Chuck Hagel on the Senate Floor

Here's a video of Senator Hagel from this week on the debate of the non-binding resolution. Take a look.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who's the "Madame President" he's addressing? I thought Robert Byrd was the President Pro Tem.

jam137 said...

Great video! I especially liked it when Hagel was talking about past non-binding resolutions regarding previous military conflicts and how some of his colleagues voted for those resolutions.

I think that because of much of the press' coverage some people were confused about the cloture motion yesterday---as though Hagel's voting against it was somehow voting against the very Iraq resolution he has been supporting. This video makes it clear that he still supports the resolution and expects the Majority and Minority leaders to work out the details of how it will be debated.

Anonymous said...

Hagel's vote certainly was a vote against his own resolution. He pontificated for weeks demanding the Senate and every senator be on record about the president's plan. When it came time to force that score to be tabulated, Hagel voted with his partyto protect his president by delaying the vote. Nice try jam - but facts are facts.

jam137 said...

An additional fact besides the "pontificating" and the vote on the cloture motion is that there are a number of Iraq resolutions floating around which have only been debated to a minor extent by the whole Senate at this point. Reid and McConnell are negotiating how to get them debated and voted on in an orderly manner, and the cloture motion yesterday was just part of the back-and-forth in that context.

Given Hagel's rhetoric over the past few years---including his comments in the video---it's hardly the case that his vote was about "protecting his President." I would guess---not knowing all of his motivations but being a supporter and seeing the facts so far---that he (as well as Warner) voted "no" on the cloture motion because he knew that the resolution would have to be voted on sometime soon anyway (due to political pressures) and because he wanted to woo as many Republican senators as possible towards voting for it.

Last Thursday, Hagel stated that he expected the resolution to pass, and after some further parliamentary wrangling I expect that this will be the case.

Leo Pusateri said...

RE: Your comments on the Senate Floor

I would expect those comments coming from an ill-informed democrat the likes of Barbara Boxer. Coming from a Republican, and from one who should know better is nothing less than disgraceful.

To say that the U.S. is viewed as a nation at war with Muslims is absolutely disgusting.

Do you remember 9/11? Do your remember the U.S.S. Cole? Do you remember the WTC bombings of 1993?

THE MUSLIMS ARE AT WAR WITH US, SENATOR HAGEL!

I have a son in harm's way in Iraq as I type this. You, sir, are a party to emboldening his enemies, and are allowing his enemies to use your words as propaganda to recruit more suicide bombers and jihadists.

Your reckless abandonment of reason in favor of rhetoric is shameful.

Let me say that I, as a Republican delegate from Minnesota, wouldn't lend a dime to your campaign.

You actually want to be commander in chief?

That is laughable.

Think about that in terms of a snowball and a hot subterranean atmosphere, Mr. Hagel.