A message for the prez

[demlandslide2004]

A message for the prez

Sen. Chuck Hagel has some unvarnished advice for George W. Bush

By Terence Samuel

Battered by the bad news out of Iraq, President George W. Bush decided it was time to stiffen the spines of some anxious Republicans on Capitol Hill last week. So he went to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and held an hourlong pep rally in a basement conference room at the Capitol. Many of the 200 House and Senate Republicans in attendance emerged to say they were reassured. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander called it "choir practice." But not for Chuck Hagel.



The 57-year-old Republican senator from Nebraska said the appearance by the president left more than a little to be desired. Bush "talked for an hour and did not take a single question," says Hagel. "He didn't listen, and I think this president needs to listen more. If he had taken questions he would have heard some things that might have been helpful."

The comments were vintage Hagel--calmly stated but brutally frank and increasingly troubling to an unsteady White House. Fellow Vietnam War veteran John McCain has long been the chief maverick among Senate Republicans, but it is Hagel, with his lower profile and sober demeanor, who may now be emerging as a more potent symbol of the angst that congressional Republicans are feeling over the direction of the war in Iraq--and its political consequences.



..........


Hagel, who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, says that Bush "may be more isolated than any president in recent memory" and therefore susceptible to faulty advice. Much of that advice, Hagel says, has come from Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and former Pentagon official Richard Perle. But the problem, in Hagel's view, was compounded by the president's lack of foreign-policy experience.

"I think you've got a president who is not schooled, educated, experienced in foreign policy in any way, versus his father," Hagel says.

more at the source

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040531/usnews/31hagel.htm

[havocmom]

1. Already a thread on this topic

Edit to add: Sorry, I should have been more friendly. Welcome to the DU. :hi:

You might check a few pages of a forum to see if there is alread a thread on the subject. I got caught for this too when I was a new memeber. the mods sometimes get dranky when we have a bunch of threads on the same topic.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x575333

[demlandslide2004]

3. Sorry

I will post on that one.

[demlandslide2004]

2. I didn't see this posted when I posted

If it has been, please accept my apology.


It looks like Bush isn't winning friends among his own.

[havocmom]

4. And please accept mine

I didn't notice you were new. I was rude. I am sorry. Have edited my previous reply.

[Robbien]

5. It is partly my fault

This article had two headlines. I picked the one that best described what the article was talking about when I posted the article. The top headline had that silly Prez comment.

Welcome to DU demlandslide!