Let's not forget how Hagel got to the Senate

[IkeWarnedUs]

I am thrilled by Senator Chuck Hagel's rants, statements, interviews, etc. against the Iraq war and the Bush administration.

I know he has been speaking out for years and has not been in lockstep with the Republicans.

But let's not forget how he got to the Senate - and how many Republican sheep he helped put into office.

Hagel was chairman of American Information Systems, Inc. (AIS) until early 1996. AIS became ES&S after merging with Business Records Corp. in 1997. He was also the president of McCarthy & Co., a financial advisory group, from 1992 until early 1996.

ES&S, maker of electronic voting machines, is a subsidiary of McCarthy Group, Inc. After resigning from these positions to run for the Senate, Hagel maintained an ownership interest in the McCarthy Group with a financial stake worth $1 million to $5 million.

Bob and Todd Urosevich founded ES&S’s originator, Data Mark in the early 80's. In 1984 the Ahmanson family purchased 68% ownership in Data Mark and changed the name to AIS. They later sold their interest in AIS to the McCarthy Group. The Ahmanson family has well documented ties with right wing evangelical Christians and the Republican party.

When Bob Urosevich was replaced by Hagel as CEO of AIS he went to Diebold and created their original voting machine software.

Hagel didn't disclose his ownership in the McCarthy Group, claiming it was an “excepted investment fund.” That exception was supposed to apply to ownership of mutual funds that invest in thousands of different holdings in a year. The McCarthy Group had less than 20 assets - among them, ES&S. When "The Hill" started asking questions, the Republican controlled Senate Ethics Committee changed the rules.

Michael R. McCarthy, chairman of the McCarthy Group Inc. was treasurer for Hagel’s campaigns and his son worked for Hagel's press shop.

In 1996 Hagel, in his first run for public office, defeated Nebraska's popular former governor, Ben Nelson. He was the first Republican Senator from Nebraska in 24 years. Machines made by AIS (later ES&S) counted 85% of the votes in the 1996 election. Nelson didn't challenge the vote or bring up Hagel's connection to the electronic voting machine company. Nelson won the next Senate election.

In 2002 Hagel took 83% of the votes. His opponent, Democrat Charlie Matulka, tried to get a hand recount, in part because of Hagel's ties to ES&S, but the handcount was refused because of the large margin of victory.

I had to laugh when Hagel, in his rant at last Wednesday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee Markup of the Biden, Hagel, Levin Resolution on the Iraq War, said about his stance "maybe I have no political future, I don't care about that." His political future is as secure as our use of his machines.

Here are a few articles about Hagel and voting machines:

Hagel’s ethics filings pose disclosure issue
By Alexander Bolton The Hill 1/29/03

http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx


Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
by Bob Fitrakis The Columbus Free Press 2/25/04 (posted on CommonDreams.com)

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm


Diebold’s Political Machine
By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman Mother Jones March 5, 2004

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html

[annabanana]

1. It's true. We can't trust him, but he sure as hell is

useful as cover for disenchanted repugs to creep out from behind the bushes on this war....

[skipos]

2. Hagel thinks Nelson of NE votes too much like Ted Kennedy.

He was spouting that kind of crap before the last election.

[DemKR]

7. Boy, if only that were true!!

[xchrom]

3. in our contemporary era, trustworthy and republican are

mutually exclusive.

hagel simply defines of what that lack of trust is made up.

[TheDebbieDee]

4. Thanks for the reminder................

Most importantly, thanks for the link to these articles.

I hadn't forgotten that Hagel was voted in on the very machines he sold to the State of Nebraska but I think a lot of DUers have..............

[Benhurst]

5. I will never forget. But push is coming to shove. And we are going

to need all the help we can get. If Roosevelt needed to get in bed with Stalin to win WWII, I think we can hop in the sack with Hagel to end Bush's immoral and illegal war and do whatever is necessary to save the Republic itself.

As for his coming late to the fight, unfortunately the same could be said of some of our "leaders."

[pacalo]

9. That's the way I look at it, too.

I won't forget Hagel's ties with AIS, but I don't care to focus on it at a point where he's working toward something we want really, really badly. Shooting ourselves in the foot when we're at the brink of WWIII isn't wise.

[The Count]

6. True. Might be the way he gets to the White House. I predict he is the GOP

nominee in 2008 (opposed war somewhat + can jack his votes)

[Hoping4Change]

8. Excellent post. Thanks for the information. K& R

[happydreams]

10. This is a great example of how yesterday's villains become

today's "good guys".

Hagel should be confronted with this!

[Morgana LaFey]

11. No, DUers should be confronted with this

It's fine to applaud them when they do well -- but it's like the old adage about letting wild animals into your home: don't WHINE about it when they attack you, as they surely will.

Hagel can talk a good game and believe me I can get easily sweet-talked by him too when he's talkin' anti-Bush or anti-war.

But he STOLE his way into office, and people don't steal elections in order to do good.

The other thing everyone has to know is that these folks have a core link to the Christian Reconstructionists, those fine folk who want to stone people to death for adultery, homosexuality, and juvenile delinquency. I was looking at the thread about Blackwater, which everyone should read:


BLACKWATER: Armed Christian Supremacy, Militia Style
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x62565

I have deep concern re Hagel.

[femrap]

12. Thanks for this info....

I didn't know.

Damn e-voting machines...and the ceo assholes who run them.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

13. Kick and recommend to keep it our there...n/t

[PATRICK]

14. Then let's focus on the situation

which jumped somehow to the starry candidacy of the riva;l to the Bush disaster machine. Is anything coalescing among the GOP to beat back this war and the next? Any real substantial challenge to pry the Bushes loose from dominating party selection? Pretty much they can't oppose Bush even on one popular issue.

What real actions can spring from this gauntlet cast against the old man with the mechanical heart?
Then I will be thrilled for the sake of finally saving lives frittering away in the pallid heat of DC rhetoric.

[Patiod]

15. Thanks for reminding everyone

S.O. was excited about Hagel's remarks, and I said "that's very nice, but the guy stole his seat".

I don't trust him.

[OKNancy]

16. There is absolutely no proof that there was any hanky-panky

in the 1996 election. Hagel is a conservative Republican elected in a conservative state.
Nelson is the MOST conservative Democrat in the Senate. Nebraska elects conservatives.

Nebraska over the past half-century has been the second-most Republican state in presidential elections. They will elect Democrats like Bob Kerrey, but they also like Vietnam vets like Hagel.
It's not like Governor Nelson was all that popular either when he lost in 1996.

Hagel did have the ethics problem, and he is a right-winger but there is no need to toss out this unsubstantiated theory as fact.

[ariellyn]

17. I know...I've been thinking 'is this the same Hagel' from Diebold?

How quickly (they would prefer) we forget.