Politico Celebrates Obama’s ‘Bipartisan Spirit’ With Hagel Nomination
-By Warner Todd Huston
Upon President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, Politico celebrated the move as proof of Obama’s “bipartisan spirit.”
Politico notes that Hagel has detractors on both sides of the aisle, but it appears the Washington political newser feels that makes him a great choice.
But inside the White House, the choice makes sense. It appeals to Obama’s bipartisan spirit — and the optics aren’t bad, either — to have any Republican as Defense secretary when Obama is seeking to end the war in Afghanistan and dramatically reduce the Pentagon’s budget.
Obama’s mythic sense of “bipartisanship” is deftly laid low by Peggy Noonan who wrote last week that Obama just loves to taunt.
Politico buries at the bottom of its long piece any listing of just why Hagel is opposed by some left and right.
To name just some of Hagel’s problems, in 2006 he used the derogatory “Jewish lobby” to rail against Jews in the U.S., showing a penchant toward anti-Semitism. Hagel stood against putting pressure on Hamas claiming that both the U.S. and Israel should negotiate with the terror group. And for those on the left, Hagel has shown a callousness toward gays.
Former Clinton operative Lanny Davis is one Democrat calling for Hagel to explain himself over his many anti-Semitic remarks.
It might seem to be ideal for Obama to have a nominal Republican installed as Sec Def. right at the time when he’s poised to slash the military’s budget. Being able to blame a Republican for such cuts would help give Obama cover and a fawning press will be happy to assist in that effort.
Politico does have another post detailing some of the critics’ case against Hagel.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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