Home > Hagel: Bush Administration Is ’Incompetent’
Hagel: Bush administration is ’incompetent’ and he would consider joining a Dem ticket
"This is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I’ve ever seen personally or ever read about," the always blunt and frequently quotable Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said yesterday during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
"This administration in my opinion has been as unprepared as any administration I’m aware of," Hagel added, "not only the ones that I have been somehow connected to and that’s been every administration — either I’ve been in Washington or worked within an administration or Congress or some way dealing with them since the first Nixon administration. I would rate this one the lowest in capacity, in capability, in policy, in consensus — almost every area, I would give it the lowest grade. ...
"And you know, I think of this administration, what they could have done after 9/11, what was within their grasp. Every poll in the world showed 90% of the world for us. Iran had some of the first spontaneous demonstrations on the streets of Tehran supporting America. They squandered a tremendous amount of opportunity."
Hagel, who toyed with the idea of running for president himself, also said:
He would be open to the idea of either working in a Democratic administration or even running as the vice presidential nominee on a Democratic ticket — though, he conceded, "I probably won’t have to worry about it" because he’s unlikely to be asked.
"If there was an area that I thought I could make a difference and influence policy, leadership, outcome ... then I would entertain" those possibilities, Hagel said.
He called Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "capable." As for the speculation that he and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg might form an independent ticket, Hagel joked that "Bloomberg’s got the money. I think it’d be Bloomberg-Hagel" ticket.
The council has posted a transcript of Hagel’s remarks here.
Hagel has already announced he won’t seek re-election to his Senate seat next year.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/11/hagel-bush-admi.html
Forum posts
30 November 2007, 22:47
Nice to see in print, but too little, too late. Where was Hagel 4 years ago?
1 December 2007, 15:45
"Well I’ve been a Republican all my life. I voted for the Republican ticket in 1968 when I was in Vietnam. I’m not happy with the Republican Party today. It has drifted from the party of Eisenhower, of Goldwater, of Reagan. The party that I joined, it isn’t the same party. It’s not. It’s been hijacked by a group of single-minded almost isolationists, insulationists, power-projectors. That’s not what Eisenhower talked about in 1961 when he probably gave one of the best speeches ever given by a president about how we will use our foreign policy and our engagement and reaching out to the world. The world will always respond to leadership that they have confidence in and they trust." — Sen. Chuck Hagel, 13 May 2007 (Face the Nation)
SCHIEFFER: Mm-hmm.
4 December 2007, 04:32
Hagel has a long, illustrious record of criticizing W that extends back more than 4 years. But the media has chosen to neglect him, as it has many other voices like Scott Ritter and Ralph Nader. Hagel’s one of the shining lights, despite his association with voting machine investments.
When the record of the "War on Terror" has been compiled years from now, very few politicians will be on the honorable side. Hagel, Kucinch and Paul will be some of the few. The media in general is, however, guilty of not providing those courageous, honorable individuals with a platform that may have changed things around. Thus, they should rot in hell. Oh, I know, there’s no hell. Well one should be invented just for them.
1 December 2007, 23:54
Actions are speaking louder than words! Actions have been speaking louder than words! But, you must remember that nothing happens in government that was not planned. So, “what do you suppose is the plan?”