What a tease
I thought there was something peculiar last week when Chuck Hagel announced that he would have something to announce today. Normally it’s impossible to keep a presidential campaign announcement a secret and in Hagel’s case there were no sniffs of an official organization coming together. So just moments ago when Hagel stumbled through his announcement of nothing to announce, all I could think of was what a tease.
It also helped to add to the Hagel legacy in my mind of someone who has no place in the White House or in the Senate for that matter. This guy can’t make up his mind about anything. If I was Hagel, I would forget about presidential aspirations as well as another Nebraska senate run. He might want to take his own advice and start looking for that shoe selling job immediately.
If he’s thinking about staying in politics, the only other conceivable option is that he’s seriously (well, perhaps that’s the wrong word) considering a potential Unity’08 run and wants to see how their organizing work shakes out. My advice to Chuck on that one is to forget about it.
Unless there is a huge swing away from the Republican party on the part of the christofacist wing to an independent ticket, I don’t see how a Unity bid would work for Hagel. I see U’08 as being a synergy of social moderates with fiscal conservatives, but… Pat Buchanan was able to garner the Reform party nomination a few years back so I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
I think the next time Chuck asks me (yes we have spoken), “How can I help you?”
I may reply by saying , “Chuck, I’m looking for a pair of size 10 black tassled loafers that come in a wide width”.
