Republican Senator Chuck Hagel - American Badass

[Sean]

Okay, this is the last one I'll add to the "badass" series, but Hagel definitely deserves a shout-out. He had an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, and in it, he slams Palin's lack of qualifications for the VP slot.

"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said Wednesday in an interview. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

and...

Palin has cited the proximity of Alaska to Russia as evidence of her international experience.

Hagel scoffed at that notion.

"I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."

and...

Washington experience isn't the only kind of experience, Hagel said, and he noted that many White House occupants have been governors with no time inside the Beltway.

"But I do think in a world that is so complicated, so interconnected and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world," Hagel said. "I think that's just a requirement."

So is Palin qualified to be president?

"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said.

[Strangelet]

i freaking love chuck hagel.

[cured]

borrowed from another board, a buddy who works for the DNC had this to say about Hagel:

Hagel comes from that old school class of politicians who actually study issues and use judgment apart from partisanship. Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia is among those ranks as well.

The difference between Hagel and Lieberman is that Hagel offers constructive criticism whereas Lieberman has made a career out of bashing his own Party. Er, his former Party.

On the Democratic side? David Boren (OK) and Sam Nunn (GA) were of that class, but they both bolted when they saw the changing tide of the Senate in 1994. The Senate has become more of a Partisan place in the last 12 years, largely in part due to more members of Congress elevating to the Senate and carrying the Partisanship of the House with them to the upper chamber.

Of the current crop you could say that Russ Feingold (WI) and Dianne Feinstein (CA), who are two people typically branded as leftist liberals, but break with the Party quite a bit on issues of policy. Feingold took a ton of shit from the Party (as did McCain from his) for his authoring of the campaign finance law. Feinstein has supported Bush's judicial nominees on principle. Both candidates were not invited to speak at the convention.

Another good example of elected officials on both sides would be the "Gang of 14" who blocked Bill Frist's "nuclear option" from taking place in the Senate during the 109th session of Congress (that's 2005-2006 in normal speak). That group included:

Republicans

* John McCain of Arizona
* Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
* John Warner of Virginia
* Olympia Snowe of Maine
* Susan Collins of Maine
* Mike DeWine of Ohio (lost re-election in 2006)
* Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island (lost re-election in 2006)

Democrats

* Joe Lieberman of Connecticut (defeated in the Democratic primary of his state in 2006 but re-elected in the general election as an Independent)
* Robert Byrd of West Virginia
* Ben Nelson of Nebraska
* Mary Landrieu of Louisiana
* Daniel Inouye of Hawaii
* Mark Pryor of Arkansas
* Ken Salazar of Colorado