Hagel(R-Ne) , Bruning angling for right

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

Published Saturday | April 28, 2007
Hagel, Bruning angling for right
BY ROBYNN TYSVER
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN - If Jon Bruning and Chuck Hagel tangle in a GOP primary fight next spring, both may have trouble with the right flank of the Nebraska Republican Party.

Party loyalty - a virtue prized by staunch Republicans - poses trouble for both.

Hagel has angered many Republicans in Nebraska for his unabashed criticism of President Bush and the Iraq war.

That anger rose substantially with Hagel's recent comments that impeachment of the president was an "option," even though he quickly clarified that it isn't an option he supports.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=2374069

[Robbien]

1. These papers keep pushing the false idea that people don't want to leave Iraq

angered many . . . for his unabashed criticism of President Bush and the Iraq war.

All this false anger they keep writing about.

Only the rabid right dead enders are sticking to the idea of sacrificing our troops in order to kill more Muslims.

Every sane person wants our guys to come home.

[krkaufman]

2. Well, it's very possible that Hagel's criticism *did* anger many ...

... out in Nebraska. It *is* a "red" state (though one with a diminishing approval rating for Bush).

Nov.2006: 46% http://www.surveyusa.com/50State2006/State50StateBushApproval061116.htm
Jun.2005: 60% http://www.surveyusa.com/Bush50StateApproval0605.htm

(He's only over 50% approval in Idaho and Utah, as of last November. Makes me think of the isolation of the Galapagos Islands, and what that isolation helped evolve.)

[TwilightGardener]

3. This will get ugly--it's starting to attract a lot of attention

already, and it's very early. My prediction--Hagel will ultimately be forgiven. I doubt they will want a pipsqueak upstart over an experienced statesman who brings home the bacon. Hagel obviously thinks Chimpy is an ass who is damaging the party and needlessly killing our soldiers, and that view might end up sinking in here too among Nebraska Republicans--Hagel is where most of the American people are.

[acmavm]

4. Hagel is where the American people are ONLY ON THE WAR! Other

than that, he is amongst the most conservative of the conservatives.

Hagel is an elitist with the trait that identifies them to easiest, a self-serving dishonesty that should scare the hell out of everyone.

He lied to the citizens (and the country) when asked about his ties to ES&S (after winning his first election).

Do people think that he wouldn't hesitate to cover his ass like that again?

[TwilightGardener]

5. Hagel IS uber-conservative, elitist, and totally pro-business--

I don't see him as dishonest, however, despite that ES&S thing. He doesn't scare me--I think he's trustworthy and thinks for himself at least, and I would vote for him for Senate, unless the Dems put up a worthy candidate. Would you rather have Bruning as the primary winner, whose entire platform seems to be loyalty to the Chimperator??? All that little asshole is doing is exploiting the (unjustified) anger at Hagel here.

[acmavm]

6. No, I would prefer to find one honest man, which would exclude both of

these guys. (And to take that thought a little further, that would include our own quisling knucklehead dem, Ben Nelson.)

Nebraska politics are based on the mean-sprited hateful politics of old men who are convinced that life was 'meant to be hard' for everyone but themselves. The gimme guys who bitch about government spending and pocket those subsidy checks the second they come in the mail. Who wear their religion on their sleeves while ingoring the what Christ said was the most important rule of all, do unto others as you would have done unto you. A state governed by petty little men who's mission is to ensure that the only people who are fully protected by the laws and Constitution are white men, to hell with minorities and women. A state where the biggest (and practically only) beneficiaries of the tax money paid by the middle and lower classes of citizens (certainly not by ConAgra or UP) of Nebraska is the Chamber of Commerce (who are the main recipients of the services of both Hagel and Nelson).

[TwilightGardener]

7. Agree with your assessment of the state of politics here, and

what drives our elected officials--especially had to LOL at farmer welfare, the same guys who can't tolerate anyone else getting taxpayer "handouts". The Repub party is big here because of that "independent pioneer spirit" crap that they like to perpetuate (get government off our backs! No one gonna tell me what to do with my land or my guns! blah blah blah), but the subsidy thing shows what a myth that is. The rank-and-file 'Pubs here don't realize how ripped off they are by our conservative, pro-business office-holders. Very little in Nebraska is done well, despite the fact that I pay more in taxes than most other places I've lived (especially South Dakota). That said, I think Hagel and Nelson are honest enough, for what we're able to get into office, anyway. I don't have an axe to grind with Hagel, but I don't get Nelson's kissing Chimpy's ass most of the time--that's just embarrassing.