The private war of Chuck and Tom Hagel (Salon)

[TwilightGardener]

Wouldn't it be better if Tom were the one in politics? He seems very likable and big-hearted. And why, exactly, is Salon running two big front-page articles on a conservative Republican? An interesting read, though.

--snip--
Tom and Chuck Hagel were always opposites. In Roman Catholic school in Columbus, Neb., a town of 12,000 an hour and a half west of Omaha, Chuck managed to be both popular and the teacher's pet. He was a class leader, the homecoming king and a member of the football team. And he was always profoundly ambitious and interested in politics. Friend Dave Kudrow claims that when Hagel ran for student council, he had a campaign staff. "He made the prediction when in high school that he would someday be a senator." In college Hagel even signed a letter to an aunt "your nephew and United States senator."

Tom, on the other hand, was the rebel and class clown who did imitations of the nuns until he got kicked out of St. Bonaventure High. But he was so popular that after his expulsion, many of his classmates followed him out the door to public school.

But they both grew up poor. As their father bounced from small job to smaller job, the six-member Hagel clan moved from one little Nebraska town to another. One summer the four Hagel brothers, Chuck, Tom, Mike and Jim, even slept in a chicken dormer with chicks; another time they briefly lived in the furnace room of a hotel.

--snip--
Now ready to begin their adult lives, it was apparent that Tom and Chuck had had very different reactions both to the horror they'd seen in Vietnam and to their hardscrabble upbringing. Tom went to law school and worked as a legal aide for the poor before becoming a law professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

--snip--
According to Tom, his own experience of doing without, of being on the outside looking in, inspired him to pull for the underdog. His brother's reaction to being on the outside, Tom says, was to try to get inside. Always ambitious, Chuck wanted access to wealth and power.

--snip--
After fewer than four years in the Senate, Hagel the war hero was on George W. Bush's short list of potential running mates in 2000. Once Bush was in office, Hagel signed on to his tax cuts and other agenda items. He had already racked up a nearly perfect score for his voting record from conservative watchdog groups. Tom was troubled by how little his brother, despite his own past, seemed interested in the plight of the less fortunate. "When I hear him talk about a legislative agenda, nowhere do I hear any concerns that would have an impact on poor or lower-middle-class people."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/04/30/hagel_brothers/index.html

[trumad]

1. And some DUers love the repuke.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Well, I like Chuck--he is an important anti-war voice right now.

Otherwise, Congressional opposition to Chimpy's war path would be totally partisan, which might make people take the Dem's opposition less seriously, or view it as a political gambit. He's also a good Senator for us here. Doesn't mean I want him to be President. He's a classic cold-hearted conservative by any other measure.

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. It was a good article. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

5. I thought so too--well- written...

Interesting how they turned out so different despite the same upbringing. Tom became a better and more sympathetic man because of it, while ol' Chuck turned into a bit of a hardened "got mine screw you" bastard, even though it's clear his dad loved him more. All sorts of psychological stuff going on there! Guess it's more of a human interest story, not really political.

[Alexander]

4. We're looking at the likely Republican nominee.

Not even the base will want to continue this war 7 months from now. Hagel will step in, as will Gore, I think.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Maybe. Starting to see articles and attention on him again popping

up in my usual internet haunts, and the media is usually Chuck's best promoter--it's plausible. Gore? I dunno--not sure why he'd jump in now when polls do not show him beating GOP frontrunners.