Hagel awaits nation's mood

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BY DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star

In the tenth August of his Senate career, this is a time of reflection for Chuck Hagel. Decision time comes later, and it can wait.

Gliding above the green hills of northeastern Nebraska this week in a King Air bound from Norfolk to Sioux City, the shirtsleeved senator embraces the moment.

“Reconnecting without the day-to-day pressures of Washington and politics, listening to real people, not thinking about the future, reinvigorates me, re-enforces me.

View Slideshow

Sen. Chuck Hagel speaks in South Sioux City on Monday.(William Lauer)

“This is one of the best parts of the job. It fills me back up.”

Time out. Life is good.

On this gentle summer day, Hagel banters with students in Norfolk, sits around a table with community college educators talking about plans for the future, tours a beef processing plant that feeds the nation’s fast-food hamburger giants, answers questions over coffee and cookies at a bank in South Sioux City.

At the Northern Nebraska Area Health Education Center, Hagel is asked if he’d like something to drink.

“Maybe a glass of ethanol,” he says. After the laughter, he settles for coffee instead.

Interrupting a natural resources district huddle over documents and maps, he asks: “You guys know what you’re doing?”

At the Iowa-Nebraska State Bank, 21 residents gather in the community room at the end of the work day to greet Hagel.

“Anybody ask if you’re running for president today?” comes the first inquiry.

“Nobody cares,” Hagel says.

Not him. Not today.

vvv

Sure, it’s hovering there.

But it can wait.

Sometime after this November’s national elections, Hagel will decide whether to seek the presidency in 2008.

Or be a candidate for a third term in the Senate.

Or steer a new course in either the private or public sector.

The reality is this: If his party does poorly in congressional elections this autumn, that’s a call for change and an opening for him in the Republican presidential derby.

Hagel wants to reshape — he might say restore — the Republican Party, take it back to international engagement and fiscal discipline.  Back to what he describes as its  moorings.

Back to Eisenhower and Reagan and the first George Bush. 

Even back to Abraham Lincoln, whose presidency demonstrated   the GOP was “once the party of tolerance and mutual respect.”

Today, Hagel argues for comprehensive immigration reform that welcomes newcomers and provides a pathway to earned legal status for millions now settled here illegally.

But the two-term senator has been most outspoken in parting from the Republican White House over Iraq. 

Hagel also has criticized U.S.  disengagement from working toward a two-state settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and warned about the isolating impact of the Bush administration’s unilateral instincts.

“If America is looking for change, my record is pretty clear about that,” Hagel says. 

If voters this November essentially endorse the status quo with their congressional votes, Hagel says, that delivers a different message.

“I may not fit.”

vvv

Gas prices, drought, war.

Iraq, Lebanon, terrorists, the plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic.

Nebraskans with questions on their minds.

Hagel with direct answers.

“There were no terrorists in Iraq until we got there.”

“War should never be held hostage to a political agenda. It shouldn’t be used as a partisan issue, a wedge issue, especially by those in my party who say Democrats don’t care about the security of our country.”

“I think the Patriot Act had gone too far (and needed to be amended) to balance constitutional liberties and security.”

South Sioux City Mayor Bill McLarty appreciates the candor.

“He’s up front,” McLarty says.  “He comes out here to find out where we are (on issues) and he’ll tell you want he thinks. 

“I’d rather have someone tell me what they think even if I disagree.”

Sometimes, McLarty says, he agrees with Hagel and sometimes he does not.

“Just like they don’t always agree with me,” he says, nodding toward his constituents across the room.

This trip seals Hagel’s enthusiastic support for a joint project between Northeast Community College in Norfolk and Wayne State College to launch a campus in South Sioux City on land donated by the city.

“It’s a terrific, terrific project,” Hagel says.

“I will support it in any way I can.”

One of the best parts of the job.

vvv

Yes, Hagel acknowledges, his critiques of Bush administration policies in the Middle East probably are becoming increasingly blunt.

Does that reflect anger?

“I am very frustrated,” he answers, leaning forward in his seat to talk over the sound of the two engines rushing him toward the Sioux City airport.

“I see policies that clearly are not in the long-term interests of the country, policies that are damaging this country.

“We’re going to pay a price.”

Sure, Hagel says, “I’m not unaware that when I challenge the president, I’m politically outside the mainstream of my political party.  I have angered some people.

“Yes, it will have an effect on my future. I’m not bothered by it.”

It’s much more important to be true to himself, Hagel says.

“I don’t want to be sitting in a rocking chair someday having a regret I didn’t have the courage to step up when I could, even knowing full well it could end my political career.

“While I’m here, I’ll do anything I can to have the most impact, the most influence to change the country. This is the one time, the one place I can do it.”

If events were to demonstrate he may have been right all along in his warnings about Iraq and in his consistent call for balanced U.S. engagement to help broker an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, would  he get political credit for it?

“No American wants to have a politician say ‘I was right’ when American men and women have died,” Hagel responds.

“Let the American people decide who was right and who may have had the best judgment.”

Hagel is annoyed by those in his party who choose to use the war for partisan advantage.

That’s “cheap political rhetoric,” he says.

“At least as many Democrats have died in Iraq as Republicans.”

vvv

No decision about 2008 has been made.

No trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, the opening rounds of a front-loaded presidential caucus and primary campaign, are on Hagel’s schedule. He was in Iowa only for a few minutes this day, long enough to cross the border from the airport to South Sioux City.

The latest report from Sandhills PAC, Hagel’s political arm, shows no spike in fundraising activity.

But Hagel acknowledges he has given “a lot of serious thought” to the fundraising challenge that confronts him if he decides he wants to enter the presidential sweepstakes.

Hagel figures $20 million is the price of admission. 

That’s the amount he believes is needed to remain viable through the early primaries and caucuses when the field of contenders will be significantly reduced and a small band of survivors will emerge.

If he can’t raise $20 million, he says, he wouldn’t enter the race. 

Hagel will make a number of appearances throughout the country in October after Congress recesses and goes home.  

He’ll remain visible.

And, no doubt, outspoken.

Among the three options he’s considering, which ranks third in his current thinking?

Nothing, Hagel says.  No order is forming.

Perhaps there may have been a revealing moment at the end of the day in South Sioux City. 

Maybe. 

Maybe not.

Here it is, as he answers a question at the bank: 

“When I first ran for the Senate, I said two terms might be enough. I don’t want politics to be the last job I have. Two years from now might be a good time to do that.”

Twelve weeks before this year’s congressional elections, Hagel is in no hurry to decide.

As presidential hopefuls pour into Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s sticking to his own timetable. 

He remains stuck far down the lists of most GOP presidential oddsmakers, largely because of the perception his buddy, Arizona Sen. John McCain, crowds him out as the more celebrated independent voice.

However, that perception ignores one big difference: McCain is a strong supporter of the war in Iraq.

“A lot of this is out of my control,” Hagel says.  “I’ll focus on what I can control, the kind of senator I can be. 

“Whatever’s going to happen will happen. It’ll all work out.”

vvv

And now Iran.

“Some in this administration want some excuse to take military action,” Hagel says.

“That would be disastrous, catastrophic. It would enflame the Middle East in ways we can’t imagine today.”

The United States and Israel already are isolated in the region, Hagel says.

Two wars — in Iraq and Afghanistan — have strained the U.S. military, partly because of decisions made by “all these smart guys” who now talk about bombing Iran.

“The American force structure is broken,” Hagel says. “Everything’s breaking down. We’re chewing up our people.”

A war in Iran would require reinstitution of a military draft, Hagel says.

“I’m not sure you could get Congress today to approve a resolution” authorizing the president to go to war, he says.

“And if either house goes Democratic, no way.

“Congress certainly wouldn’t authorize unless there was very clear provocation,” Hagel says.

“We’re into two messes now, plus Lebanon.”

Democrats have been “weak, kind of like jello” in addressing these issues, Hagel says.

“The better option would be for the Republican Party to get back where it’s been, refocus the party to what it once was under Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush senior.”

The United States must regain credibility and trust in the Arab world, Hagel says, and focus on trying to help resolve the core issue, the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

No doubt Iran has been fomenting violence, Hagel says.  But he has long argued the United States needs to engage Iran — and Syria — in direct talks, with Iranian plans to develop a nuclear capacity atop the agenda.

Bush administration spokesmen already are “ratcheting up charges” against Iran, he says, perhaps reaching for “an excuse to attack.”

“I hope this administration thinks through this very carefully.

“Who’s going to do the dying?”

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.