Don Walton: Senate decisions coming

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OK, we’re close.

Soon we’ll hear from Chuck Hagel and Bob Kerrey.

Mike Johanns sometime later.

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Everything’s always subject to change, but all signs continue to point to the likelihood Hagel will not seek re-election to the Senate next year.

Then, it gets tricky.

If Hagel’s out, Kerrey’s traffic light currently appears to be green.

But proceed with caution. Traffic lights turn red. Road conditions change.

Word from the secretary of agriculture’s office is Johanns won’t be talking about any possible political future just yet.

A new farm bill has cleared the House, but it could be stuck in the Senate for a while as senators agonize once again this month over  what to do — or not do — in Iraq.

That’s likely to put Johanns on hold.

If it’s ultimately Kerrey versus Johanns after 2008 primary voters have spoken and all the smoke has cleared, Nebraska may play host to next year’s premier Senate race.

So say Chris Cillizza and Shailagh Murray in The Washington Post.

“A Kerrey-Johanns matchup would be the early front-runner for the marquee race of the 2008 cycle,” they wrote last week. 

“Political junkies wait with bated breath.”

Kerrey, a former two-term U.S. senator, former governor, former Democratic presidential candidate.

Johanns, a former two-term governor, member of President Bush’s cabinet.

Jon Bruning, and other Republican Senate prospects,  may argue Nebraska still would be a premier national battleground if they won the GOP nomination and faced Kerrey.

Still on the table would be an open Republican Senate seat at risk in a traditionally Republican state.  And a Democratic nominee with high-profile national credentials.

Here’s a quick review of the playing field: Bruning’s already in the GOP primary race. If Hagel decides not to seek a third term, Tony Raimondo has said he’ll jump in.

Hal Daub is nearing his own decision. Pat Flynn’s in.

Johanns isn’t talking, but there are positive vibes.

Perhaps the biggest mystery at the moment is what will Hagel do if, as expected, he says two Senate terms are enough.

It’s difficult to imagine that a senator who has been so engaged and outspoken on the vital national and international issues facing the country at a critical juncture would just walk away from the action.

Hagel’s voice has been an important — and, some would argue, stunningly prescient — part of the Iraq debate from the beginning.

“Senator Hagel is well-informed, challenging those politicians who are breaking our great Army and Marine Corps,” retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, former 1st Infantry Division commander in Iraq, told Nebraskans in radio ads last week.

“Right now, our soldiers and Marines are killing and dying in Iraq, despite the fact that the Iraqis are no closer to reconciliation and the current government is ineffective.

“Policymakers need people like Senator Hagel standing up for our troops, their families and our national security,” Batiste said.

Might Hagel entertain the possibility of a late-blooming presidential bid? 

Although Hagel’s Senate voting record has been faithful to conservative Republican principles, the presidential nomination of his own party is almost certainly out of reach. Core elements of the GOP, many of which are bound to partisanship and presidential loyalty, never will forgive Hagel for his sharp opposition to President Bush on the war.

But if Michael Bloomberg and/or the independent political alternative represented by Unity08 beckon with an alternative presidential or vice presidential route, might Hagel be interested?

Don’t know.

Speculation about a Bloomberg-Hagel ticket has been floating out there since they conspicuously dined together in Washington last May.

But Bloomberg seemed to put a lid on his own late-blooming last week.  At least for now.

“I’m not going to run for president,” Bloomberg told a news conference in Washington after he weighed in on all the key issues during a National Press Club speech.

Hagel would have lots of options as he looks ahead. And he could choose to hold all of them open.

When Kerrey approached the same decision in 2000, he determined his future a piece at a time.

In the final days of 1998 came his announcement he would not seek the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination.  

In January of 2000, Kerrey announced he would not seek re-election to a third term in the Senate. 

A month later, he accepted the presidency of New School University, effective at the end of his term.

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