OMAHA — Sen. Chuck Hagel called timeout Monday.

Facing a wall-to-wall lineup of TV cameras, Hagel told a crowded news conference he’ll delay a decision on whether to pursue the presidency or seek re-election until later this year.

“In making this announcement,” he said, “I believe there will still be political options open to me at a later date.”

Hagel’s announcement buys him time to test his message nationally while holding open the option of seeking re-election to a third term in the Senate next year.

Delaying a final decision also allows Hagel to weigh changes in the landscape, both global and political, before deciding whether to propel his strong opposition to Bush administration policy in Iraq into the Republican presidential race.

During an interview following his morning news conference at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Hagel said he has not ruled out the third option of leaving elective office at the end of next year.

Although he said he now will “pick up the pace” of campaign fundraising through his Senate re-election committee and his Sandhills PAC, Hagel said that’s not a signal he’s heading down the path of a Senate race with the option of veering off into a presidential bid.

“I’m talking about exploring both paths seriously,” Hagel said, “and preparing myself for either option.”

As Hagel prepared to fly back to Washington at mid-afternoon, nothing essentially had changed in terms of his 2008 political plans.

“It’s not the right time to make a final decison,” he said during the interview.

“There’s no need to. I’m not ready to. The family (including himself) is not ready to.

“I don’t follow conventional wisdom or what others say,” Hagel said.  “I play by my own time frame.”

Hagel said he prepared Monday’s statement at his kitchen table in McLean, Va., two weeks ago.

Rejecting the option of forming a presidential exploratory committee to raise funds, Hagel said: “I’m not there yet.”

Instead, he said, he’ll use his Senate campaign fundraising tools.  Those funds could be transferred to a presidential bid at a later date.

Prior to his UNO event, Hagel participated in a conference call with about 100 supporters. Some of them, he said, are newcomers “who strongly urged me to run” for president and are prepared to help him raise campaign funds.

If Hagel enters the presidential scrap, the war in Iraq would become a centerpiece of the Republican debate.

All three GOP front-runners —Arizona Sen. John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — support the president’s policy, including his recent increase in U.S. combat troops.

Hagel, a twice-wounded veteran of the Vietnam War, is the strongest Republican senatorial critic of Bush administration policy. Recently, he has warned against escalating U.S. involvement in what he says is now largely a sectarian civil war.

“I want to keep my focus on helping find a responsible way out of this tragedy and not divert my energy, efforts and judgment with competing political considerations,” Hagel said in eschewing entry into the GOP derby at this time.

Hagel said he also wants to devote “my full attention over the next few months” to other key issues, including immigration and entitlement reform as well as energy and climate change.

“I’m not a one-issue candidate,” he said, “and I don’t believe you can be elected as a one-issue candidate.”

As he prepares to make up his mind — Labor Day appears to be a reasonable target for a final decision, although Hagel avoided any time frame — he said he’ll increase his travel schedule.

“I will be in New Hampshire and Iowa,” he said.

Thus far, Hagel has made only two trips to New Hampshire, site of the first presidential primary election in 2008. He’s scarcely been to neighboring Iowa, where presidential caucuses kick off next year’s race.

If Hagel ultimately enters the presidential derby, he would be the second Nebraska senator in two decades to test his national strength.

Former Sen. Bob Kerrey made a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992 but left the field early after a single victory in South Dakota. 

Kerrey, who watched the Hagel news conference live on his laptop in New York City, said he’s “very sympathetic” to Hagel’s position.

“He is torn. It’s a very difficult decision. I think he would like to run for president, but I think he also generally sees the value he adds to the Iraq war debate.”

If Hagel entered the presidential race now, Kerrey said, “he knows he’d barely have time to be a senator anymore.”

Kerrey and Hagel, who served together in the Senate, are friends despite their party differences and visit occasionally by phone.

Hagel, 60, who was first elected to the Senate in 1996, is more multidimensional than he often is portrayed.

Although he has been the most outspoken Republican critic of President Bush’s Iraq war policies, Hagel was the strongest supporter of the president’s legislative agenda in the Senate last year.

A Congressional Quarterly survey showed he voted with the president 95.5 percent of the time.

While he is continually hammered by much of the Republican Party’s conservative base for opposing the president on the war, Hagel has compiled a strongly conservative voting record during his 11 years in the Senate.

And he is dependably pro-life.

Often identified as swimming outside the mainstream of his party, Hagel says he wants to return the GOP to its traditional moorings of fiscal responsibility and international engagement.

“I have been disappointed in my party during the last few years,” he said. 

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