What’s He Hiding?

The Senate Armed Services Committee was scheduled to vote today on Chuck Hagel's nomination to be Secretary of Defense. If his nomination is voted out of committee, some Senate Republicans are signaling that they are prepared to filibuster Hagel’s nomination, a move that would require that Hagel receive 60 votes in the Senate to be confirmed. Hagel may not have enough support in the Senate to beat a filibuster. 

Hagel still hasn’t answered questions about the details of money he received from various groups he worked for. Recent evidence shows that in supporting documents Hagel gave to Senate investigators as part of his confirmation process, Hagel did not disclose at least two speeches he gave in 2008 that focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

One of the speeches was delivered to the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and the other to Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Staffers for members of Congress opposed to Hagel’s nomination have also gathered proof that Hagel spoke frequently to pro-Arab audiences in 2007, including one group described by the Investigative Project on Terrorism as “a de facto propaganda arm of the Arab world.” 

What’s Hagel hiding? We can guess. He is far outside of mainstream in the way he looks at the Middle East and Israel. That Hagel is hiding these speeches suggests that his remarks reinforce the growing belief that he is anti-Israel. 

Boom! 

North Korea conducted its 3rd nuclear weapons test today. I am “counting down” right now to see how long it takes for liberals or the media to suggest that the test is George Bush’s fault. When he was president, Bush was regularly blamed by the left for North Korea’s aggressive policies. The argument was that Bush had too much of a cowboy foreign policy and did provocative things like referring to North Korea as “evil.” 

Bill Kristol at The Weekly Standard suggested, tongue and cheek, that the North Korean blast was an early celebration of Chuck Hagel’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense. While the North Koreans build a nuclear arsenal, Hagel wants to gut ours. Some U.S. officials believe that the test was not just for North Korea but was also done on behalf of Iran. North Korean technicians are reportedly working at Iranian nuclear facilities.