Hagel for Defense – Settling Old Scores Shouldn’t Matter

Former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s Nominee for Secretary of Defense, took a beating from many members of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee last week. Some of it was style. Hagel is always candid which can irritate his former colleagues. And, he can be abrasive and uncooperative. Schmoozing the big egos of Members of the “Senate Club” has never been Hagel’s forte. However, some of Hagel’s difficulty was also Senators settling old scores on Hegal’s up to a decade-old positions on the Iraq War and Iran policy, his failure to endorse John McCain in 2008 – and not mentioned but surely his endorsement of two Democrats (Joe Sestak and Bob Kerrey) for the U.S. Senate in 2010 and 2012, respectively, his opposition to “openly aggressively gay” James Hormel as Ambassador to Luxembourg, and his description of pro-Israel lobbying groups as the intimidating “Jewish Lobby” (a common description inside the Beltway). But, does Chuck Hagel have the foreign policy and defense knowledge, government and war experience, and management skills necessary to serve well as Secretary of Defense? Should Hagel be confirmed? My answer is “yes.”

When Chuck Hagel was in his first few years in the U.S. Senate in the late 1990’s, I served as a Senate Chief of Staff to one of his colleagues, Max Baucus of Montana. At that time, there was a sense among many Senators that the Senate Standing Committees covering foreign policy, e.g. Foreign Relations (of which Hagel was a member) and Armed Services, did not afford a sufficient arena within which Members could candidly and privately flesh out foreign policy issues and seek bi-partisan accord with one another away from the klegg lights. In response, I assisted Senator Baucus in organizing the ad hoc “Senate Bi-Partisan Foreign Policy Group.” This informal group – comprised of up to about 20-25 senators from both parties – would meet informally in our office conference room every couple of weeks or so. Sometimes, it was just the senators. Other times, an outside expert, often a top foreign policy or defense advisor in a prior Administration, would be invited to address a pressing legislative issue on their minds.

Senator Chuck Hagel was one of the most active and committed members of this group. His Chief of Staff, Lou Ann Linehan, was always one of the first to call me inquiring about the next group meeting and often had an idea for the agenda, a potential speaker, or an issue for the meeting to convey from Senator Hagel. It was clear that Senator Hagel – even with all of the other commitments on his plate – wanted this group to be successful and wanted to be a very active participant in it.

Moreover, in the Senate overall, I observed that Senator Hagel was smart, refreshingly honest, independent, open-minded and thoughtful. He always seemed to seek a legislative policy that made sense, was fair and innovative, and accounted for the “human price” of war, surely a bi-product of his service as a decorated Vietnam War veteran. Hagel never shied away from reaching across the partisan aisle in an effort to find common ground and to seek, and share, new and better ideas with his colleagues. Sometimes, his independence would irritate some of his fellow Republican colleagues. At times, he would even be a lone wolf on an issue, as some senators are from time to time. And, he was not known for being “warm and fuzzy.” But, war is not warm and fuzzy. More importantly, and more often than not, I observed Hagel’s keen intelligence, his contributions of new, smart, and creative ideas, and his fresh points of view – without a partisan “straight-jacket” – help spur a bi-partisan resolution to a legislative issue.

In my view, the only pause in confirming Hagel would relate to the sitting Senators themselves – whether they will let their ire over settling past scores get in the way of cooperating with Hagel if he is confirmed as Secretary of Defense. If so, President Obama would need to take a second look at whether Hagel could serve as an effective Secretary of Defense. If not, he should be confirmed. As former Democratic U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and Republican Senator John Warner stated to the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, Chuck Hagel has all of the personal, professional and war-earned ingredients to be an exemplary Secretary of Defense.  It is unfortunate that the Senate Armed Services Committee did not spend more time exploring Hagel’s and President Obama’s positions on current pressing foreign policy and defense issues. Those positions – and Hagel’s foreign policy, defense, government and war-torn experience, his creative, thoughtful mind, his honesty and independence to give the President and others his unvarnished advice and to seek bi-partisan solutions, and his skills to manage the Defense Department – are what really matters. Not settling old scores.

Author’s Note: This is my first “mini-blog” – a shorter, quick opinion piece created for Straight Scoop Politics in 2013. For now, these “Off The Cuff” blogs will appear on the home page. In the future, they will appear on the new “Off The Cuff” Page. Many will be much shorter than this one – maybe just a paragraph or two, but give the author an opportunity for a quick, timely observation as political stories develop rather than a more expansive blog. Let me know what you think.