‘Dick’… Cheney was true to name and self last night when he did a telephone interview on Fox’s Hannity Show. Asked about the news that the Obama administration is considering cutting the military, Cheney responded with the usual racist stereotypes, typical of… well… racists.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is proposing cuts to the military to meet the Pentagon’s budgeted needs. The plan would reduce the military from its all time high of 570,000 to a more feasible number, between 450,000 to 490,000.
Cheney called the plan “absolutely dangerous” and went on to say that it “does enormous long-term damage to our military.”
He then dropped this piece of racist stereotypical nugget.
“He’d much rather spend the money on food stamps than he would on a strong military or support for our troops.”
You know, the first black president and all. Despite the fact that southern whites make up a larger population of food stamp recipients than blacks, the racists would still use this argument when they have nothing else to say and when they know that their base is looking for their daily dose of hate.
After all the delay, the name calling and the accusations that Hagel was part of a secret non-existent organization in the middle east, Republicans finally ended their pointless filibuster of the President’s nominee and voted with Democrats 58-41 to approve Chuck Hagel as the next Secretary of the Defense.
Kind of make you wonder what all the fuss was all about.
It is quite understandable that questions will be asked of any nominee, but what Republicans did with Chuck Hagel including filibustering his appointment, was unprecidented and had absolutely no legitimate purpose. After it’s all said and done, Chuck Hagel will be sworn in on Wednesday.
They claim that they cannot support Chuck Hagel because he is financially supported by the dreaded group called “Friends of Hamas!” But there is something you need to know about Friends of Hamas…
By now, you have all heard of the most recent reason why some Republicans are against Chuck Hagel‘s confirmation. For the few who haven’t heard, the latest scoop on Hagel – according to Republicans – is that he received money from a group called, “Friends of Hamas.”
Shocked? Well you should be. A little digging online found that Friends of Hamas does not exist. The idea of the fake organization came from a reporter in New York. But this little fact has not stop some Republicans in congress from naming the fictitious organization and its non-existent connection to Mr. Hagel, as one of their reasons for opposing Hagel’s confirmation. Take Republican/Teaparty Senator Rand Paul for example. Responding to a question about the so called, Friends of Hamas, the Senator said that he saw the information and that it is “more and more concerning.”
The information of course, is being pushed by a conservative website, Breitbart.com. Breitbart is the same site that fabricated a video of Shirley Sherrod, giving the impression that Sherrod had racist tendencies. The doctored video implied that Sherrod denied a white farmer the funds and information he needed. Due to the backlash on the video from Fox News and other conservative media, Sherrod was forced to resign as Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture. She later sued Breitbart.
Friends of Hamas does not exist, but Breitbart stands by their story and continues pushing this lie to Congressional Republicans and these Republicans have bought into it.
Stephen Colbert breaks it down in the video below.
We all knew this was going to happen, that Republicans would eventually endorse and vote for Chuck Hagel’s confirmation. So what exactly was the point of them filibustering ‘their Republican friend’ last week? I mean, at what point will they put politics aside and just do what they all knew they would do from the start?
Hagel cleared the threshold when five-term Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said he would vote for the former GOP senator from Nebraska after joining other Republicans last week in an unprecedented filibuster of the Pentagon nominee.
“He’s probably as good as we’re going to get,” Shelby told the Decatur (Ala.) Daily.
Although a Republican, Hagel has faced strong GOP opposition, with many of his former colleagues voting last week to stall the nomination. Republicans have questioned Hagel’s support for Israel, tolerance of Iran and willingness to cut the nuclear arsenal. His opposition to the Iraq war after his initial vote for the conflict angered his onetime friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
GOP lawmakers demanded more time to review the nomination that a divided Armed Services Committee had approved on a party-line vote.
Shelby’s support was a clear sign of weakening Republican opposition, and it prompted two letters within hours from Hagel’s fiercest GOP foes. One letter went to the president calling on him to withdraw the nomination, the other to GOP senators pleading with them to stand together against Hagel.
Once Chuck Hagel is finally confirmed as Secretary of Defense, he should think twice about accepting any lunch invitations from his former GOP colleagues. My fear is that he will become the meal. Yes, friends, the imploding tsunamic A-bomb that is the Republican Party is trying to claim another trophy for its sagging walls, but all they’ve done is drawn out a fight they’ve already given up on to a president they never get tired of losing to.
You would think that a decorated Vietnam veteran who served as a Senator would be a lock to be confirmed even in the polarized political world we live in. Apparently though, his maverick denunciations of Bush era foreign policy including a spot-on critique of why, exactly, we were in Iraq has led the true maverick, John McCain, to sputter and croak about service and events like Benghazi that have nothing to do with Hagel.
Then you have the reincarnation of Senator Joe McCarthy, Ted Cruz of Texas, who decided that disagreeing with Hagel was not enough and that he had to smear him by alleging that Hagel not only took money from Iran, but might have a problem with Israel’s foreign and domestic policies.
I don’t have to justify my support of Israel from a religious, cultural or moral perspective, but I have a real problem with the Netanyahu government’s policies on settlements and their hypocritical support of the ultra-religious parties he needs to keep his coalition. Religious governments of any stripe are dangerous, discriminatory and extreme, and the Orthodox who want to impose strict Jewish law on Israel are no exception. For the conservative Christian right in this country to blindly support Israel because they would protect Christian historical shrines is self-serving, and brooking absolutely no dissent is dangerous in any group.
Chuck Hagel’s questioning of Israel’s policies is what any good Defense Secretary would do. It’s what Hillary Clinton did as Secretary of State. Friends are always friends, but there are times when they can go too far. That’s when true friends tell them the truth. It doesn’t seem as if Netanyahu or the radical Republicans understand that message, and recent elections in Israel saw a backlash against Netanyahu. Israel must survive and I know that the United States government will do everything it can to ensure that. GOP questioning of Obama’s and Hagel’s motives is a red herring (in cream sauce).
Cruz’s accusations against Hagel’s patriotism relating to Iran was beyond the pale and rightly earned Cruz a back room scolding by both Republicans and Democrats. He defended himself by saying that he was elected to shake things up. That he did, but not in a way that will help him in the long run with his fellow Senators. I’m sure the Democrats will highlight this Tea Party behavior in 2014. John McCain’s one-man Bengahzi crusade might satisfy his supporters, but it’s only postponed the inevitable confirmation.
The next issue will be the sequester and the massive cuts that are on the way on March 1. Again, the GOP is ready to sink the economy in a misguided attempt to end programs that most Americans want and voted for in 2012. My hope is that President Obama will make an attempt at a pragmatic bargain to forestall the cuts, but if not, we know where the blame lies.
Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid was heard earlier today lamenting the fact that Republicans were filibustering Chuck Hagel‘s confirmation. It must have came as a surprise to Reid, especially after he shook hands with the Republican minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and accepted McConnell’s pledge that Senate Republicans will cut down on filibusters.
Consider this another broken republican promise Mr. Reid… as if you really expected the Republicans to be honorable to their words. Jeeze!
When it became clear to Reid that Hagel’s confirmation was being filibustered, Reid voiced his displeasure;
“It is tragic that they have decided to filibuster this qualified nominee. It is really unfortunate. “This isn’t high school getting ready for a football game, or some play being produced at a high school. In less than two hours, our country will be without a secretary of defense.”
Yes Reid, it is really unfortunate.
What’s unfortunate is the fact that you and the Senate Democrats had a chance to change the Filibuster rules and you chose not to. You saw the way the Republicans have used and abused the filibuster over the last 4 years and instead of putting a stop to it, you crumble to a handshake from a Republican and you believed what he told you. That Mr. Reid, is unfortunate and the confirmation of the President’s nominee to head the Department of Defense is suffering because somewhere along the line, you Mr. Reid, lost whatever backbone you may have had.
The confirmation is now on hold because after the final vote today, Democrats failed to muster the 60 votes needed to end the filibuster. And according to Harry Reid, our country is now without a secretary of defense.
The Hagel saga continues, and like expected, Republicans are not happy with President Obama’s pick for Secretary of Defense. Democrats on the other hand, are okay with President Obama’s nominee according to a recent count and they will vote to approve Chuck Hagel for the cabinet position in the President’s administration.
Hagel, whose nomination has drawn fire from his fellow Republicans, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday for his hearing. Though the session with the panel is expected to be testy, Hagel will likely clear that hurdle before facing a 60-vote threshold in the full Senate. But even Republican aides are quietly conceding he is likely to get the three-fifths majority he needs to prevent a filibuster.
“We did whip it. And the numbers were very positive on the Democratic side,” Durbin said of a preliminary vote count his office did last week of the Senate Democratic Conference’s 55 members.
“I didn’t whip the Republican side so I can’t say,” Durbin continued when asked whether he thought he could pick off at least five Republican votes to get to 60. “I need to do it again this week, but as of last week, we were doing very, very well among Democrats. There were no ‘no’ votes. There were some who wanted to wait until after his testimony.”
Chuck Hagel, the former Republican Senator from Nebraska, gave an interview to the Financial Times that totally ripped into the Republican party, calling them out as “irresponsible,” and stating that he was “disgusted” with his party.
“The irresponsible actions of my party, the Republican Party over this were astounding. I’d never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” said Hagel. “I was very disappointed, I was very disgusted in how this played out in Washington, this debt ceiling debate. It was an astounding lack of responsible leadership by many in the Republican Party, and I say that as a Republican.”
Hagel also spoke about the way his Republican party bowed to every whim of the Teaparty;
“I think the Republican Party is captive to political movements that are very ideological, that are very narrow. I’ve never seen so much intolerance as I see today in American politics.
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