SCHUMER’S BLESSING…..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323968304578245581353840710.html?mod=opinion_newsreel
The Senator says Chuck Hagel no longer believes what he said.
Chuck Schumer, the senior Senator from New York and Harry Reid wannabe, is not currently a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Nor has he ever served on it in his 14 years in the Senate, or on its House counterpart during his 18 years as a Congressman from New York City. So of course he’s uniquely qualified to pronounce on the subject of Chuck Hagel’s fitness to serve as Secretary of Defense.
That is what some of our media friends are saying now that Mr. Schumer has announced his support for the nominee following a 90-minute meeting on Monday. Mr. Schumer—who calls himself the Senate’s “Shomer Israel,” or “guardian of Israel”—had previously played coy about his views of Mr. Hagel, noting in a statement that he had “genuine concerns over certain aspects of his record on Israel and Iran.”But all that was put to rest during their meeting. Mr. Schumer reports that Mr. Hagel disavowed his former opposition to unilateral U.S. sanctions or military strikes on Iran. He reversed his former support for opening direct talks with the leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group.
He promised to implement a provision in the 2013 defense bill giving servicewomen greater access to abortion, something he had repeatedly opposed as a Senator. He walked back his former opposition to the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay soldiers. And he said he regretted using the term “Jewish lobby” in reference to pro-Israel groups.
So there you have it. The man whose chief recommendation to be Defense Secretary is supposed to be his courageous willingness to say what’s on his mind no matter the political consequences has now shown he’ll say whatever Chuck Schumer wants him to say to be confirmed by the Senate.
And the Senator who was supposed to be the personification of the vaunted “Jewish lobby” has now endorsed the nomination of the man who so conspicuously denounced that lobby and its supposed ability to “intimidate” American politicians. Let’s see what the caucus claiming Mr. Hagel is the victim of a vast Jewish conspiracy makes of that one.
Meantime, Mr. Hagel will still have to endure Senate hearings before his nomination can be put to a vote. Judging by his performance with Mr. Schumer, Mr. Hagel will make anodyne remarks and distance himself from his previous positions by saying the world has changed.
But Senators should insist on an accounting of his past support for “engagement” with Hamas, Iran and the Assad regime in Syria. They should want to know what lessons he draws from warning that the surge in Iraq would be one of the greatest foreign policy blunders of all time. They should have a clear sense of what he thinks the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in the wake of U.S. withdrawal would mean for regional and American security. And they should ask precisely where he finds “bloat” in a Navy now reduced to 287 ships and an Air Force flying 50-year-old planes.
We don’t know whether any of this will prevent Mr. Hagel’s confirmation, though it should be educational about his world view and the Administration’s defense priorities. What we do know is that, whatever his own conceits on the matter, Mr. Schumer’s absolution of Mr. Hagel settles nothing except his own vote, and maybe his conscience.
A version of this article appeared January 18, 2013, on page A14 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Schumer’s Blessing.
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