Hagel to retire from Senate
Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska won't run for president in 2008 and will leave the Senate when his term ends in January 2009, a source close to the Nebraska Republican told CNN Saturday.
The source said Hagel - a vocal critic of the Bush administration - will hold a news conference in Omaha on Monday.
Hagel, 60, was a decorated infantry sergeant in Vietnam. He supported the 2002 congressional resolution that authorized the invasion of Iraq the following
year, but has become increasingly critical of the way the president has handled the war.
He called Bush's plan early this year to send thousands of additional U.S. troops to Iraq "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam."
Hagel was the only Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to back a measure condemning the decision to deploy an additional 30,000 troops in an effort to end the sectarian violence.
Despite his break with the party on Iraq, the North Platte native has an otherwise-orthodox GOP voting record.
He supported the Bush tax cuts in 2001, received a perfect score on abortion issues from the National Right to Life Committee and backed efforts to open part of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.
Hagel, who was first elected in 1996, is latest Republican to announce he is voluntarily leaving the Senate.
On August 31, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a foreign policy expert who also has criticized the administration's handling of Iraq, announced he would not seek a sixth term.
Warner, once secretary of the Navy, chaired the Armed Services Committee until Democrats seized both houses in the 2006 midterm election.
- CNN Capitol Hill Correspondent Dana Bash
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I'm sorry to hear that but I can understand. Chuck Hagel is the only GOP person who I felt that I could trust since Bush came into office.
At this rate the GOP will ahave to order more lifeboats.
Their ship is sinking faster than expected.
I think he is following his conscious and leaving the senate. He knows you can not win elections if you are decent person, and he been doing exactly that. I hope he makes difference (ending the war) before he leaves. Thanks Chuck.
I respect and admire the man the way he spoke out against this Administration. I am glad that he decided to leave on his own decision because now the Democratic headcount in the Senate has an addiional good chance of increasing.
He was a man among the scum that has become the republican party.
I hope his successor can stand up the the Shrub from Texas and oppose the Iraq war and the surge. If they can't take the heat, get a job selling shoes, as Hagel advised.
Senator Hagel, please, for God's sake and the USA stay on! You are one of the few left there that truly knows what is going on! The whole world needs you at a moment in time when this George W.'s idiocy is running wild! I am speaking as a Staunch Conservative Christian Republican!
I wish Senator Hagel the very best. He is one of the few Republicans in congress that is willing to state his convictions regardless of his alienating Mr. Bush and his henchmen.
There are not that many Republicans in congress that are willing to openly state how they really feel.
Great!! Bring on Tom Osborn
I've heard the same names and the same voices in the house and senate year after year after year, while each year I become more convinced that these voices don't care about me or other Americans.
How these people can call themselves "public servants" is beyond my grasp. It doesn't really matter which party they represent because both seem to kiss the butts of the highest bidder. It's been a long time coming, yet for any tiny piece of the entrenched majority in Washington to get out and go home, I am grateful.
Thank-you Mr. Hagel, for at least having the decency to leave. Which lobbying group do you plan to work with following your retirement?
Wow. The Democrats are potentially looking at a 55+ seat majority in the Senate, now. Bring on Bob Kerrey!
The legacy of President Bush: The Clintons get to create universal health care, afterall.
Senator Hagel was a soldier under fire in Vietnaum and was a soldier under friendly fire in the Repulican Party for pointing out the obvious – that the Iraq war was un-wise, took our eye off of Osama (thanks for the video!), and the peace has been corruptly bungled. He was a hero in Vietnaum (where Bush feared to go!) and he was a bigger hero here for standing up to the Cheney / Bush goon squad. We will miss you Senator Hagel!
Hagel was one of the few Republican senators I really liked. It seems that a few of the good ones are leaving: Hagel, Warner...
While I usually disagreed with Senator Hagel, I never doubted his integrity. He showed also showed courage during recent years as he questioned the Administration's actions in Iraq. He has been a Republican that this Democrat could respect.
Good riddance. This clown was a Republican in name only. We should trade him for Lieberman...a better man and smarter senator.
I'm a liberal Democrat, born and raised in Nebraska. I think it's unfortunate that Hagel has decided to leave the Senate. Washington needs more level-headed conservatives who moderates and liberals can work with, as opposed to the radicals, zealots, and closeted homophobes who currently run things for the GOP.
The only Republican in the Senate who spoke the truth; a true American. Too bad!
Did he say why he was leaving? I hope it is not another "to spend time with the family" thing.
Is the Republican Party Bushwhacked so badly that the incumbent senators don't see another victory at the polls?
This hit me hard enough to bring out tears. It's like losing a close friend.
Fare thee well, Senator Hagel, fare thee well.
"Washington needs more level-headed conservatives who moderates and liberals can work with" ~ Moderates are nothing more than opportunists who hedge their bets to seem more appealing when they're up for re-election and liberals see fit to call anyone who disagress with them intolerant or fascists. Why would level-headed conservatives see an advantage with working with either group?
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I think he is following his conscious and leaving the senate. He knows you can not win elections if you are decent person, and he been doing exactly that.
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I don't agree. Hagel would easily win reelection, with his courageous stance against our Worst. President. Ever.
I think Hagel is sick to his stomach of the current GOP, but can't turn Democrat either.
He's retiring because he's embarrassed to be associated with today's anti-science, religiously-deluded, preemptive war starting morons that run the GOP right now.
Barry Goldwater is spinning in his grave. A real conservative, not a fascist like today's "conservative," I remember fondly his quote just before his death, when the far right was trying to get automatic weapons legalized for "hunting":
Barry: Anyone who needs more than one bullet to kill a deer shouldn't be out there anyway.
A pragmatic conservative. What's happened to that breed?
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Good riddance. This clown was a Republican in name only. We should trade him for Lieberman…a better man and smarter senator.
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HA-ha-ha-ha-ha. Good one.
Lieberman is one of the most pitiful cowards in Senate history. The man who "stood up to Hollywood!" but was too much of a coward to stand up to a Republican, is welcomed by the Repubs. You can have the lightweight. He's not a Dem anymore anyway.
S.O.B. should apologize to Americans for that Judas-kiss he got from our Worst. President. Ever. The history books will be most unkind, if they mention him at all, to weenie Joe and his spineless character.
I always thought that Gore chose the Worst. VP. Ever. to run with him in Lieberman.
Thank you, Ray, It's haters like you, unable to see the misery the Bushies have created, that will bring about a huge Democratic victory and health care crafted by the Clintons.
With Hagel gone, there's no chance the Repubs will do anything but lose seats in the Senate.
You keep supporting the Darth Vader far right. In fact, form a new party, and don't lie this time.
Name it, the Fascist Party, in honor of its Hitler-like non-support of human rights and basic decency, and its cowardly, preemptive strike against a country that threatened ours not one wee bit.
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Washington needs more level-headed conservatives who moderates and liberals can work with, as opposed to the radicals, zealots, and closeted homophobes who currently run things for the GOP.
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You mean, homophobic *homosexuals," the ultimate in petty self-loathing and hypocrisy. That's what makes this so sweet.
Who cares what sexual proclivities Americans have, as long as the acts are legal. But when they're hating hypocrites, like Larry Craig and Reagan cabinet member and McCarthy lawyer Roy Cohn, an incident like this is very uplifting and happy.
Hagel should retire.. as a republican, and run as an independent.
🙁 I'd hate to see him leave. Though I do consider myself 'democratic', hes one of the more respectable persons in congress, regardless of political status.
*He* is someone I'd vote, president wise.
well, this is good news. Saves me from having to send money to that Right Wingers opponant in the republican primary. He's far right on every issue except for the one that I happen to be more conservitive on. Good news indeed.