When David Gregory asked President Obama yesterday about the Chuck Hagel controversy on “Meet the Press,” he pretended that it was a controversy over 14-year-old gay slur by Hagel, for which the former senator has apologized, as Obama was quick to point out.
This was deceptive. The “criticism” Gregory mentions has come chiefly from the Israel lobby– over Hagel’s resolve that we should not go to war with Iran and his belief that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the heart of the troubles in the Middle East.
From the transcript:
GREGORY: Former Senator Chuck Hagel has come under criticism for some comments he’s made including about a former ambassador nominee during the Clinton years that being gay was an inhibiting factor to being gay to do an effective job. Is there anything about Chuck Hagel’s record or statements that’s disqualifying to you should you nominate him to run the Defense Department?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:
Well, first of all, I haven’t made a decision about who to nominate. And my number one criteria will be who’s going to do the best job in helping to secure America.DAVID GREGORY:
Anything disqualify– … him?PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:
Not that I see. I’ve served with Chuck Hagel. I know him. He is a patriot. He is somebody who has done extraordinary work both in the United States Senate. Somebody who served this country with valor in Vietnam. And is somebody who’s currently serving on my intelligence advisory board and doing an outstanding job.So I haven’t made a decision on this. With respect to the particular comment that you quoted, he apologized for it. And I think it’s a testimony to what has been a positive change over the last decade in terms of people’s attitudes about gays and lesbians serving our country. And that’s something that I’m very proud to have led. And I think that anybody who serves in my administration understands my attitude and position on those issues.
I see that MJ Rosenberg and Andrew Epstein have discussed this, on twitter:
Andrew Epstein @andEps @davidgregory pretends Hagel controversy is about 10yr old homophobic comment, struggles to keep a straight face.
@MJayRosenberg David Gregory is a very proud Israel Firster
I don’t know if Gregory is an Israel Firster, to use the phrase that Rosenberg has inserted into the discourse to signify people who think about Israel’s security first. But the calculated omission certainly raises the question. Gregory is protecting the Israel lobby from any form of scrutiny. That makes it harder to argue about the strength of the lobby, when leading journalists cover for it.
And Gregory several times referred to the National Rifle Association’s arguments in the context of the Connecticut shooting.
Gregory is Jewish, and the omission is more evidence that this conversation won’t be complete without a Jewish conversation about, Do we feel a need for a Jewish state? If so, why?
Oh also, neoconservative David Frum cracks that Hagel is unqualified because even if he were the B’nai Brith’s man of the year, he lacks the administrative chops to supervise the Pentagon’s build-down. “Hagel’s supporters offer a case in his favor that would superbly qualify him as Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs in the Nixon administration,” Frum says. This is a shot at “Arabists.” Near East Affairs is where foreign service officers who cared about Arab self-determination typically made their careers in a different era. The jab shows that Frum actually does care about Hagel’s views on the Middle East, and shows why so many people support Hagel: because he would show greater respect for the self-determination of peoples, even Israeli-Palestinian people.
You do have to wonder how long this putting another country before the one that enables is going to last///
didnt nixon tell that pastor bout the jewish controlled media…
IMO that control has got to end…
Phil, Israel Firsters are not “people who think about Israel’s security first” but people consumed Israel’s power first.
To any who follow the issue, David Gregory’s inability to deal with the true source/issues surrounding the expected Hagel nomination sounded like a cover-up. But even when reporters have been (rarely) asked to deal with it straight-on, they don’t want to talk about the contours of the Israel lobby. Diane Rehm pitched the real question of “character assassination” to her journalist panel in the last 2012 “weekly roundup.”
REHM11:21:43
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would leave at the end of President Obama’s first term. It is said that the White House will announce the appointment of John Kerry as secretary of state. There has also been the story that Chuck Hagel would be nominated as secretary of defense. I have a Tweet here — two Tweets actually. “Please have your guests discuss the Israel lobby’s character assassination of Chuck Hagel. Should Chuck Hagel be thrown under the bus for lack of deference to Israel and its U.S. lobby?” Susan.
GLASSER11:22:37
Well, you know, this is really interesting. This is now the second time in really the last few weeks that we’ve seen a controversy over a nomination that President Obama hasn’t even made. I feel like we’ve entered a whole new phase of the Washington news cycle where would-be nominees are being attacked and going up to the Capitol Hill to defend themselves even before anything is announced. And I have to say it does look like Hagel, who’s been extensively vetted according to sources reporting we’ve had on Foreign Policy, for the defense secretary job. It does seem as though the White House was interested in making him the defense secretary.
GLASSER11:23:14
But now it looks like he’s hanging out there yet again in almost the same way that Susan Rice was where her nomination, which never happened by the way, was thrown up in a trial balloon where she went through the whole process, was exploded and really left in a very uncomfortable situation by President Obama refusing to publicly push her forward or even to make the nomination official. So now we have that situation.
GLASSER11:23:38
The controversy that former Senator Hagel, a Republican by the way, has excited really revolved around the question of whether he is deemed sufficiently pro-Israel in his policies. And there’s a particular quote that he gave to an author, one of Foreign Policy’s columnist as it happened, in which he referred to the quote unquote “Jewish lobby” as opposed to the quote unquote “Israel lobby.” That’s being taken in some quarters as a sign that he is not a real supporter. He’s been critical of Israeli settlement policy for example.
GLASSER11:24:12
But I think unfortunately what you see happening is a real almost tar and feathering situation here in which some people bandied about phrases like anti, semi, that’s caused many people across the political spectrum in Washington to rally to his defense.
REHM11:24:30
Yochi.
DREAZEN11:24:31
And it’s obscured, I think, the very real questions about is this the right pick for secretary of defense. I mean, there’s the political question of whether you should have three of the last four democratic appointed secretaries of the defense be Republican. Bill Clinton picked Bill Cohen. You had obviously Bob Gates staying on. Now you might have Chuck Hagel. He has no management experience other than on the business side. He’s never managed a major agency. He’s never been part of the Pentagon running the biggest, most expensive, most complicated agency in the world.
DREAZEN11:24:57
He’s been out of office for six years almost. It’s not clear what his stand is on the world stage. Bob Gates had standing. Leon Panetta had standing. It’s not clear Chuck Hagel does. So there are very legitimate questions about whether this is the right pick substantively or politically, as I think with Susan Rice as potentially with Benghazi, obscured completely by the politics. And I think the politics will get uglier now that the Kerry thing is — if it’s locked that’s off the stage a little bit.
DREAZEN11:25:19
Hagel’s the one person that’s hanging. I think Susan’s exactly right that it’s strange that he’s hanging there with no defense coming from the White House or from — really from Democrats. He’s becoming a piñata.
REHM11:25:27
Hisham.
MELHEM11:25:29
Look, I mean, you have to accept the presumptive right of a president who is reelected to pick his own cabinet period as there was a presumptive right of the president to pick his own nominees for the Supreme Court. These things are changing now. And now some people are presenting certain litmus tests for people. The President of the United States capitulated when it came to Susan Rice. I’m not a big support of Susan Rice. I’m not against Susan Rice. That’s not the issue. He has the right to pick his own people.
MELHEM11:25:59
There was a character assassination against Susan Rice essentially blaming her for things she was not that responsible for. She was not even nominated. And the sight was ugly really, the way the — you know, sharpening the knives for her and the way they dealt with her. And none of them now is even rethinking whether they’ve done something wrong or not. This is — Chuck Hagel is a mainstream Republican. He’s a moderate. Maybe this species in the Republican world is dying, is becoming extinct obviously.
MELHEM11:26:31
He’s the leader, he’s the chairman of a mainstream think tank called the Atlantic Council, which is highly respected. That includes highly respected Republicans like Brent Scowcroft and others. The man served in the Senate of the United States, had two Purple Hearts, he fought in Vietnam. Many of those who are criticizing him never fought in Vietnam or any war but they would like to wage all sorts of wars, as we’ve seen them pushing for the war in Iraq and other places.
MELHEM11:26:58
There’s nothing anti-Semitic about the man’s record, absolutely not. He believes in the mainstream American position, which is a two-stage solution. And yes, the man criticized settlement activities where there are a lot of Israelis. And there are a lot of pro-Israelis in this country who criticized settlement activities. And we’ve seen them on the record doing so. So to let this man bleed like that and with the White House almost capitulating on him really tells you something about how dirty politics has become in Washington.
REHM11:27:29
Last word, Susan.
GLASSER11:27:30
Well, I think those are all important points. Two quick other ones to throw into the mix, the other factor here with Hagel now that he’s nominating Kerry is what I would call Obama’s white male problem. And if you look at these national security appointments he basically would be not only appointing the first white male secretary of state in a long, long time but he — the other reported contenders for defense secretary, for CIA are also white men. And so I think that’s a concern after the Susan Rice nomination didn’t come through.
hagel And is somebody who’s currently serving on my intelligence advisory board and doing an outstanding job.
I didnt know that..
Sometimes I wonder why we even bother with all cable news programs that are loaded up with so many people who have no qualifications, education or experience in what they are criticizing or advising and pontificating on….90% of the media world is down the rabbit hole. They are mainly just noise….either Israel partisan noise or dem partisan noise or gop partisan noise or single issue noise or fanatic fringe noise. The media is a circus just like congress is a circus.