Chuck Hagel
The New York Times is reporting Carl Levin has scheduled a public discussion and vote on the Hagel nomination this afternoon at 2:30:
Mr. Levin’s decision to call for a public discussion and vote, starting at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday ahead of President Obama‘s State of the Union address, indicated that the chairman still believes that Mr. Hagel has enough support to be confirmed. Committee aides say they have no indication that any Democrats or Senate independents will oppose him, putting him at 55 votes to start. Two Republican senators, Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Mike Johanns from Mr. Hagel’s home state, Nebraska, have pledged their support, and at least four Republicans have said they will oppose a filibuster.
That appears to give Mr. Hagel enough support to break through any logjam Republican opponents might throw in his way.
But that doesn’t mean Hagel’s opponents will stop throwing logs! This is funnier than the ‘SNL’ skit:
On Thursday, Senate sources told Breitbart News exclusively that they have been informed that one of the reasons that President Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, has not turned over requested documents on his sources of foreign funding is that one of the names listed is a group purportedly called “Friends of Hamas.”
Although the story doesn’t come close to passing the smell test, they love it in Samaria.
Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee took a break from his “Israel Experience With Mike Huckabee” tour to challenge Charles Schumer and Carl Levin’s Jewish street cred and push the Breitbart story:
“If you’re Chuck Schumer, if you’re Carl Levin and you’re a Democrat with a strong conection to the Jewish community, how can you possibly vote for Chuck Hagel and ever have credibility ever again with the Jewish community? Or for that matter with the rest of America,” Huckabee said.
“If it proves true the rumors of Chuck Hagel’s having received funds from Friends of Hamas, if that’s true than on its face that would disqualify him,” Huckabee said, referring to a rumor that originated on Breitbart.com that Hagel is refusing to turn over foreign financial disclosures because one of the sources is an entity called “Friends of Hamas.” (The report has not been confirmed.)
“It’s no longer an option whether he discloses all of his financial entanglements; he must,” Huckabee said. “Because that rumor, if not true, has to be dispelled. If true it absolutely disqualifies him for any consideration, even so much as to be a gatekeeper at a national park, much less the defense secretary.”
Elsewhere in his press conference, Huckabee called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “one of the most popular political figures in the U.S.” He also called upon President Obama to pardon Jonathan Pollard, the CIA analyst who was convicted in the 1970s for leaking classified information to Israel.
Could you imagine how much better that skit would have been if Hagel were being considered for gatekeeper at a national park?
Huckabee is an end times joke all by himself. SNL should copy Jim Nabors in his role as the army private back in the day, when satirizing him, beating up Schumer and Levin for not caring enough about Israel.
A Huckabee three fer. 1) Pollard, 2) Netanyahu most popular in US (republican congress standing “O”s) , and a slam to dems on SASC for not standing up for Israel.
A circus
Whoever is running the “Friends of Hamas” PAC really needs a rebranding.
Actually, the PAC being talked about is called ‘Friends of Hummus’ & is mostly funded by Sabra Hummus.
That’s what I heard . . .
“how can you possibly vote for Chuck Hagel and ever have credibility ever again with the Jewish community? Or for that matter with the rest of America,” Huckabee said.”
The rest of America? Rather ask: How can Huckabee ever have credabilitty with the rest of America. Is America Jewish (sorry, I meant, of course, Israeli), err whutt?
— SNL scriptwriters – pull out your pens.
Hucklebee is clearly a long-time donkey felator.
Is ‘donkey felator’ an acceptable replacement for ‘Israeli firster’? It certainly is funnier. Perhaps Mooser could decide for us?
I think it’s probably a good term for the AIPAC/donor sucklers!
I hope the term “donkey felator” gets well ingrained into Americas political and cultural discourse and where all politicians become aware of it and fear its application to them.
I believe its two els, folks.
Don’t blow it.
Don’t blow it.
Was that pun intended???
The statements by Mike Huckabee are so weird that they’re unintentionally funny.
Reminds me…Decades ago, Philip Roth (author of Portnoy’s Complaint and many other books, so many that there is now a Journal of Philip Roth Studies, not kidding)
wrote that the challenge to a novelist is that reality is more strange, more grotesque, than anything a novelist can dream up.
How right PR was!!
Is Mike Huckabee an idiot? Or just a calculating liar?
Let us hope for a swift confirmation of Hagel.
I can’t see it.
We know that if AIPAC tells the senators to vote no, the senators will vote no. Not one wold break ranks.
And why wouldn’t AIPAC sink him?
This has followed a typical pattern. Some pol or public figure states an obvious truth that the Lobby does not want stated; that person is then attacked and humiliated and back tracks on his statement. Once the Lobby has this satisfaction, it then puts the knife all the way in and ends the guys career
So glad Levin is pushing this vote ahead. Folks should be calling their Senate Reps pushing them to vote for Hagel. Let folks know here how the office folks responded to your phone calls.
That SNL skit would have been so much better if Lorne Micheals would have let it play Saturday night. Hope folks are linking that skit where ever they can. Call your Senators in support of Hagel
Pollard…when they free Pollard it’s really over for America.
Many people wanted BHO to win chiefly because it would take Netanyahu down a notch.
Huckabee is a dangerous joke, dangerous because he has a natural talent. We seem to have ducked a disaster there, but only because he was greedier than he was ambitious. (same is true with Palin). I am both shocked and frightened by the very public pushing forward of guys like Huckabee, the “magical thinkers.” They seem to be supported by Kristol and others largely because they are malleable and not very bright.
Does Kristol really think he can control these stooges once they have real power?
When one has the stomach to watch a few minutes of Huckabee’s Fox News show, it becomes immediately apparent how far down our leadership has sunk. It is actually surreal that this buffoon was actually paraded in front of us as being potentially presidential.
Egads. Boehner cries inappropriately and inexplicably while orating. This jackass McCain throws a good friend under the bus in order to suck donkey dong. Our President, Mr. Change, seemingly hasn’t found a single criminal act committed by Bush that he doesn’t want to emulate and expand upon. And “the greatest” Secretary of State, Hillary hasn’t done jack sh*t (that I can discern) to merit even courteous praise, much less anything resembling earned praise.
One could go on and on. Huckabee is probably the most harmless, because he is such a clown that he is unable to conceal how absurd it is to have such a man in a position of power. The others are far more accomplished at deception and role playing, making them far more dangerous. Look how many people this fraud Obama hoodwinked in order to slither his lying murderous carcass into the Oval Office.
Huckabee lecturing Schumer and Levin on what it means to have Jewish credibility…
LOL!
Haaretz Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Joel Braunold
Anti-Hagel lobbying in U.S. Senate – including cries of anti-Semitism – harms Israel
The obsessive questioning of Sen. Chuck Hagel on Israel and his alleged anti-Semitic perspectives at the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination for secretary of defense only served to disconnect intelligent voters and damage Israel’s image on prime-time TV.
In the new, and may I say excellent, Netflix remake of the political thriller “House of Cards,” the main protagonist, Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, seeks to knock out the president’s choice for secretary of state. With some in-depth research and some dirty tricks, he links the nominee to an obscure op-ed written 40 years ago that criticizes Israel. Underwood then gets the Anti-Defamation…
link to haaretz.com
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Christian Zionism, which is the orchestrator of this confirmation circus, is just a modernized version of the anti-Semitism of the last 2000 years. It continues the objectification of the Jewish people which has been at the root of pogroms and Inquisitions over the centuries.
As long as Jewish Zionist leaders have a symbiotic relationship with Christian Zionists, each promoting their own agenda which benefits the other, the Christian Zionists will objectify the Jewish people
as “the chosen” if, through the state of Israel, they think it will fulfill the Christian Zionists End Times fantasies.
If, however, the Jewish people go off the reservation and move away from a theocracy to a democratic state which respects the separation of church and state, and where everyone has equal rights, the Christian Zionists will once again see this as a rejection of “the Saviour”, which has been the ideological source of anti-Semitism over the centuries.
The anti-Semitic core of Christian Zionism is finally beginning to be exposed.
Hagel vote just came up on Hardball during the segment with Howard Fineman and Joan Walsh. Howard mentioned the promises that Hagel more than likely make to Schumer and Levin
link to nbcnews.com
Segment with Howard Fineman and Joan Walsh. Fineman mentions promises more than likely made by Hagel to Schumer and Levin for their votes
Daily Beast has a post up about SNL being in hot water with the ADL. Sorry unable to link
hi kathleen, what does that mean Sorry unable to link? does it mean your computer doesn’t do ‘copy/paste’. i always wonder when you say that.anyway, what is the name of the article? i went to DB, looked for it and couldn’t find it. googled too.
“SNL lands in hot water with ADL” at Daily Beast 3 hours ago.
I am at my daughters watching my grand child and this computer under edit will not copy and paste..not sure what is up. When I am at home computer no problem.
Ok just uploaded another program on their computer
link to thedailybeast.com
thanks kathleen!
Foxman: “… ‘We have a sense of humor and we understand that classic satire is where you poke fun.’ But he suggested that SNL’s Hagel sketch should never have been staged—’How did it get this far?’—nor should it have been posted on the Internet.”
Aha. So, effectively either they have no one but morons in their Propaganda Division, or they totally wrote off public image (as in: this is already a fascist dictatorship, so talk all you want…) Anyone with an alternate explanation?
>> “SNL lands in hot water with ADL” at Daily Beast 3 hours ago.
Impressive: It took him only one sentence to forget that “[w]e have a sense of humor and we understand that classic satire is where you poke fun.”
Mr. Foxman should be ashamed of his insensitivity and his playing on stereotypes and selling stereotypes and forcing stereotypes of blowhards.
I liked the story in The Daily Beast. Abe Foxman, in protesting the SNL skit, is destroying himself in public.
Even the readers of Mondoweiss sometimes need to be reminded of how preposterous the ADL has become.
Here’s a blast from the recent past, in 2003, a mere decade ago:
Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi gave a speech in which he whitewashed Mussolini’s fascist regime. Shortly afterward the speech, the ADL gave Berlusconi a Distinguished Statesman Award.
Mussolini’s government enacted anti-Semitic racial laws, and deported thousands of Jews to Nazi concentrations camps. So why did ADL give Berlusconi an award? Because Italy, under Berlusconi, supported Israel. [Source: Finkelstein, Beyond Chutzpah, p. 59-60.]
The ADL also didn’t care about the Armenian Genocide so long as Turkey was chummy with Israel.
The ADL is first and foremost a Zionist organization like the ZOA or the AJC. Hypocritical, nationalistic, two-faced, etc.
Geez, this guy is being nominated for Secretary of Defense and his pockets are being stuffed by Friends of Hamas? Gosh, I can’t say I’m really that surprised. What did you expect as a nominee from a U.S. President who is an Anti-Semitic Muslim Kenyan supporter of terrorism with no U.S. Citizenship, who hates Israel and hangs out with other terrorist buddies back in Chicago?
When McCain used to lurv Hagel:
link to slate.com
Daily Beast says anti-Hagel GOP effort has turned into farce–and a commenter links to MW.
link to thedailybeast.com
Lots on the Hagel vote today. link to google.com
Last night on Hardball it was odd when Chris Matthews was beating up Cheney for being wrong about everything and for Cheney calling Obama’s picks for his cabinet “second rate” Chris Matthews basically gave a lecture on Kerry’s qualifications but essentially did not stick up for Hagel. Which Matthews did when Obama selected Hagel but not now…why?
Obama picks second rate people
link to nbcnews.com
Matthews follows his Israel First pope, err, I mean boss, very, very closely. No finger is ever more to the wind than the former altar boy’s finger. His uncontrollable sniffing and spitting result from how far his nose is up his boss’s rear.
Here’s how the Times Of Israel put blowing the donkey for Israel: “Unaired Saturday Night Live skit parodies senators’ full-throated support for Israel during the Hagel confirmation hearing.”
that’s hysterical citizen, they can’t say it! link to timesofisrael.com
“full-throated support”!!
ROFL … I’ll never think of that term in quite the same way now.
“Unaired Saturday Night Live skit parodies senators’ full-throated support for Israel during the Hagel confirmation hearing.”
I think they meant “deep-throated”.
Jennifer Rubin’s latest today argues all American leaders and nominees should be subject to Israel First litmus test, a regular pledge of allegiance; she sees nothing odd about that. Chaney today says Obama picked Hagel as a reference puppet, a straw leader to cut Pentagon budget, to make the medicine go down easy.
Watch live: Senate committee votes on Hagel confirmation
link to rawstory.com
James Inhofe: once again, Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel.
North Korea just exploded a nuclear device and all many of these US Congress members can talk about, under the prodding of the Israel lobby, is Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran. They are not looking out for the American interest.
Ted Cruz: hyperexcited fanaticism on behalf of the Israeli government and the Israel lobby. (Watching the live feed.) He is really wound up. Bill Nelson is now taking Cruz to the woodshed.
Right Web on Ted Cruz and Sheldon Adelson
link to rightweb.irc-online.org
Sheldon Adelson got what he paid for.
There is not a single comment yet on the live feed at Raw Story.
Armed Services Committee just voted to report his nomination out to the full Senate.
I was impressed by how Carl Levin handled this proceeding.
Hagel confirmed — the Israel lobby just took a huge hit.
As of 5:18PM today, the live link has concluded. Nothing available on the link other than that statement.
He’s confirmed.
he is? do you have a link? i’m watching mcCain doin’ the donkey right now on the livestream but maybe it’s delayed. nyt is saying it’s been delayed.
link to nytimes.com
From Annie’s link: “Mr. Inhofe praised Mr. Hagel’s military service in Vietnam and his valor, but questioned whether he was ultimately qualified for the job. ‘he question is, in my mind, is that and that alone enough justification for confirming him for the nomination?’ he said.”
Mr. Inhofe speaks as if Mr. Hagel has done nothing in government since he was a young grunt in Vietnam.
I think you two are describing two separate votes. The committee has to vote first (vote out of committee, generally as a recommendation, NOT a confirmation), which is what roguekitteh is referencing.
The full Senate has to vote to confirm, which, I believe, is what Annie is referencing. The actual confirmation.
I’d pay money to see Huck in a Free Jonathan Pollard T shirt on his show or in public.
Evidence would be clear to the masses he’s soft on espionage.
Here’s the latest I could find on the internet: link to hotair.com
Here’s more of the latest: link to salon.com
link to reuters.com