Campaign Briefing
PoliticalWire always has great campaign updates; here are a few of the most recent:
- AnkleBitingPundits says they've been told by a "high level GOP source" that Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is meeting with advisers and fundraisers about the possibility of exploring an independent presidential bid in 2008. Says ABP's source, Hagel's worried about running against McCain in a GOP primary, so he's thinking about making a third-party run. "Should Senator John McCain win the GOP primary, Hagel would likely endorse his friend (and maybe even angle for a #2 spot on an 'all maverick' ticket.) If McCain were to lose and the GOP to nominate a right-winger, Hagel would try to tap into the disaffected McCain primary vote in a three-way general election," says ABP.
I'll believe it when I see it, but it's certainly something to think about!
- The Charlotte Observer reported yesterday that SC Governor Mark Sanford (R), a hero of fiscal conservatives, may be planning a presidential run.
- Former GOP congressman J.C. Watts will not run for Governor of Oklahoma.
- It looks increasingly likely that Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) will face a primary challenge next year from the more conservative mayor of Cranston, Stephen Laffey.
- Senator Lindsey Graham told the Index Journal (SC) that he will not join any 2008 presidential ticket as a vice-presidential nominee, even if asked.
- Last week I posted on Bill Weld's decision to run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in New York. The New York Sun reported Tuesday that Weld will have company: it's looking increasingly likely that NY Secretary of State Randy Daniels will make a run, and other candidates may also join the fray.
- If Senator Jon Corzine (D) is elected governor of New Jersey this fall, he'll get to select a replacement for himself to send to the Senate, but Democrats are already lining up for the next election: Reps. Frank Pallone Jr., Robert Menendez, and Roberts Andrews are all reportedly planning to run for the seat.
- Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) will not run for governor of his home state next year.
posted by JBD @ 12:05 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Hagel is for real about opposing the war, but you may not like his reasoning. Like McCain, Hagel is often called a moderate but he is a moderate for opposite reasons. McCain is economically moderate, more or less socially liberal (maybe with the exception of abortion), but a neoconservative on foreign police. Hagle is a standard issue Republican on social and economic issues but for foreign policy he is a realist of the Nixon/Kissinger-Bush I school. Like Powell, Democrats often mistake Hegel’s critic of the neoconservatives as evidence that he embraces the neo-liberalism that dominates the Democratic foreign policy establishment (basically everybody out of the Clinton years) but most Democrats would probably disagree with Hegel’s scorning of many humanitarian interventions and feel he was still not doing enough to support international organization (though he is worlds better then the current Administration). The Democratic foreign policy establishment opposed the Iraq war (for the most part) because they had no confidence in Bush pulling it off and they thought the President was not doing enough to build international support for the intervention. In principle they do not oppose military interventions on behalf of humanitarian/human rights goals. In contrast, Hagel’s opposition stems from a belief that it was not in US interests to change the internal composition of the Iraqi government. Realism believes that war is an inherent aspect to the society of states and as such they value international stability above all other concerns. Realists set a high threshold for going to war because war is the greatest creator of instability. Wars to enforce human rights, instill democracy, or other humanitarian goals will rarely meet this standard, though in theory they could.
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