Let me finish tonight with the stalling of Sen. Hagel.
Those who don’t want this man as Pentagon chief will stop at nothing. They’re out there beating the bushes for anything that will slow the process of his confirmation, anything that will give them more time to find something they can build up enough to bring the man down.
Question: who are they trying to bring down? Is it President Barack Obama’s pick for secretary of defense, or is it the man who’s chosen him? Is it about a confirmation, or a desperate push to undermine the president’s second term?
Listen to those attacking Sen. Hagel and you hear the yelps of pain this motley crew of neocons and right-wingers from the sun belt feels even now from the American people’s choice of last November.
What they hate—despise, really—is the fact now in the history books that the American people, voting in great numbers, reject their war-like, jingoistic notions of what America stands for.
Their problem is not with Obama’s choice for a cabinet appointment. Their problem is with America’s choice of who it wants to be president, who it wants deciding what we should be doing in this world.
Obama works hard for peace; this crowd has other ideas.
Chris Matthews