A respected former senator who struck a friendship with Mr. Obama when they were both critics of the Iraq war from positions on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Hagel has nonetheless had trouble penetrating the tight team of former campaign aides and advisers who form Mr. Obama’s closely knit set of loyalists.
Meanwhile, John Kerry continues talks with Iran…
Flashback: Republicans did try to warn him.
Reid: GOP filibuster of Hagel is "one of the saddest spectacles I have witnessed in my twenty-seven years in the Senate"
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 14, 2013
Two of a number of gems from the NYT piece:
Mr. Hagel, they said, in many ways, was exactly the kind of Defense Secretary which the president, after battling the military during his first term, wanted.
That’s how we ended up with Vice-President Joe The Dumber.
Obama is surrounded and protected by professional sycophants. That’s all the world’s smartest human needs.
His removal appears to be an effort by the White House to show that it is sensitive to critics who have pointed to stumbles in the government’s early response to several national security issues, including the Ebola crisis and the threat posed by the Islamic State.
Hagel should never have called ISIS the “JV team” or claimed it was “highly unlikely” a case of Ebola would ever reach the U.S. Oh wait…
The next few years will be very dangerous ones for the west. The Obama administration is exactly the scenario that argues for an independent nuclear force, in every western nation. Even as few as 12 tactical warheads would say ” no one messes with us, and gets away with it. ” to any potential aggressor, be it Iran, China, Russia, or any state sponsor of terrorism. Distributed defense is always safer.
Hagel should have asked Obama to step down.
Obama wants unilateral Western disarmament. Hagel, weak as he is, made the fatal mistake, recently, of publicly favouring more nukes. Hadn’t he read Obama’s high school essays?
Chuck missed his chance to model a suicide vest, at his last meeting.
A day late, and ten cents short, and all that.
Hell hath no fury like an Obama scorned. Americans voted Republican in midterm elections scorning Obama and the Democrats. Hagel is a Republican. Obama is that petty.
Yes, he is that petty. Hagel’s unforgiveable sin was that he was right about ISIL and Obama was dead wrong. And Obama was shown wrong by public beheadings on the nightly television news.
So now Obama will be dumping his only Republican in Cabinet, breaking another bipartisan tradition. His White House will now truly be nothing more than an echo chamber.
I am not sure that using respected and hagel in the same sentence is accurate.
Hagel was a joke as SecDef, but now that he’s gone, the way is clear for another Obama crony/fartcatcher/bagman to take the job, which will be even worse. I guess the joke is on the US electorate.
Of greater interest than the loss of one politician is the fact that Obama is purging the officer corps of the US military. Same thing Stalin did, just that Obama is smarter about it. He’s merely firing them, whereas Stalin created lots of ill will by shooting them.
See? Socialists -do- learn from history. Why can’t we?
The US government is like The Three Stooges.
Next up for the job, Samantha Power US ambassador to the UN. Obama loves poking people in the eye and Samantha would drive the US military brass nuts.
Aye…and oldwhiteguy too.
When you voluntarily enter a pigsty, the day will soon come when the boar treats you like just any other old sow. And you have no grounds to squeal when you get shoved you away from the trough.
Americans want someone like a radical lesbian separatist feminist from the LGBTQ community with a background in fine arts or busking in that position anyhow…
Not sure how much longer Obama can look at Iran’s extended middle finger, without understanding they are not telling him he’s number one. Two more years I would guess.
“Same thing Stalin did, just that Obama is smarter about it. He’s merely firing them, whereas Stalin created lots of ill will by shooting them.”
Same reason Castro whacked his revolutionaries….they potentially could lead the next revolution. Lefties are paranoid. They like FINAL solutions.
Stalin was extremely paranoid of those he considered his betters. Post WW2…even during the Battle FOR Berlin….he was sidelining Georgi Zhokov…..
Generals are volatile threat…witness Alex Haig….
This isn’t General Officer level we’re talking here, this is ship captain level. The US Navy beached 12 captains this year, so far.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-captain-of-san-diegobased-warship-relieved-of-duty-20141123-story.html
This latest one is a Black guy who was relieved of duty for yelling at people. Even Affirmative Action wasn’t enough to save him. Because he yelled. That’s the new s3xual harassment in Obama’s Navy. Yelling.
Otherwise known as a purge.
I guess Barry wants guys he knows will pull the trigger on the targets Barry chooses. Targets like… Texas.
After sabotaging the careers of any military brass resistant to, and prone to oppose, the current administration’s American sovietisation of the Fed power structure, he’s headed for a warm CIA safe house on a beach somewhere where the patriots left in the Pentagon can’t get to him.
Don’t expect top hear from Hagel the bagel again – done like toast.
He could have if he had half the cabinet with him. 25th Ammendment
Less likely now that Hagel is gone, if it was ever going to have a chance in heck of happening.
Obama has been so brutal throwing him under the bus you can guarantee that Hagel will talk at some point. He had clearly seen what the Generals saw and represented that viewpoint. I am sure they are sad to see him gone.
Question is, can a nominee be put in place now before the new congress….that may be the issue as well. Kerry has been out of line a few times as well….maybe he will be gone as well if the prospects of an Iranian deal disappear.
Defence is one of those posts that you eff around with at your peril. You dont get to top of the chain without having some skills. And Generals have lots and lots of friends who will carry their message and information for them.
I think Hagel got inside the tent and was shocked at what he saw. I think old horse face sees life the same way, but is too enamoured by his own brilliance and the possibility of having his name etched in History to walk away under his own power.
Obama is trying to show he is action man, and I believe he has just kicked a hornets nest of long term leaks and pain.
It’s starting to get interesting. Before it’s over the dems will be eating their young.
not sure when obumble’s mother shat him, but if it was before 63 he would still have been to young to have been aware of the Kennedy assassination, and he probably never read up on it. He sure is creating the same kind of animosity and enemies as Kennedy did. He should be vary vary care full!