An independent run for Hagel?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Chuck Hagel, yesterday, on Face the Nation (via TP): "There’s no question there is a very clear political dynamic here. The President may find himself standing alone sometime this fall, where Republicans will start to move away. And you’re starting to see trap doors and exit signs already with a number of Republicans. The 11 House Republicans who went to see him speak for more than just 11 House Republicans. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The uneasiness that’s in the Republican Party today is there."

(For more, see my recent posts on this Republican dissent here and here.)

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And now there's this from The Hill:

Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel on Sunday hinted at the possibility of running for the White House as an independent, saying a credible third party ticket would be beneficial to the country.

"I am not happy with the Republican Party today," Hagel said, adding that the party is not what it was when he joined. "It’s been hijacked by a group of single-minded, almost isolationist insulationists, power-projectors..."

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The senator also said a third party bid would be good for a system in which both parties "have been hijacked by the extremes."

"The system needs to be shaken up," he said, adding that the 2008 election will not be about party affiliation. Instead, he argued, what voters will "be looking at and wanting and demanding is honest, competent, accountable leadership."

I would disagree with Hagel on this: What has happened to the Republican Party has not happened to the Democratic Party. Although it is generally the position of self-styled centrists that both parties have been taken over by their extremist wings, it is simply not the case that extremists have taken over the Democratic Party. Reid and Pelosi, not to mention, Clinton and Obama, are hardly extremists. 2007 is not 1972. Opposition to the Iraq War and Republican plutocracy is not extremism, and the new Democratic majorities in Congress are pursuing a sensible agenda that is admirably mainstream.

Regardless, I do admire Chuck Hagel -- at least for his courageous opposition to Bush and his party on Iraq, if not so much for his staunch conservatism on most other issues -- and it would certainly make sense for him to run not as a Republican, for he is no longer welcome in his own party, but as an independent, if only to make a point.

Whether he runs or not, though, 2008 will be a crucial election, perhaps one of the most important in American history. Not just because of Iraq but because of global warming, the economy, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, international development, and many other pressing issues, both domestic and global. After eight disastrous years of what will have been one of the worst presidencies in history, what will be needed is new and visionary leadership. Such leadership will only come from the Democratic Party.