Chuck Hagel slams Sarah Palin: "It's a stretch to say she's got the experience to be President"
By SilentPatriot Thursday Sep 18, 2008 5:50pm
Here's some "straight-talk" for ya from Nebraska's Senior Senator.
“I think it’s a stretch to, in any way, to say that she’s got the experience to be president of the United States,” Hagel said.
"I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."
It's one thing if people want to support her because she's a right-wing zealot in every sense of the word. But can we please dispense already with the ridiculous notion that she has the qualifications to be Vice President?
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We Can't Make It Here Anymore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTW0y6kazWM
Thank you Mr. Hagel.
It’s a stretch to say she’s human.
If Sarah Palin looks out her window and sees Russia, when did she move to Nome?
Wasilla is quite a ways from Russia. I would guess close to 500 miles or more. (I don't have a map in front of me.)
This "I can see Russia from my window" is just another soundbite excuse for Harriet Miers part 2.
Yeah, Chuck Hegel.
A wounded Viet Nam vet.
Great senator.
Piss poor servant of the American people.
I love the John Stewart comment concerning why Palin has been parachuted into this race in the first place.
"Did this woman win a contest?"
I had a layover once in Rome, ergo I'm going to run for Prime Minister of Italy next year. F*&^ anyone who says I don't have the experience. It was a 7 hour layover. That's plenty of time to learn enough about the country.
I think Chuck will be Sec. of Defense on President Obama's cabinet
Palin is a fuckstick,
but I'd wish her for president more than any fuck who is bought, controlled, and sold by the power structure in the U.S.
Things are bad folks.
I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,’”
But ... Palin Touts Her Experience as a ‘Closet Organizer’
Thanks, Scoop.
Wasn't this days ago???
oops
You know, I can kind of understand all the interest and the honeymoon with this person but now after a couple weeks and all the information that is out there why would anybody think this is a positive choice. ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia’ and ‘I am the commander of the Alaska National Guard’? That is so stupid I cannot understand why anybody would even say it let alone actually use it as a qualification. I would think that they were using me as the dumbest asshole in the country if somebody told me that is the qualification to be Vice President of the United States of America. It IS insulting!! Who are the people how think this is a good thing? I want to know so that I can stay far far away from them.
hell, palin does not have the qualifications to be a mother
her skills got her daughter knocked up (maybe twice).
alan @ 4:
I am absolutely no fan of Palin's but I think she said there is an island in Alaska in which you can see Russia from. I don't know where all this "front porch" business started from. If someone can correct me with a link, I'll be happy to stand corrected.
I look out the window I see Moscow, I see Russia, I see Sarah Palin's gusher.
Looks like Hagel is aiming to be the Republican Joe Lieberman.
gogetem @ 15:
The island in question can be found on Google maps, it's smack dab in the middle of the ocean between Russia and Alaska, in fact it's two islands, one of them is on the U.S. side, the other is on the Russian side.
Just looked it up, it's Diomede.
dadams @ 14:
If SP gets on your last nerve (she does mine), don't get mad. Check out tbogg for a great idea re Planned Parenthood.
Widespread @ 17:
Chuck Hagel want's to be a gremlin?
Imichael @ 8:
Maybe he can throw the election to Obama....
"ES&S is the company that Chuck Hagel used to own 20% of? The one whose voting machines gave him a landslide win in majority-black precincts in Omaha where EXIT POLLS had him 15-20 points down?"
Wouldn't surprise me one bit.
Imichael @ 8:
That would be fine with me if Wesley Clark was considered as well.
Doesn't sound like Chuck Hagel wants to see this country turn into an idiocracy. Hope their are more sound minded Conservatives with him on that.
Thank you Senator Hagel.
But, tell me, why have you voted with Bush 95% of the time?
Why haven't you given your 2 cents worth until now?
Could it possibly be party not country?
Say what you want about Senator Hagel, but over the last couple of years he's been very vocal about his criticism of the Administration and specifically the war.
People can change their views over time as circumstances change...............Senator Hagel is certainly one who realized he was on the 'wrong team' and didn't mind saying so.
I too, think he will be in Obama's Cabinet.
Orangutan. @ 24:
Too late, too late! Where you been the past 8 years?
dosido @ 20:
my point is her lack of any valid credentials for any office,
i just don't want another fucking incompetent
reichwingneocon fascist as president of the
United States again. bush/cheney are more than
enough for the century.
VietVet8666 @ 9:
Not as bad as your reasoning. Your want Palin for president?
dadams @ 28:
Agreed!!!
She'll probably be President.
Bad things happen.
L.A. Confidential @ 31:
Job growth in food tasting...
For the first time, I'm so sick of all the lies and bullshit, the finger pointing and whining by the republicans who were at the wheel at the time of the wreck, of the air-headed answers given by palin and the Angry Alzheimer Paleo-man, I can't find anything to say here.
Il gruppo repubblicano scopante ha fatto funzionare l'America in terra ed ha rovinato il paese che era il meglio
I'm outta here.
I can see a set of encyclopedias in my bookcase. Does that make me a genius?
L.A. Confidential @ 31:
I mean look at Bush Jr 8 freaking years.
You've got it backwards, Chuck.
1. When she was Mayor of Wasilla she had 25 employees, and managed to fire two of them for personal/political reasons. Fired the librarian for refusing to censor library books. Fired the police chief for not being pro-gun enough for the NRA's liking.
2. She was Governor for all of five minutes before firing the State police com. for refusing to fire her ex-brother in law. (Can you imagine what she'd do if she had control of the U.S. Dept. of Justice?)
3. She built a sports center on land without even bothering to buy it first. When it turned out the owner didn't want to sell it she used the soft thuggery of eminent domain, and harassment with law suits until the owner cried uncle. The sports facility ended up costing more than it should have, if only she'd bothered to secure the land before building it. Apparently, that would have taken too long, and under the two term limit, should wouldn't have gotten credit for building it that way.
4 She left Wasilla 20million in debt.
No, Chuck, it's a bit of a stretch to say she's got the experience to be a MAYOR of a town of 7000. Only in the insane, bizarro world of post-Bush/Rove politics would we even be DISCUSSING her qualifications to be President! Sheesh...
If pointing out the obvious is really a "slam", then I guess I need to ease up on my boss, lest I "slam" him.
Jo @ 29:
Jo,
My vote is, none of the above.
Voting for an Establishment candidate is voting for the Establishment.
Americans need to revolt, IMO.
Hope you're on board.
BC @ 27:
Repetition necessary. I've been fighting. I've been fighting.
Is it really time to flee the US?
VietVet8666 @ 38:
So what's the plan, Stan? Have you seen the weapons the "other side" has? Do you think I would do anything to harm my grandchildren or my husband, 'cause they would get hurt if my ass was dragged off to jail or worse.
Just what are you suggesting? That people get themselves killed?
Or are you going to hole up somewhere, eat cold beans out of a tin can, clean your weapons and chuckle at the rest of us in that mother superior way for being part of the establishment. No thanks. I don't want to be part of a revolution. I want to be part of a solution.
I think we're going to have to start two new categories of trolling for this board:
1. The banal, regular troll. "You libruls are all pussies. Green tea. Protein bars..."
2. The concern troll. "I really think Obama should stop criticizing McCain. It's making him look petty."
and now:
3. The green troll. "I can't vote for Obama. He's practically a neo-conservative! He hasn't promised to push for animal rights, make Wiccan Paganism the official religion of the U.S., or put Polyamorous relationships on an equal footing with heterosexual and gay marriage in the Constitution. I'm voting for the Green Party! Who's with me?"
4. The anarchist troll. "Hey, I'm old and crusty, and I can tell you that ALL of these guys are part of the establishment. They're ALL in the back pocket of the corporate fascists. Obama is just an imperialist in sheep's clothing. None of the above, I say! Let's all write in GUY FAWKES on our ballots on election day as a PROTEST!"
Jo @ 41:
Jo, I hope you are right. I hope you succeed.
The part about beans from a can and clean weapons. I'm already there.
In a pre-Raygun world, before the perfection of the garrulous, lovable (corpoRat-to-the-core) sock-puppet/grand-father/empty suit/celebrity pol, Sara Palin could not have been nominated to suck runny shit on the floor of a diarrhea ward, through a flavo-straw, were that an elected national office.
GI Joe/Barbie 08!
Hey, they have more policy sense than McCain/Palin!
VietVet8666 @ 43:
Well, stay safe and if ya gotta go take somebody out wit ya if ya know what I mean.
Legend has it that on misty Alaskan mornings, when her view of Russia is partially obscured by fog, Gov. Palin's foreign policy experience mysteriously disappears.
Kinda spooky, huh?
Sarah Palin statements if she had my life experiences:
"I grew up in Buffalo - I know Canada..."
"I lived over a decade in Florida - I know Cuba..."
"I drink Scotch - I know Scotchland..."
When Palin was selected by McCain (or whoever told McCain that Palin was going to be his running mate) an immediate thought ran through my head. Will someone on Fox News tout Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of her credentials in foreign policy. It was such a ludicrous idea that I laughed it off. In less than 24 hours I started hearing that ridiculous point from not only the usual suspects but by major players on McCain's staff as well. I think even McCain himself mentioned it. Anyone who parroted that line should have his or her credibility and credentials stripped. A statement that should be a one-liner during a late night television monologue is not a legitimate qualification. It sends the message to citizens of this country and the entire world that we do not take foreign relations seriously. After eight years of "in your face" diplomacy which has crippled our standing in the world, another four (or more) in the same vein may be enough for the world to say enough. Our past history gave us a pass during the Bush years but our allies are losing (or lost) their patience and will be reluctant or refuse to take our side in another Iraq-like action. We have all witnessed Tony Blair's freefall. I admire him for his loyalty and his unyielding support of our country but I seriously doubt seeing another head of state risking his career at the expense of backing another US led debacle.
Someone wants to say "I told you so" as he gets the 2012 nod...
P.K. McBurroughs @ 47:
You can take Alaska out of Sarah, but you can't take Sarah out of Alaska.
alan @ 4:
Even if she did see Russia, all she'd see is the ass-end of it.
Siberia =/= to Moskva.
Widespread @ 17:
My thought as well.
dennis?
Maybe she can see it from the plane she uses to shotgun wolves.
Good Ol' Chuck, the guy that went from running elections, to winning elections.
Palin herself addressed the question of her foreign policy experience in a recent interview with ABC News.
"We've got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time," she said. "It is for no more politics as usual, and somebody's big, fat résumé, maybe, that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment where, yes, they've had opportunities to meet heads of state."
"I'm ready," Palin said. "I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink."
------------------------------------
I've tried watching the video clips of her.
I've tried listening to her speak while closing my eyes.
Now I've read her words.
---
Beside the US, what country has the easiest work visa to obtain?
Senators are not nearly plain spoken enough. She is the pits. She is weird. She is stupid. She is creeping me out. And McCain is not in good shape. They have been trying to scare us for 8 years, but now they have really done it. Anyone who would vote for this ticket needs meds, or serious remedial reading classes.
Don't forget that Alaska borders Canada. That more than doubles Palin's foreign policy experience.
I've seen mountains therefore I'm a geologist. This is only one of my many skills. I've flown in a plane and piloted them. I guess that I'm also an aerodynamicist. Did I tell you at what age I became a gynecologist? Join the fun list your list your Palinifications.
Ms Palin has Executive Experience as Governor of a State, was previous a Mayor and community leader (Councilwoman,PTA,etc) and she is number two on the ticket...has much more experience than many previous Vice-Presidents (including on the democratic ticket) and way more experience than the number one on the democratic ticket today with Senator Obama being a US Senator for only 100 days (very few bills sponsered by him even) and not much more time in the Il Senate, and a community organizer...I would love to be a fly on the wall in the voting booths on election day to see who many of the democratic leaders will actually vote for when they go behind that curtain ...this is funny!...Can you really believe that Senator Obama is has the experience to be President of the United States? If you believe this then I know why this Country is in the mess its in right now...The Fannie Mae and S&L crisis and the rest of the economic problems including the energy crisis (no energy policy congress). Put the blame on the ones who are in control of Congress (our law makers) and the US Courts for the last 12 years...who might that be? Surely not Republicans! By the way, IM an Independent and I vote with my brain, I do not follow parties that fail for 12 years! My name is Terre Bresciani and I approve this message...
Hey, how about we find another word besides "slam". It's a bit over-used on this site.
Too many people slamming others. How about we do a whip-round and come up with some different verbs?
How about:
bashes
smashes
disses
There is a report in Salon from a guy in Wasilla who knows her and played in the church band. He says she's an actual YEC creationist. As in dinosaurs playing with people, 6k year old earth type creationist. She told him she knows its true because they have fossils showing human tracks and dinosaur tracks. (I'll take bullshit for $1000, alex).
Imichael @ 8:
Oh I agree with this 100%
bubba @ 61:
After listening to this twit speak recently, can there really be any doubt that this woman believes it?
She probably think her dog Sparky digs up and plays with dinosaur bones in the yard.
Hey! I just learned that I'm surrounded by shitloads of quarks and leptons. That qualifies me to be a Quantum Physics Theorist! C'mon now, I'm even choc-a-block of the little critters!
Glad to see you joined the party Hagel, where the fuck were you when Bush was pissing on the Constitution?
A bigger insult was our 4th Amendment rights being taken away without a Constitutional referendum. It's about time Republicans start policing their own. But its sad that it takes an election for them to start giving a shit about us.
Pericles @ 42:
I think you got them all but there is a dearth of small minds and and no end to idiocy in general.
Pericles @ 42:
LOL!!!
Uhm, but my inner schoolmarm demads I point out to you that it's "polygamous" not "polyamorous." The former means the illegal (but don't tell that to Utah) marriage to more than one person, the latter--here hit your favorite foreign flick soundtrack--means being in love with more than one person at once.
Robert
P.S. I'm a straight male. Can I still have an inner schoolmarm?
Robert Murphy @ 67:
I think he meant polyamorous just as he wrote it.
Have a good one!
I have a lot of respect for this guy.
*
I wish more people would speak up like Chuck. He has decided to leave his party at the end of his term. What is wrong with people? When your candidate says the economy is strong and it collapses the next day and he starts singing a different tune doesn't that give them a clue he's an idiot? He has been for deregulation of everything up until now. He will be for it once again if he gets in.
I never knew there were so many narrow minded, prejudice, bigoted people. Let's face it, John McCain is STUPID, a liar and probably in the first stages of senility. Then what will we have, Palin. She acts like a ditz as far as I am concerned and her pastor identified a witch and drove her out of town (not in Alaska). If the people get out and vote and we can keep the Repugs from cheating we can win. Republicans always prefer a low voter turn out. It's better for them.
Right Wing Christianist Rapture Loving Nutcase Zealot to you buddy. She's totally Dobsons hope for the Presidency so they are going to put everything they've got at it. I don't know how to call them on it. With more than half the country believing the end of the world is upon us one has to wonder how best to expose their lunacy without alienating the sheeple. They aren't even spiritual they are dogmatic automatons who only believe that human life is sacred and the rest of Gods creation can go to hell.
I remember a time when guys like Chuck Hagel represented the mainstream of the Republican Party. Now he's in the minus 99.999th percentile. I know a lot of older Republicans who still think they belong to a Republican Party that hasn't existed for over 40 years; thruth be known that old GOP is further to the left than the present-day Corporatist Prostitute/Fascist Wing of the Democratic Party.
If Hagel is the kind of guy I think he is, he's probably felt for the longest time that no amount of showering in disinfectant will get him clean.
Is Hagel the only republican left in America with a brain?
Captain Bitter Angry Kangaroo @ 10:
I can see the Moon outside my window, so I'm an astronaut!
User Loser @ 71:
Yes the nutcases have been with us a very long time. I am 57 now and I can remember when I was a small child hearing the same kinds of predictions about the end times being near. My father rememberd them saying the same things when he was a child and his father before him.
Myself I think that if there is a god he is not the spitefull hate filled god that is over looking everything that happens.That demands you worship him.
I don't get it. If a being was intelligent enough to have created everything in the heavens and on earth. Why would he bother to watch over one very tiny little grain of sand out of the entire universe? Why would that being need to be worshiped by the things he made?
Do you want or need your children to pray to you for their existance? If so Why?
Don't get me wrong there could be a god I guess but I don't think that a god would be like what is preached in America by the fundanutalists.
I always think back to a line in an old song. And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.
In other words in order to get love you must give love, and no amount of instilling fear will ever bring love!
The level of debauchery, amorality, and pathological gimmickry within the Republican neo-con Party is perfectly encapsulated by the Palin candidacy. The only way that the Republican Party is staying afloat right now is through the saturation of the media markets of the notion that the Republicans are still legitimate potential caretakers of the public trust. It's all about marketing the Republicans as important, backed by millions of dollars coming from the sponsors of right wing radio and Murdoch's empire. Otherwise, Republicans would have been tossed into the ditch a long time ago.
fastfeat @ 63:
It's all proof that the human species is doomed for extinction. For people like Palin to have the potential to effect the lives of others based upon this "dumb as a fence post" kind of Creationist tripe means that our DNA has some serious flaws that seals our doom as a species. Otherwise bright people regress into the brain power of frogs when it comes to religious beliefs, promoted by silver-tongued televangelists who make tens of millions off their quintessentially stupid followers.
There really is no progress with regard to the human potential, it seems. On matters of faith and science, we're now in another "Dark Age", where true science is denigrated by false religions, and the religious leaders, through promoting anti-scientific ideas, are the new Pharisees.
E in MD @ 65:
Hagel is that lone wolf crying out in the Republican Party wilderness. He has no one in his party with whom to stand shoulder to shoulder and, from the inside of the party, expose the crimes of the Bush Cabal. That being said, you're right. His oath says that he'll protect and defend the Constitution from enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Say McCain wins. He's inaugurated Jan. 20, 2009.
Jan. 21 he keels over dead.
Now what?
The Fundamentally Strong Rusty Shackleford @ 79:
She gets to finish that term and then run for 2 more. They're going for 12 years.
Orangutan. @ 24:
Chuck Hagel is almost an awakened Real republican there should be a second republican party that says real republican for real America. That is objective and unbiased. And hold the qualities what Republican really stands for. They know their place in America what they could contribute and values the other party can bring in the table and give them the benefit of the doubt because they think only of whats really good for the American people . Bushes sleazy partisan approach to this country had contributed greatly to it's economic downfall, because he refuses to even hear or sign any thing the democratic congress has to do for the people because he fears that it will benefit the other party. SLEAZY ASSHOLE STUPID PRICK EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN CANOODLING AS A PRESIDENT. I HOPE THEY ALREADY COMMEMORATED THE SEWAGE PLANT IN HIS DISHONOR IN SAN FRANCISCO. I WOULD CONTRIBUTE TO THAT BY BY HAVING HIS FACE PRINTED IN A THE INNER SURFACE OF A TOILET BOWL WITH HIS MOUTH WIDE OPEN, FOR A NEW DESIGN FOR TOILET BOWLS
heard that now folks in Russia are crowding into to some retired person's house where they can watch Sara Palin practice her facial expressions and hand gestures through her window.
{ Please do not post in all bold lettering or in all Caps, It's yelling. SiteMonitor}
I hate to see a good man like the Honorable Chuck Hagel leave the Senate. The one thing this country needs is a dedicated and honest Senator, whether he be Republican or Democrat.
If Sarah Palin looks out her window and sees Russia, when did she move to Nome?
Wasilla is quite a ways from Russia. I would guess close to 500 miles or more. (I don’t have a map in front of me.)
Actually Wasilla is almost 700 miles from the tip of Chukot, Russia. Of course Wonder Woman Sarah Palin must have Superman eyes, through those expensive Japanese glasses.
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