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Hagel hints at independent White House bid |
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By Klaus Marre
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Posted: 05/13/07 12:30 PM [ET] |
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...”
The senator, who has most notably strayed from his party and President Bush on the Iraq war, said he would make up his mind about whether to run by the end of the summer.
Hagel met recently with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who some say is also weighing an independent bid for the presidency. The senator said no deals were made at the meeting but, in an interview Sunday with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” he expressed admiration for Bloomberg.
“It’s a great country to think about a New York boy and a Nebraska boy to be teamed up leading this nation,” Hagel responded when asked about joining a ticket with Bloomberg, who has the resources to fund a presidential run.
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.”
Hagel also discussed the war in Iraq with CBS and said that more Republicans are beginning to move away from the White House on the issue.
“The president may find himself standing alone some time this fall, where Republicans will start to move away,” Hagel said, pointing to a meeting Bush had last week with centrist Republicans who expressed their concerns over the war. “And you’re starting to see trap doors and exit signs already with a number of Republicans.”
Hagel said the 11 Republicans who went to the White House with a message that there must be progress in Iraq or things would get much worse for the GOP are “just the tip of the iceberg.”
The senator criticized the administration for continuing to say that Iraq is the central front of the war on terror. “This is a civil sectarian war,” Hagel said. “Yes, al Qaeda is there. Yes, terrorists are there, but they are not the predominant aspect of this.” |
