Assessing the witch hunt

Chuck Hagel was bad. And it doesn’t matter.

By Chris Cillizza, WashPost, Updated: January 31, 2013

Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel was, at turns, halting, befuddled and, often, just plain bad during his confirmation hearing to be the next Secretary of Defense. And it almost certainly won’t keep him from becoming the next man to lead the Pentagon.

Let’s start with what Hagel did wrong. He appeared to be taken completely aback by the aggressiveness of the questioning from many of his former Republican colleagues on long-hashed over topics like his posture toward Iran and Israel as well as his past statements regarding the surge in Iraq.

Hagel not only should have been more ready for the questions he struggled with but also for the confrontational tone in which many of them were asked. There is nothing — we repeat nothing — that members of one party dislike more than a politician who they view as having abandoned the party (and them). And, Hagel’s distancing from his party viewpoint on Iraq and his all-but-official support for Obama’s presidential campaigns are the sort of thing that just don’t sit very well with his former colleagues.

Before condemning the Hagel hearing as solely a partisan witch hunt conducted by vindicative Republicans seeking revenge on Hagel, don’t forget what Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, a longtime ally of President Obama, had to say about Hagel’s performance.

(More here.)