Hagel Buckles on Filibuster

While Sen. Ben Nelson continues with late-hour talks to avert the Republican "Nuclear Option" banning the filibuster of judicial nominees in the U.S. Senate - thereby changing a hundred years of Senate precedent to appease the farthest reaches of the right-wing in their attempt to undermine accepted Constitutional freedoms and the rule of law - Nelson's Republican counterpart Chuck Hagel states in an Omaha World-Herald report that he'll have nothing to do with these compromise efforts:

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., for weeks said he was undecided on whether to back a move by (Republican leader) Frist, if it comes. Wednesday, he officially rejected signing on to a compromise.

"I believe that all of the president's nominees deserve an up or down vote," Hagel said, quoted by spokesman Mike Buttry. "The agreement that has been proposed calls for three of the president's nominees not to get a vote. I could not agree to that. That is unfair and it's not right."

Of Nelson's effort, Hagel said that he wants a vote on all nominees, that the Senate is in a very difficult position and that "Sen. Nelson, like all of us, has to do what he has to do."

That last sentence just about says it all. Hagel, like many of his fellow Republicans who know better, is backing down from previous calls for compromise to cow-tow to those he believes hold the keys to his White House ambitions.

How ironic and unsurprising that Nelson, who doesn't hide his true colors and actually practices what he preaches - a rare commodity indeed in this day and age - is now being attacked by the Nebraska Republican Party for his efforts to restore civility to the Senate. Their Executive Director, Jessica Moenning, told the World-Herald:

"This is typical Ben Nelson. He's grandstanding on this issue to save himself at home for a political year."

Whipping-boy Hagel is on national TV every chance he can get talking like a man of reason to provide cover for his record of right-wing recklessness, and Nelson's the grandstander??? For what - doing what Hagel only wishes he had the courage to do? Outrageous!

Nebraska....Nebraska....wake-up and smell the hypocrisy. Your conscience and country are calling upon you.