Chuck Hagel Delivers Devastating Blow to Republicans' BS

House Republican Leader John Boehner visited Nebraska this week to make appearances at a series of high-dollar fundraisers for all three of Nebraska's Republican Congressmen - who've each remained good little partisan lap-dogs despite the nationwide implosion of the Republican Party.

Taking advantage of a few news reports that suggested some minor progress in Iraq, Boehner fantasized to the Lincoln Journal-Star:

After "investing all their political capital on failure in Iraq," Democrats soon will need to adjust to signs of U.S. success, House Republican Leader John Boehner said Wednesday.... The Bush administration's surge of additional U.S. troops into combat in Iraq has been "very successful," Boehner said....  

While the Iraqi government needs to make more progress in meeting U.S. benchmarks for political accommodation and stability, Boehner said, "the Iraqi parliament has made more progress in keeping its promises than the Democrats in Congress."

I'll give Boehner credit for working in a couple of choice soundbytes. The trouble is that they're so far out of touch with reality that they can't even be taken seriously. And, who better to hammer that fact home than Nebraska's Republican Senator, Chuck Hagel:

Hagel took issue with House Republican Leader John Boehner's own assessment that the Bush administration's strategy has been "very successful" in Iraq. "Everyone is entitled to his opinion," Hagel said, "but the facts do not bear that out".... "On the same day Boehner was boldly proclaiming we were winning in Iraq, Basra was under siege by roving gangs and militias," Hagel said. "Shiite militias are in charge in the southern third of Iraq," he said. On the same day, Hagel said, as many as 500 people were killed in the north. 

"All Sunni cabinet members of Nouri al-Maliki's government are gone," he said. "There is no functioning government in Iraq." Five U.S. soldiers were killed that day, Hagel said, and the Green Zone was hit by 25 mortar attacks. "I'm not sure on what basis Boehner says the surge (of additional U.S. troops) is working," Hagel said.

Thank you to Senator Hagel for refusing to join Nebraska's Republican Congressmen in burying their heads in the sand to the harsh realities of the Iraq War. By continuing to stand with John Boehner and President Bush through four-and-a-half years of delusion and deception, Jeff Fortenberry, Lee Terry, and Adrian Smith have all proven themselves completely undeserving of the people's trust and the offices they hold.

The one point on which Hagel was wrong in his response is that Boehner is NOT entitled to say whatever he damn well pleases about the Iraq War - not when he's an elected representative with a responsibility to protect our men and women in combat and to speak the truth to the American public.

The fact that Boehner - as Minority Leader in the House of Representatives - continues selling this disastrous and failed war policy of the Bush Administration is an undeniable testament to the sad state of the Republican Party.

The fact that he speaks for Nebraska's Republican Congressmen when engaging in this deadly game of spin and deception- with their approval and with their support - should be the only call to action we need to clean house in 2008, replacing these mere Republicans with true leaders who won't betray their oath, sell their silence, and forsake our trust in the name of partisan loyalty.