Chuck Hagel Will Run......Maybe ?!

Chuck Hagel, the Republican Senator from Nebraska who once called President Bush's plan to surge 21,500 troops in Iraq: "The most dangerous foreign policy blunder carried out since Vietnam.", called a press conference to make an announcement, which everyone thought would be his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President.

However he said: "I am here today to announce that my family and I will make a decision on my political future later this year."

He called a press conference to say that he had not yet made a decision. It would appear that the Senator is playing around with everyone. There are some real implications that come with whether or not he intends to run. One of the first things that comes to mind is the status of his seat in the Senate. He can either run for another term in the Senate or for the Presidential nomination but not both. If he decides to run for the nomination then his Senate seat would be up for grabs, and there are many Republicans waiting in the wing for a shot at his seat.

One potential candidate Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said: “He wants to wait, that means we’ll wait,” Bruning said, grimacing. “Senator Hagel has earned the right to make the decision in the time frame he sees fit.”

Only a week earlier, Bruning had said he was anxious for Hagel to make a decision. That came after Bruning was contacted by supporters of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is running for the GOP presidential nomination next year, seeking the Nebraska attorney general’s support.

Bruning told McCain’s camp then that he had to wait to see what Hagel would do.

Other Senate contenders include:

• Gov. Dave Heineman

• Hal Daub, 2nd District Rep.

• Lee Terry, 2nd District Rep.

• Jeff Fortenberry, 1st District Rep.

• Don Stenberg, former state Attorney General

• Pete Ricketts, last year’s GOP senatorial candidate

There are of course other considerations that will affect his campaign if he decides to announce later this year. ABC News political director Mark Halperin said:

"Sen. Hagel's decision to delay any decision makes it much harder for him to get the Republican nomination. He'll fall behind in fundraising. I think that (it) does, in the short term, probably darken his national future." He said it may also burn much of the political capital he earned with some voters by speaking out against his party on the Iraq war.
"Sen. Hagel has a lot of goodwill with the national media and with people in Washington, and I think he dipped into that goodwill quite a bit today with this non-announcement.

In an interview with MSNBC Tom Hagel, Sen. Chuck Hagel's brother, thought that the Senator would eventually go for the nomination:

I talked to him last week, and he told me what he was going to say. And I think that his inclination is to be in. And to be quite frank with you, I would expect him ultimately to throw his hat in the ring.

If Chuck Hagel does eventually decides to run, he would be a vocal Republican voice, perhaps the only one, against the war in Iraq. In fact his decision not to make a decision for now, is because of the war in Iraq:

"THIS IS AN ISSUE I HAVE BEEN DEEPLY INVOLVED WITH. I WANT TO KEEP MY FOCUS ON FINDING A RESPONSIBLE WAY OUT OF THIS TRAGEDY AND NOT DIVERT MY ENERGY, MY EFFORTS AND MY JUDGMENT WITH COMPETING POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS," SAYS HAGEL.