The Hound Of Ulster

Several advisers to Obama also said the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), could be on the shortlist to become secretary of state.

Oh, my.  Nice to see Barack making plans for his “new direction” already.  And nice to see what “bipartisan” means, too:

Advisers suggest that among those who would be considered for Cabinet-level positions are two Republicans, Sens. Richard G. Lugar (Ind.) and Chuck Hagel (Neb.).

Could that ”bipartisan” decision be connected to this, in any way?

On June 25, 2007, Senator Lugar, who had been “a reliable vote for President Bush on the war,” said that “Bush’s Iraq strategy [is] not working and… the U.S. should downsize the military’s role.”  Lugar’s blunt assessment has been viewed as significant in that it shows the growing impatience and dissatisfaction with President Bush’s strategy in Iraq. Lugar’s speech had particular resonance given his stature as one of the party’s elder statesmen on foreign policy. After Lugar finished his remarks, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), a sharp critic of the war, praised Lugar’s “thoughtful, sincere and honest” speech, which Durbin said was in “finest tradition of the U.S. Senate.”  Durbin urged his Senate colleagues to take a copy of Lugar’s speech home over the Fourth of July break and study it before returning to work. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, in reaction to Lugar’s speech: “When this war comes to an end, and it will come to an end, and the history books are written, and they will be written, I believe that Sen. Lugar’s words yesterday could be remembered as a turning point in this intractable civil war in Iraq.

Or this?

In January 2007, Hagel openly criticized President Bush’s plan to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq. He called it, “the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it’s carried out.”  Together with Democrats Joseph Biden and Carl Levin he proposed a non-binding resolution to the Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which rejected Bush’s policy as “not in the national interest” in a 12-9 vote.  However, in a Senate vote of 94-2 to revoke executive power to replace federal prosecutors without a preliminary hearing, Senator Hagel and Senator Kit Bond were the only opposition.

Not a lot of “foreign policy blunder” or “strategy is not working” language of late, really.  Sort of reminds me of Biden.  If you’re wrong on foreign policy stuff repeatedly, does that damage your “foreign policy expert” cred at all?

Cause is sort of seems like it should.