But, it may put a big dent in the perceived power in DC of the neocons. David Weigel at Slate reports:
Who are we talking about? The nodes of the anti-Hagelverse are connected to Bill Kristol. He co-edits the Weekly Standard, founded in 1995, which runs three to six anti-Hagel items every day. He’s on the board of the Emergency Committee for Israel, as is Goldfarb; the nonprofit was founded three years ago and immediately started hitting Democrats with TV ads about their softness on Israel. Kristol is on the board of the Center for American Freedom, which publishes the Washington Free Beacon, edited by his son-in-law, Matt Continetti. The outposts of “Kristol world,” as Politico calls it, have a combined budget of around $4.8 million.[...]This is really a battle of the neocon political-controllers in government versus the super-wealthy political-controllers and their government operatives. There are no good guys in this one.The best that can be hoped for is that they battle each other long and hard and bloody each other up, with the neocons ending up looking very weak---and thus less feared in the future. It's the one plus that could result from a Hagel confirmation that will otherwise mean a friend of the global empire builders heading DOD.
The pace is intense. In the eight days of 2013, the Weekly Standard has published 30 articles or blog posts about Hagel. Some of them already read silly (“[Chuck] Todd: 'My Guess Is that They Yank Chuck Hagel at the End of the Day' ”), but the best of them have been immortalized and shared on the Drudge Report.[...]
The anti-Hagel campaign will ramp up now. The Emergency Committee for Israel is looking at more TV ads buys. Ralph Reed, who now runs the Faith & Freedom Coalition, has pre-condemned Hagel; Concerned Women for America is also expected to pile on soon. Any old Hagel quotes that can be characterized as “soft” on Iran or murky toward Israel will be made infamous. Any Democrats who waffle on Hagel, as Maryland’s Ben Cardin and New York’s Chuck Schumer did yesterday, will be made famous.
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