Why is Hagel Getting Time With Obama?

I can see one side of this--Obama is bipartisan and can work with Republicans! But I can also see a side of this that makes more sense to me--who cares what Chuck Hagel thinks about anything? He's a lame duck, he's got a pro-Bush voting record a mile long, and he takes up a space that a better Republican Senator could have taken. By better I mean, not quite so taken with the forces of evil--someone Obama can work with. He's proven he can work with Dick Lugar--so why not take the occasionally sane Susan Collins, semi-reasonable Chuck Grassley, a lost cause like John McCain's other BFF Thad Cochran, or surprise the hell out of everyone and take the wretched Lindsey Graham and humiliate him by letting him speak?

The buzz this week that Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is planning to join Sen. Barack Obama on an up-coming visit to Iraq is correct, two sources with knowledge of the trip confirmed Friday.

Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, center, is joined by Democratic Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, left, and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, right, in a news conference on Capitol Hill on January 17, 2007 in Washington, D.C., to oppose the president’s troop increase in Iraq. (Getty)
A spokesman for Sen. Obama declined to comment on any details or even confirm the date uncertain trip, citing security concerns. A spokesman for Sen. Hagel did not respond to requests for comment.

While it is standard practice for such trips—known as CODELS, or congressional delegations—to be bipartisan, in this highly charged election year it is likely to raise eyebrows that the retiring Nebraskan senator—a prominent Iraq War critic—is the Republican expected to join the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee on what is sure to be a closely watched visit to the region.

Chuck Hagel might tell you he's with you, but the record shows that he's just going to vote with Bush anyway.

Come to think of it, quite a few Democrats do, too. Never mind.

--WS