Keep up the fight against Hagel!
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February 21, 2013
Dear Friends,
Thank you for calling your Senators and urging them to oppose Chuck Hagel. Last week’s failed cloture vote on Hagel’s nomination was a temporary victory, but unfortunately several Senators who voted against ending debate on Hagel’s nomination are indicating that their position is weakening. We need your help to encourage Senators to stand strong.
Harry Reid chastised Senate Republicans for their unprecedented opposition to a Cabinet nomination, but Hagel is a spectacularly bad nominee who proves the need for the Senate’s constitutional advice and consent duties to check Presidential power. Senators were wise to proceed cautiously.
Hagel’s abysmal performance during his nomination hearings and his radical positions have embarrassed liberals, and reports indicate that liberal Senators in conservative states, particularly those facing re-election in 2014 are urging President Obama to get Hagel to withdraw, because they don’t want to be saddled with such a bad vote. We need to keep up the pressure!
Just some of the reasons we oppose Hagel are:
- Hagel would be our first "anti-military" Secretary of Defense.
- He has consistently declared that he believes in a “pared down” Pentagon.
- He voted no on a measure requiring separate barracks for men and women during basic military training.
- He is a director of an elitist globalist movement called “Global Zero,” which advocates full-scale nuclear disarmament, a philosophy President Obama agrees with. This is especially dangerous at a time when North Korea is testing nuclear missiles.
- Hagel serves on the board of the Ploughshares Fund, a George Soros-funded group that advocates getting rid of our nuclear weapons, opposes U.S. development of a missile-defense system, and promotes global governance.
- Hagel believes that a U.S. missile defense system should only be deployed with the cooperation of Russia; he does not consider such cooperation from Russia as important when it comes to reducing nuclear weapons. He has called for “sharply reducing the number of U.S. nuclear weapons, possibly without equivalent cuts by Russia,” according to the Associated Press.
- While Hagel wants to pare down the U.S. military and voted for legislation that is detrimental to U.S. military readiness, according to his nomination questionnaires, he advocates that the U.S. and the U.S. military have much more involvement with the United Nations. In his 2008 book, America: Our Next Chapter, Hagel wrote:
The United Nations can play a central and critical role in forging connections. The global challenges of terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, hunger, disease, and poverty require multilateral responses and initiatives. The United States should therefore take every opportunity to help strengthen global institutions and alliances, including the UN.... No international conflict is simple or easy to deal with, but each requires attention and the United Nations is the only international organization that can help bring the consensus that is indispensable in finding solutions and resolving crises.
Chuck Hagel is a threat to America’s strength and safety, and his nomination must be defeated.
We need you to keep up pressure on your Senators whether they are conservative or liberal — all need to hear from you! Please take a moment to e-mail and call your Senators. Senators are in their home districts until Monday, February 25th, so please contact the district offices today and tomorrow. Here is a link to the Senate directory that will take you to your Senators’ home websites. Their district office phone numbers are listed on these websites.
Further Reading:
- The Wrong Man for Defense Secretary, Phyllis Schlafly, February 6, 2013
- The wrong man to be defense secretary, by Senator Jim Inhofe, January 25, 2013
- Press Release Announcing Opposition to Hagel Nomination, by Senator Jim Inhofe, January 15, 2013
- Chuck Hagel's Troubling 'Global Zero' Nuclear Arms Stance, by Peter Huessy, January 15, 2013
- Hagel hearings should focus on Pentagon mission, by Elaine Donnelly, January 14, 2013
- Senators voice concerns on Hagel’s Global Zero anti-nuclear views, by Bill Gertz, January 10, 2013
Eagle Forum Legislative Action Center
Hagel’s internationalist philosophy also led him to support the discredited Law of the Sea Treaty which would diminish U.S. sovereignty, and amnesty for illegal aliens which weakens national security.
