The mystery of Chuck Hagel

He certainly knows which buttons to push:

“Any president who says, I don’t care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don’t care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed — if a president really believes that, then there are — what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that,”

There are other ways besides impeachment for the Congress to deal with such things, like voting. To wit:

On Sunday, Hagel said he was bothered by Bush’s apparent disregard of congressional sentiment on Iraq, such as his decision to send additional troops. He said lawmakers now stood ready to stand up to the president when necessary.

Standing up IS their job, right? Besides, impeachment should NEVER be taken off the table for any president at any time. Conversely, Bush's job is to consider long-term threats to the Union. If he thinks withdrawal from our present situation prior to stabilization would be harmful down the road (perhaps leading to more deaths) that's hardly a flexible position. The events occurring now with Iran only serve to amplify how risky any withdrawals might be. It's not something a president can compromise.

Besides, Hagel knows we've already tried redeploying forces out of Baghdad to a smaller degree and nothing but chaos ensued. The surge is really the last best hope to win, which everyone, including rogue Senators, should be in favor of.

In reality he's got zero chance of gaining the nomination. Zip. So, it's a mystery as to why he's doing this aside from perhaps thinking Bush really is the stupid evil genius the left accuses him of being and he's Captain America. Or, maybe he fashions himself some kind of modern day Howard Baker--getting out ahead of a problem and saving the Republican Party. It could be his love for the military man in the trenches, where he once was. Or, it could be because he doesn't like being ignored. Whatever it is, it's a mystery to me.