Chuck Hagel Joins McCain In Rejecting White House "Weak On Defense" Smears Against Kerry

by Steve

Count Chuck Hagel as the second GOP senator to reject the White House attacks against Kerry for allegedly being weak on defense. Worse yet for Rove, Hagel says that all senators with long track records will have questionable votes in their histories that can be twisted into damaging attack ads. It appears that both McCain and now Hagel are sending a strong message to the White House about trying to smear a fellow Vietnam veteran as being weak on defense. I'm sure it galls both of them that two chickenhawk combat-dodgers like Bush and Cheney are so quick to make such claims when both of them took the first opportunity to avoid the same sacrifices that McCain, Hagel, and Kerry made. Let's see what is said by McCain and Hagel in the future if this keeps up.