BY ANDY McCARTHY
Powerline’s John Hinderaker thinks former senator Chuck
Hagel’s nomination to be Obama’s defense secretary is already dead. He may be right.
Andrew’s post from last evening homes in on why. As Senator
Ted Cruz pointed out in his superb questioning at the confirmation hearing
(which irritated all the right people), Hagel has stonewalled the Senate regarding
transcripts of his prior speeches. Hagel’s propensity to say stupid things is
already notorious (see, e.g., the Let Freedom Ring USA video I mentioned
yesterday). It’s thus hard to imagine that the substance of the speeches is the
problem. No, the issue must be that Hagel has been giving speeches to, taking
speaking fees from, and otherwise canoodling with what Andrew refers to as
“unsavory” organizations. Two such groups might provide the coup de grace.
As John notes, Ben Shapiro has reported at the Breitbart
site Big Peace that one of Hagel’s funding sources is a group purportedly
called “Friends of Hamas.” That might make someone a good fit for president of
Egypt, prime minister of Turkey, or any number of advisory posts on the White
House staff. But given that being a “friend of Hamas” — at least the kind of
friend who provides material support to that terrorist organization — is a
crime in the United States, it may not be quite what the Senate is looking for
in a secretary of defense.
Then there is Iran. My friend Sam Nunberg of The Legal
Project alerts me that Hagel sits on the board of the Soros-supported
Ploughshares Fund, a left-wing group that allegedly funds various organizations
sympathetic to the mullahs’ regime and, as night follows day, hostile to
Israel. One such group is the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which
is basically the Iranian regime’s lobbyist in the U.S.
A few years back, the NIAC — channeling its inner Lance
Armstrong — filed a bogus defamation suit against Seid Hassan Daioleslam,
editor of an anti-regime group, for having the audacity to expose NIAC’s
coziness with the mullahs. This was a bonehead move because it gave Mr.
Daioleslam’s lawyers (including the Legal Project) the opportunity to exploit the
searching civil discovery procedures available under federal law. Consequently,
NIAC began to channel its inner Chuck Hagel by stonewalling the defendants and
the court.
That evidently did not sit well with Judge John Bates of the
district court in Washington, who threw out the defamation suit against NIAC
and ordered sanctions for its failure to comply with discovery orders. The case
was especially embarrassing for the Obama administration since, in e-mails that
actually were disclosed, it became clear not only that NIAC had deep ties to
the Iranian regime but that it is also an Obama fave — one whose top official,
Trita Parsi, visits the White House, consults with Valerie Jarrett, briefs
Secretary of State Clinton, lectures the CIA, and so on. (See Eli Lake’s report
for the Washington Times.)
Besides sitting on the board of a foundation that funds the
NIAC, Hagel has had an ongoing relationship with the NIAC (and its precursor
organization, the American-Iranian Council). As Ken Timmerman notes in the
Washington Times, this has included giving speeches that rail against sanctions
imposed to pressure Iran on its nuclear program, call for unconditional
negotiations with the mullahs, etc. The NIAC, in kind, avidly supports Hagel’s
nomination.
Hagel’s friends of the mullahs, especially if they turn out
to be coupled with Friends of Hamas, may be too much for even Senate Democrats
to bear. Obviously, if there were not grave concerns about Hagel’s nomination,
Senate Armed Services chairman Carl Levin would not have postponed the
committee’s vote. If he can’t get Hagel approved by the committee now, it
doesn’t look like things are going to get better for the nominee as new
information emerges in the coming days. Looks like the president better have a Plan
B.
https://bos.etapestry.com/prod/viewEmailAsPage.do?databaseId=JamesXKilbridge&mailingId=25993047&personaRef=466.0.122582796&jobRef=881.0.253448239&memberId=655696982&erRef=466.0.122582049&key=3eae347d3f5affff72ffb96b6aef8
No comments:
Post a Comment