Hagel Sorry for Gay Slur, No Comment on ‘Jewish Lobby’ Remarks
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Chuck Hagel visiting Iraq. Photo: Wiki Commons.
Politico - Former Sen. Chuck Hagel, seeking to preserve his viability for nomination as secretary of Defense, on Friday issued a strong apology for a gay slur in 1998 that turned some top Democratic activists against his potential selection.
Hagel’s statement is part of an extremely unusual campaign to bolster a candidate for a top job who has not yet been nominated. The White House this week took the extraordinary step of publicly defending Hagel against attacks by backers of Israel.
3:34 am
Not all middle aged White Anglo Saxon Protestant men are bigots.
But Chuck Hagel is a bigot despite his very late and self serving apology.
— a finalist for the post of secretary of defense in Obama’s second term — once opposed a nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg because he was “openly aggressively gay.”
“Ambassadorial posts are sensitive,” Hagel told to the Omaha World-Herald in 1998, opposing the nomination of philanthropist James Hormel. “They are representing America,” he said. “They are representing our lifestyle, our values, our standards. And I think it is an inhibiting factor to be gay — openly aggressively gay like Mr. Hormel — to do an effective job.”
Some LGBT rights groups are already criticizing the potential selection of Hagel to replace Leon Panetta.
Hagel was a longtime supporter of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which banned gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. In 1999, he told The New York Times, ”The U.S. armed forces aren’t some social experiment.”
And between 2001 and 2006, Hagel received a score of zero from the Human Rights Council, with no votes on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a job discrimination bill, and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which eventually was passed into law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act in 2009.
Aipac created a letter urging the Soviet Union to ease up on it’s persecution of Soviet Jews.
That letter was signed by every Senator except Chuck Hagel.
Chuck Hagel believes that these letters are stupid.
Why would anyone agree that exerting pressure to save Soviet Jewry was stupid?
Criticizing the NAACP or LA RAZA as a Black lobby or a Latino lobby sending out stupid letters to Senators would be seen as bigoted by most people.
Speaking of the NAACP he has a 17 out of 100 rating from them.
That is because his bigotry extends to issues dealing with African-Americans. I believe that is why he considered Strom Thurmond to be such a great role model.
President Obama should appoint Flournoy and promote the diversity we expect today in America.
8:58 pm
Why would an antisemite apologize for an antisemetic remark?