On Jan 24 Chuck Hagel was quoted as saying the following
Hagel chided his fellow colleagues for being too concerned about the politics of their Iraq positioning. "If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes," he said. Hagel concluded that all 100 Senators have a responsibility to take a position on escalation. "We owe it to those men and women that we continue to send in that grinder." Watch it:
shoes
Today Senator Hagel voted to march lockstep with his fellow republicans and support sending our military into "the grinder" without debate on the proven failure of President Bush's strategy.
vote
Senator Hagel also proclaimed;
"My goodness. Can’t we debate the most critical issue of our time, out front, in front of the American people?
They expect it. Are we so weak, we can’t do that?".
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Senator Hagel is weak, as are at least 17 of his fellow Republicans.
Kos writes about that here.
The following poll numbers indicate what the American people think;
57% of the country opposes sending additional troops to Iraq
70 % of the country disapproves of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq
Only 34 % think the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over .
Only 22 % feel George W. Bush has a clear plan for bringing the situation in Iraq to a successful conclusion
poll
The senate needs to debate what Senator Hagel calls "the most critical issue of our time"
Back in June 2006, advocates of building a wall the length of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border sent bricks to members of congress.
bricks
More than 10,000 bricks were sent to members of congress
Many of the bricks are painted red, white and blue with slogans like "No Amnesty," "Build a Wall Now!" and "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors."
I propose we send Senator Hagel and our own Senators shoes. I think Senator Hagel as the biggest hypocrite in stopping debate on Iraq should receive a pair of shoes and each of our home state Senators should receive a shoe. (hopefully a matching pair per State). Even though Democrats like Senator Barbara Boxer have been on the right side of this issue, I believe they should be sent shoes to remind them to pursue this debate with "passion and purpose".
I am sure everyone has a couple of old shoes laying around. They will be cheaper to ship than bricks. I am going to include my e-mail in my profile, If someone wants to take the ball from me and run with it. Also I am hoping some of the more articulate members of the Kos community can come up with a letter or phrase to be included with these shoes. If I get enough of a response, I will continue to either diary it or punt to another Kossack on this project.