>Larry's onto something here, but we don't know for sure, and given the >supposed importance of the bill at the time, it may or may not be the >case, and unless someone really wants to take the time to research it >(not me), we just can't be sure.
A nice bit of evidence would be to compare the number of Hagel sponsored bills that made it to the floor(or were passed) from 1998 through 2003 - the start of the Iraq debate, and the number of bills since the 2003 Post Iraq vote until the Republicans lost control of the senate in 2006. While not the strength of a smoking gun, it would be pretty good indirect evidence. I remember reading that both the republican leadership in both the House and Senate threaten Hagel over his votes. > >There is no question that many Republicans and Democrats in Congress >alike have showed zero preference for leadership over partisan >politics. I will note that John McCain has been a consistent voice in >the wilderness in that respect - battling his own party as often as >the Democrats on the big issues. His co-sponsorship of this bill is a >perfect example of how he is a leader on the issues that matter. His disagreements with the Whitehouse or the leadership of his own party have been very few and far between. Over the entire shrub tenure, McCain has been more than quiet, except for running for president. He has participated in almost no committee meetings, shown up for very few floor votes etc. Truly if his was a voice in the wilderness it was so faint as to be nonexistant. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:269824 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
