I think I need to declare a fatwah on the “Hagel is a maverick” meme.

Speaking of silly coverage of Chuck Hagel, Chris Cillizza follows up his argument for Chuck Hagel with an argument against Chuck Hagel. Cillizza writes:

Primaries — especially presidential primaries — are about appealing to base voters. For Republicans, that means emphasizing a strong national defense, cutting taxes and saying all the right things about hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage. Hagel is far from the perfect fit for this sort of voter.

On the war in Iraq, he has been highly critical of President Bush — more often finding agreement with the Democrats on the issue than with his own party. Regardless of where the nation as a whole is in regards to the war, the base of the Republican Party remains largely supportive of Bush’s effort and views any call for a withdrawal as a recipe for a loss.

Cillizza offers plenty of support to the notion that Hagel is out of touch with the Republican base on Iraq, but, like Lorie Boyd, says nothing - nothing - about how Hagel’s ideology aligns with the Republican base on issues other than Iraq. He says nothing of how he thinks Hagel is out of step with Republican voters on taxes, social issues, and defense issues. He votes the right way for Republicans, so I’d really have liked to hear where Cillizza is basing this conclusion. We are asked to simply trust that because Hagel differs with Bush on Iraq he is wholly cut from the cloth of a maverick.

Cillizza’s larger concern is that Republicans just don’t like mavericks, because they didn’t nominate John McCain in 2000. Hagel’s (still unexplained) issue positioning makes him a rebel within the Republican Party. Mavericks can’t win, so Hagel is at a nearly insurmountable disadvantage.

Moreover, because Hagel is not currently an official candidate and is not fundraising and does not have staff in early primary states now, Cillizza thinks he cannot be viable. I’m not someone who gets to set Beltway Insider Conventional Wisdom, but it seems to me that Cillizza is set on making sure that the $100 million or bust viability meme is brought fully to bear on second and third tier candidates.

Hagel is a sitting senator. Even if he’s from Nebraska, a minus for Cillizza from a fundraising standpoint, Hagel should be able to find people to work for him and support his presidential race. Recognizing that Cillizza is playing devil’s advocate with himself, his analysis is silly, furthering the simplistic and as of yet unjustified narrative of Chuck Hagel as the new moderate rebel of the Republican Party.


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