That was quick.
Chuck Hagel sat down Monday with New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer and in just 90 minutes completely disavowed everything he’s ever said about Israel, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and “the Jewish lobby.”
Whereupon Schumer heartily endorsed Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary and urged wavering Dems to fall in line.
No New York skepticism there: “His views are genuine,” Schumer insists.
Well, that says a lot about Hagel’s ambitions, and even more about Schumer’s. But it also raises questions about President Obama’s credibility and intentions.
If the president really means what he told the United Nations last fall — that a nuclear-armed Iran “is not a challenge that can be contained” — he wouldn’t have picked someone with Hagel’s record for the Pentagon.
That’s what Schumer ought to have said. Instead, he asks folks to believe that, once confirmed, Hagel will advocate for policies he spent a career in the Senate opposing.
Let’s just say that this is the kind of reassurance that raises more doubts than it resolves — about President Obama and Sen. Schumer as much as Sen. Hagel.