The Matter of Chuck Hagel
Russ Feingold will make a great showing in the early primaries, then get creamed by the Democratic machine. He’ll give a powerful speech at the convention, pledging allegiance to the candidate.
So says Alexandar Cockburn. And you know he’s right.
And to turn over to Chuck Hagel, putting into place the supposed conspiracy theory that brought him into power. The basic problem with pointing out that his win in 1996 over Ben Nelson for that Senate seat was said by the Washington Post to be “this year’s great political upset” is that… it wasn’t that much of an upset. It’s easy to explain how he could ride Bob Dole’s regional coat-tails in one of the most Republican state in the Union, in a state that knew Clinton was about to be re-elected and had no other way of showing Clinton up, and as the polls at the time showed Chuck Hagel narrowing Ben Nelson’s lead with each successive poll. In terms of the NCAA tournament — it’s a #3 defeating a #2… maybe a #4 beating a #2. Nonetheless, here’s what we have:
On January 29, (2003) The Hill reported that Hagel had reported a financial stake worth $1 million to $5 million in the McCarthy Group Inc., a private merchant banking company based in Omaha. But he did not report the company’s underlying assets, choosing instead to cite his holdings as an “excepted investment fund,” and therefore exempt from detailed disclosure rules. As The Hill suggests, that claim is false or, at least was, until the Senate Ethics Committee’s new staff director Robert Walker met with Hagel’s staff and changed the rules after The Hill began snooping around.
A major asset of the McCarthy Group (not listed by Senator Hagel in his disclosures) is the nation’s largest vote counting firm Election Systems & Software (ES&S) [called American Information Systems until the name was changed in 1997]. Hagel resigned as CEO of AIS in 1995 to run for the Senate. Following his election, he resigned as president of the parent company McCarthy & Company.
Today, the McCarthy Group is run by Michael McCarthy, who happens to be campaign treasurer for–you guessed it–Chuck Hagel. Hagel’s financials list the McCarthy Group as an asset, with his investment valued at $1-$5 million.
In short, Hagel controlled and still partly owns the only voting machines that counted his votes when he ran for election in 1996 and 2002.
Thom Hartmann seems to be required to mention this whenever Chuck Hagel’s name pops up, frequently approvingly due to his criticisms of the Bush Administration on Iraq. Look out… he may just be our next president. Keep in mind he’s a Bush I protege, though that only explains why he differs with Bush II on various policies.
Back when Hagel first ran there for the U.S. Senate in 1996, his company’s computer-controlled voting machines showed he’d won stunning upsets in both the primaries and the general election. The Washington Post (1/13/1997) said Hagel’s “Senate victory against an incumbent Democratic governor was the major Republican upset in the November election.” According to Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org, Hagel won virtually every demographic group, including many largely Black communities that had never before voted Republican. Hagel was the first Republican in 24 years to win a Senate seat in Nebraska.
Six years later Hagel ran again, this time against Democrat Charlie Matulka in 2002, and won in a landslide. As his hagel.senate.gov website says, Hagel “was re-elected to his second term in the United States Senate on November 5, 2002 with 83% of the vote. That represents the biggest political victory in the history of Nebraska.”
The second election landslide is not surprising — that’s not altogether an uncommon phenomenom. Joseph Lieberman’s second election was a landslide. As was George W Bush’s Gubernatorial re-election. Then again, consider these brush-ups for a presidential election — it’s de rigour to get a landslide re-election and then be considered “Presidential Timber”. Though Hagel’s chances are… um… once again a longshot. He won’t even be creamed by the Republican machine like Russ Feingold — he’ll be creamed by the Republican rank and file. So I’m stuck with this line as the circumstantial evidence:
According to Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org, Hagel won virtually every demographic group, including many largely Black communities that had never before voted Republican.
Stick “Chuck Hagel” or “Hagel” into the search box at blackboxvoting, and nothing shows up. I’ll have to take his word for it. But how can you win every demographic vote with an election victory of 54% to 46%? Well, theoretically you win 54% of every demographic vote, but that never really happens.