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" It turns out that Harry Reid didn&amp;#039;t have enough votes even to force a vote on Chuck Hagel&amp;#039;s nomination to be Secretary Of Defense, even though he&amp;#039;s scheduled one for this afternoon. This will leave the whole thing hanging fire over a long holiday weekend, which will give Lindsey Graham and John McCain another chance to yell BENGHAZI!!!11!!!!! on the television set again while the rest of the elves set to work plumbing Hagel&amp;#039;s career for evidence of insufficient fealty to the hysteria of the moment. First, today, we had the marvelous spectacle of the tiny citizen-journalists over at Breitbart&amp;#039;s Marble Coffin And Pantograph, claiming that Hagel had been involved with an organization that probably doesn&amp;#039;t exist. Then, we had the Washington Free Beacon and its dauntless pursuit of the speeches Hagel has given to one organization or another. First, there was the one to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League that has finally emerged, and which even Tiger Beat On The Potomac concedes may be a nothingburger. Right-wing outlets were certainly hoping for more. Ayoub says that staffers from the Washington Free Beacon, which is backed by the conservative Center for American Freedom, showed up at ADC offices and harassed them for the tape. &amp;quot;They came to our offices -- threatening us, demanding information, arguing with security. They got very abrasive, very aggressive,&amp;quot; Ayoub said. &amp;quot;In fact, the FBI was in here last week because of those type of threats.&amp;quot; According to the Free Beacon, a reporter went to the ADC&amp;#039;s office on Tuesday to request the video and ADC Vice President Nabil Mohamad said the video was currently in an &amp;quot;archive&amp;quot; in Maryland and not available. The Free Beacon said its follow up phone calls and emails were ignored and a reporter was not allowed to enter the office on Wednesday. The Free Beacon also wrote that another reporter was accused of &amp;quot;racism and bigotry, of making threats against the organization, and was told that the &amp;#039;authorities&amp;#039; had been informed of his request.&amp;quot; Nevertheless, The Free Beacon -- which considers the ADC a &amp;quot;controversial organization,&amp;quot; largely so that Matthew Continetti doesn&amp;#039;t get the cold shoulder at dinner with the in-laws -- would like some applause, please, for the vigor with which it drove the nails into its own palms. Later, when a second reporter telephoned the ADC to inform the group of the legal requirement, he was accused of racism and bigotry, of making threats against the organization, and was told that the &amp;quot;authorities&amp;quot; had been informed of his request.  Now, though, the latest tiny hand grenade seems to be a speech that Hagel gave in 2007 in which he was not nearly as belligerent as regards Iran as conventional Washington politesse demands. Given that it is six years old, and given that it starts right at the beginning with praise for the Bush administration&amp;#039;s policy of letting Iran have a role in helping to stabilize the region, the only reason this speech should be in any way controversial is for people to holler Soft On Iran! in 2013, when it is a article of faith on the lunatic right that Iran wants a nuclear bomb so that it can end the world and usher in the rule of the 12th Imam. In the Middle East of the 21st Century, Iran will be a key center of gravity...a significant regional power. The United States cannot change that reality. America&amp;#039;s strategic 21st century regional policy for the Middle East must acknowledge the role of Iran today and over the next 25 years. To acknowledge that reality in no way confuses Iran&amp;#039;s dangerous, destabilizing and threatening behavior in the region. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and provides material support to Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups. Iran publicly threatens Israel and is developing the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Iran has not helped stabilize the current chaos in Iraq and is responsible for weapons and explosives being used against U.S. and Iraqi military forces in Iraq. Iran must be held accountable for its actions. These actions by Iran are one part of a complicated picture of a country with a three thousand year history, governed by a complex and opaque political structure, burdened by a stagnating economy, and located in a geostrategically unstable region. At worst, here, what Hagel is saying sounds in spirit like the pragmatic warnings that George Ball gave to Lyndon Johnson about Vietnam in 1965. Look at the world the way it is, not the way you want it to be. Later in the speech, Hagel even summons up the ghost of St. Ronnie to help him argue his case. Yet it was President Reagan who, in 1986, almost reached an agreement with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to abolish nuclear weapons. President Reagan understood the need for America to engage...to understand our friends and our adversaries...to explore our options...to identify common interests. President Reagan understood that great powers engage because they are secure in their beliefs and purpose but humble and wise in their policies and actions.  And, not for nothing, but it was Saint Ronnie who sold missiles to the mullahs, a highly impeachable enterprise designed and executed by a whole lot of Matt Continetti&amp;#039;s father-in-law&amp;#039;s really close friends. If this speech is all they have, then they really don&amp;#039;t have anything unless, like Continetti&amp;#039;s blood-soaked father-in-law, you&amp;#039;re spoiling to send someone else&amp;#039;s kids off to another excellent war. And, in any case, what in god&amp;#039;s name does any of this have to do with being Secretary Of Defense in 2013? The way I see it, there are at least four people standing between Secretary Hagel and whatever foreign policy decisions the president wants to make, John Brennan being first among them.If you believe that Chuck Hagel is some sort of soft-on-jihadi apparatchik who aims to weaken the American military in the face of the push for the worldwide caliphate, you at least should have the courage to get up and say so. At least the people who are holding up his nomination simply to fck with the president are acting out of good, rational, easily-understood hypocrisy. The rest of it are the people with the blood still on their hands. 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<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a17489/the-hagel-saga-grinds-on/>