Will the Real Chuck Hagel Please Stand Up?

Senator Chuck Hagel (R -NE) has gotten a lot of attention for breaking party ranks and being outspoken on the Iraq War. Hagel impressed the lefty blogosphere when he ripped Joe Lieberman apart on a recent appearence on Meet the Press.



Hagel is considering running for President and he even mentioned he might run as an independent. When looking at where Hagel stands on the issues, Hagel is not the straight shooting maverick that he seems. He is very conservative and hasn't found a corporate give away that he does not like.

What Happened to My Country takes a look at Hagel's record and brings up this important information on Hagel's background: Hagle used to be CEO of a company that made electronic voting machines.

In 1996 when Hagel first ran in Nebraska for the U.S. Senate, his company's computer-controlled voting machines showed he'd won stunning upsets in both the primaries and the general election.

According to Bev Harris of Black Box Voting, 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, and as his website said, 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."

What Hagel's website fails to disclose is that about 80 percent of those votes were counted by computer-controlled voting machines put in place by the company affiliated with Hagel.

Some candidates have fundraising ability, some have name recognition, some are great public speakers, Hagel has voting machines.