Politics | Chuck Hagel Hagel's Skill: Saying What We Want to Hear Bret Stephens: Former senator is no GOP maverick By Matt Cantor Posted Jan 8, 2013 12:43 PM CST Copied In this June 26, 2008 file photo, then Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., speaks on foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File) Chuck Hagel showed courage in Vietnam—but those who hail him for the bravery to stand against his party have it wrong, writes Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal. The truth is, Hagel is just good at taking views "exactly in keeping with received Beltway wisdom." Take his 1998 attack on Clinton nominee James Hormel for being "openly, aggressively gay," then his apology last year. Or his support for Don't Ask, Don't Tell in 1999 and his rejection of it "when his name made Mr. Obama's shortlist for secretary of defense." Then there's his support for force in Iraq in 2002, and his call for an exit from the unpopular war in 2006. And when he's been wrong, he doesn't "hold himself to account," Stephens writes. In the Washington Post, however, Dana Milbank feels quite differently. Hagel faced multiple mine explosions in Vietnam: "This is not a man who is going to shrink from a fight with the chicken hawks of the Senate." As for President Obama, "who has too often shied from forceful leadership, the Hagel nomination was a welcome sign that he is willing to pick a fight in his second term." Click for Milbank's full piece, or Stephens'. Read These Next Her blood isn't compatible with anyone else's. Rubio says the fate of Iran's conversion facility is what matters. Some of the most explosive Diddy allegations are dropped. Iran's supreme leader makes first public comments since ceasefire. Report an error