Neocons, wearing jackboots, are suddenly on the defensive over Hagel

The Chuck Hagel debate has moved into a new phase: the neoconservatives are completely on the defensive. NYT op-eds by Tom Friedman ("Give Chuck a Chance") and James Besser ("Don't Let Pro-Israel Extremists Sink Chuck Hagel") have now successfully positioned Hagel as a centrist being attacked by extremists. And the neoconservatives have got their back up, as you will see below.

American Jewish Committee Demonstrates That Lobby Effort To Sink Hagel Has Backfired

their dreams of never-ending occupation will be dashed.

by: MJ Rosenberg on December 29th, 2012

At this point, it is still not clear who will be appointed Secretary of Defense. I continue to believe that former Senator Chuck Hagel will not get the job because President Obama has never said “no” to the lobby about anything. And the lobby (whether you call it the Israel Lobby or the Jewish Lobby) has never been as united about any internal U.S. matter as it is about stopping Hagel. My guess is that Obama will choose former Pentagon official, Michele Flournoy, in the hope that the excitement about a woman as Defense secretary will make observers forget that she only got the appointment because Obama was afraid to take on AIPAC.

Don’t Let Pro-Israel Extremists Sink Chuck Hagel

POLITICAL movements that depend on broad popular support but are driven by extremists can eventually become self-destructive — a lesson the Republican Party learned at great cost in November, and which the gun-rights lobby may be about to learn in the wake of the latest school shooting.