Chuck Hagel's Quixotic Quest To Stay Relevant

If it weren't for these monthly reappearances and bold proclamations signifying nothing, we'd forget Chuck Hagel were still alive.

Now he pops up again offering more vagaries, declines to endorse John McCain, and again sucks up to Barack Obama.

Senator Chuck Hagel declined to endorse his party's likely presidential nominee, John McCain, and said he would consider serving as secretary of defense in a Barack Obama administration.

Hagel, who last year considered a White House run as an independent, said he would remain a registered Republican: ``I don't know forever, but right now I'm not considering changing my registration.''

``I don't have any plans to endorse any candidate,'' Hagel, 61, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt,'' to be broadcast today.

The Nebraska senator broke with his party over the war in Iraq, calling it a ``catastrophic mistake.'' He voted with Democrats to withdraw troops and against President George W. Bush's so-called surge that boosted the number of soldiers in Baghdad last year.

Yes, the so-called surge that was wildly successful. Apparently Hagel hasn't heard about that since the media is doing their best to ignore it.