I would like to challenge the meme that Chuck Hagel is a Republican and, therefore, should not be supported in any fashion on the DailyKos. There are a lot of former Republicans who are now DailyKos members in good standing. A very important one once was, in case you didn't know.
People's opinions evolve. The warmongering talking heads are going through everything Senator Hagel has ever said with a very fine sieve to dredge up excuses to keep him from being nominated for Secretary of Defense for two main reasons: he is against going to war with Iran, and he is in favor of "paring down" the "bloated" defense budget.
President Obama has him on his short list for SecDef for a lot of good reasons:
1. Chuck Hagel, a decorated Viet Nam Vet, had Obama's back against fellow Viet Nam Vet, Senator McCain, the first go around when McCain questioned Obama's patriotism.
2. Chuck Hagel mirrored President Obama's stance on Iran, favoring detente over war.
3. Chuck Hagel criticized the war in Iraq at a time when the warmongers questioned your patriotism for doing so, and spoke in favor of ending it.
Americans voted for Obama based on his reluctance to start a war with Iran, both in the primary against Hillary Clinton, who discussed the possibility of obliterating Iran, and against McCain, who sang about bomb, bomb, bombing Iran. They voted for Obama, because he promised he would end the war in Iraq.
Everyone here is correctly up in arms over the threat to gut Social Security now that the warmongers have recklessly spent us over a fiscal cliff on their endless series of wars based on lies, but no one seems to appreciate the reality that Chuck Hagel is one of the only politicians, who as Secretary of Defense, would have the guts and street cred to stand up to the war machine and cut the sacrosanct and out of control Pentagon budget before grandma is thrown under the bus.
Being a Viet Nam veteran with 2 purple hearts gives him the wherewithal to do this, which is why the war machine fears him and is vehemently smearing him, just as they've done to vets before him.
Let's go back to 2008: Viet Nam Veteran and Republican Senator John McCain vs. Democratic Senator Barack Obama. Before Senator Obama's trip to Iraq with Senators Hagel and Reed, who are both Viet Nam veterans, a WashPo/ABC poll reported 72% felt McCain would be a good Commander-in-Chief, whereas only 48% favored Obama.
That trip Obama took to Iraq with Senator Hagel was a huge boost to his campaign, and Senator Hagel went to bat for Senator Obama over and over again on the MSM talking head shows.