Today I stand in praise Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a man of deep integrity who is willing to buck his party for the greater good of American democracy.

In 2002, Republicans engaged in demagogic attacks on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle for daring to question the conduct of the war on terrorism. As I wrote at the time in The American Prospect Online, “Hagel was the first leading Republican to disavow these criticisms, telling CNN’s Jonathan Karl that while Daschle ‘may have used a bit of a blunt object in some of his language … the foundational part of his question was appropriate.’ Hagel also said, ‘I don’t think there’s any question that Senator Daschle supports the president’ and was reportedly critical of Lott’s statement.”

Yesterday, Hagel again stood up for open democratic debate during a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations, challenging the Bush administration’s latest attack on dissent (link via The Note):

The Iraq war should not be debated in the United States on a partisan political platform. This debases our country, trivializes the seriousness of war and cheapens the service and sacrifices of our men and women in uniform. War is not a Republican or Democrat issue. The casualties of war are from both parties. The Bush Administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge or criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democracy nor what this country has stood for, for over 200 years. The Democrats have an obligation to challenge in a serious and responsible manner, offering solutions and alternatives to the Administration’s policies.

Vietnam was a national tragedy partly because Members of Congress failed their country, remained silent and lacked the courage to challenge the Administrations in power until it was too late. Some of us who went through that nightmare have an obligation to the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam to not let that happen again. To question your government is not unpatriotic — to not question your government is unpatriotic. America owes its men and women in uniform a policy worthy of their sacrifices.

Amen.