This actually is a common claim. I had to listen to Hussain Ibish a whole lot more than I ever wanted to, and will never forget his line "the Israel lobby is like the Corn lobby."

Remember that we are dealing with people who lack the ability of logical thought....

Iran and DKPR are actually quite similar in a way -- despotic leaders and a populace that really wishes they would go away. The Iranians are all in their 20's -- the generation that would be in their 40s were all killed in the wars -- and they want to be French. To party and have girls looking pretty and the rest. And the North Koreans simply want to eat. Remember when the tanks ran over the officers of the unit that complained about stufff? That is what is going on there.

Both regimes are dangerous and dangerous to the USA.

"Why not find a Republican governor at the top of his/her game, a politician with a remarkable career to advertise, preferably one that involves turning around a state in trouble, and who has the rhetorical skills necessary to attract voters from the center-Left? And how about someone who is interesting, fun, and not "conflicted" when it comes to rape, nor prone to preaching about her religious beliefs, nor tempted to wade into the abortion wars, unsympathetic to gay-bashing, in favor of conserving the natural beauty of the United States, and both fun and interesting?"

That's how we got Mitt Romney......

Forget "Canary in the Coal Mine" and look at Egypt. These folks can and will kill Christians just as fast as they will kill Jews -- and they are quite explicit about the "Little Satan" (Israel) and the "Big Satan" (USA) -- and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that it isn't just the Israelis whom they wish to "push into the sea."

From what I have seen North Korea isn't even particularly anti-Semetic and may well be a bigger immediate threat (itself) to Japan than anyone else. Even the ChiComs don't like DKRP -- it has to do with things like forging their currency, being the route via which one smuggles foreign-made automobiles into China without paying import duties, and the stealing of trains. Seriously -- the ChiComs provide North Korea with grain so as not to have hordes of refugees crossing into China,and the North Koreans literally stole the trains -- let the crews walk across the bridge back to China but wouldn't let the trains go back. Now the Chinese load the grain into "old" boxcars that they know they won't get back and just push them across the river -- get them up to speed on the Chinese side of the border and then just let the uncoupled cars fly downrange on their own without either brakes or an engine (or crew) where they eventually stop somewhere on the North Korean side of the border.

When people proclaim that they want to kill *me* -- and are working on a means as to how to do so -- I am inclined to (a) believe them and (b) to consider others whom they also wish to kill as natural allies against a common threat. And when even the ChiComs are afraid of North Korea, that gets my attention.

There is one other wild card here -- mental illness and/or stroke(s). Hagel is likely at high risk for the latter -- those with a mercurial personality tend to run high blood pressure, and he is old enough to be worried about that. A mercurial personality -- as we have had described by Senate colleagues and hinted to by staffers -- can also be mental illness related -- and he well may either not remember having said some of the things he said. This is a wild card and I admit it as such -- but never forget that Towers wasn't confirmed to the same position 3 decades ago out of concerns that he drank too much.

And I would be REALLY surprised if there weren't videotapes of his speeches, quietly tucked away in the admin building...

Gramps -- I would be quite surprised if Alana Goodman was wrong.

There likely IS a tape, quite possibly a videotape -- most large universities -- and I *know* that UMass Amherst does this -- quietly record any event that may be controversial. UMass used to go so far as to have the campus police collect samples of the fliers that were posted on bulletin boards across campus.

The administration does this so that they know - and can prove - what was or was not said. Then when the big money donors call to complain, they have somewhere to start with damage control. And the audio recording literally is nothing more than popping a standard cassette tape into the PA machine.

I disagree. I still am reminded of how the Battleship Bismark was sunk -- after she had sunk the HMS Hood and seemed invincible, it was one lucky shot hitting the rudder, jamming it so that the Bismark could only go in one gigantic circle, it was a whole lot of smaller & much weaker vessels that sunk her.

Sinking Hagel will pull in Obama's wings at least a little, and Obama very much could hurt Israel. Let's start with the F-16s going to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and then the Iranian Nuke problem, and that's just for starters.

I should add, however, that I don't consider Israel to be a "Jewish" issue -- it's more a Western Civilization one and the question of if we are going to live in the 21st Century or the 14th. And as to genocide -- it is Christians that they are killing in Egypt right now (big time), but I have no doubt that they would kill Jews just as quickly.

Alana, I know how much you like investigative journalism, how good you are at it, and I suspect that you will find no shortage of things to report on.

But don't forget to take credit for what you have accomplished.

If Hagel's nomination goes down in flames, you will have been no small part of why it did -- you hung on long enough for the opposition to him to broaden into quite an interesting mosaic of opposition. A lot of things about him are now in the public domain and even if he is confirmed, he will be held to a far higher level of scrutiny and thus somewhat neutered.

You likely gave Team NoBama heartburn with the WARN act, and simply taking the initiative to call Planned Parenthood of Virginia and reporting that *they* require an ultrasound prior to an abortion was a stroke of pure genius. Your interviews with the North Korean artist and disabled veterans were not only well done but gave voice to a perspective that very rarely appears in print.

You have done well -- be proud of your accomplishments.

It appears to be a 501(c)(4) that doesn't have to disclose that information.