Hagel Still Vague On Political Future

Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and outspoken critic of the Iraq war, said he will wait until later this year to decide whether he will run for president during a speech at his alma mater Monday in Omaha, Neb.

"I want to keep my focus on helping find a responsible way out of this tragedy," Hagel said of the Iraq war.

According to a new CBS News/New York Times poll, 75 percent of Americans have not heard enough about Hagel to form an opinion. Six percent said they did not view Hagel favorably, while 4 percent did.

Among Republican primary voters, the numbers are similar, with 76 percent saying they don't know enough about Hagel to form an opinion.

Hagel is probably best known to voters as a high-profile critic of the Bush administration, which dates back to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

That criticism evolved into heated discordance in January when the Nebraska Republican called President Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder carried out since Vietnam."

Within a week, Hagel helped craft a resolution opposing the plan with two Democrats, Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Joseph Biden of Delaware. A week after that, Hagel accused the Bush administration of playing "a pingpong game with American lives."

Hagel's rhetoric drew the public ire of Vice President Dick Cheney, who told Newsweek in January that following Republican icon Ronald Reagan's mantra not to speak ill of another Republican is sometimes hard to follow "where Chuck Hagel is involved."

There has been speculation in political circles for more than a year that he might seek the Republican nomination for president in 2008. Hagel has said for weeks that he would make an announcement about his future "soon" but hasn't indicated whether that announcement would reveal his presidential aspirations, if any, or whether he would seek re-election to the Senate in 2008.

Now he's joined the "wait-and-see club," which allows possible candidates to leave the door open, CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports. At this early stage in the race, a few candidates, mostly in the Republican party, figure they have nothing to lose by waiting.

Former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson is another.

"I want to see how my colleagues on the campaign trail do, what they say, what they emphasize," Thompson told Fox News.

Hagel, 60, is scheduled to appear with nine declared presidential hopefuls at the International Association of Fire Fighters' annual meeting next Wednesday. Each participant in the bipartisan forum will have 30 minutes to discuss why he or she should be the next president.

Hagel has been the most outspoken Republican critic of Mr. Bush's policy.

"We can't change the outcome of Iraq by putting American troops in the middle of a civil war," Hagel said last month.

If Hagel decides to run for president, he'll be joining an already crowded field of Republican candidates which includes: U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.

That number could grow as former Republican politicians Newt Gingrich and Fred Thompson weigh possible bids.

Hagel's staunch opposition to the administration's Iraq policy is shaped in part by his experience as an Army sergeant in Vietnam, where he served side-by-side with his brother Tom. He was twice wounded in 1968, one of the bloodiest years of the war, earning two Purple Hearts.

Born Charles Timothy Hagel in North Platte on Oct. 4, 1946, he spent his childhood moving from one Nebraska town to the next as his father managed various lumber yards.

Hagel's father died while the future senator was still in high school. After that, Hagel helped his mother raise his three younger brothers.

It wasn't until 1996 that Hagel — then a political unknown — made his first bid for public office, garnering 62 percent of the vote to soundly defeating Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg in the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Jim Exon. He went on to win the general election, scoring 56 percent of the vote against the Democratic candidate, incumbent Gov. Ben Nelson.

Nelson was elected in his second try for the Senate in 2000.

Hagel was re-elected in 2002, winning 83 percent of the vote against Democrat Charlie Matulka, an unemployed construction worker.

The political speculation generated by Hagel's announcement Monday is the most seen in the state since Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., called a similar news conference regarding his political future nine years ago.

Kerrey, who had run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, surprised Nebraskans and Washington politicos alike by announcing not only by not only dismissing a run for president, but announcing his decision not to seek a third term in the Senate.

Despite Hagel's rifts with Republicans on Iraq, he chafes at suggestions that he is less-than-conservative, pointing to his desire to reduce the scope of the federal government and give more control to states and cities. He opposes abortion rights and has said the only exception for abortion should be when the life of the mother is in danger.

Hagel is a familiar figure on political talk shows, a comfortable format for the one-time Nebraska and Iowa newscaster and talk show host who got his training at the Brown Institute for Radio and Television in Minneapolis, Minn.

Hagel first gained national prominence as co-chairman of Sen. John McCain's 2000 presidential bid. Hagel's no-nonsense, speak-your-mind style on foreign policy and national security led to his countless guest appearances on such news shows as NBC's "Meet the Press," CBS' Face the Nation and CNN's "Late Edition."

Hagel has served as a deputy whip for the Republican Party, but his independence and bluntness have often ruffled his more senior Republican colleagues.

He first got a taste of life as a beltway insider the early 1970s. After graduating from college in 1971, he joined the staff of U.S. Rep. John McCollister, R-Neb., in Washington. He spent six years with the representative, serving as an administrative assistant and later as senior congressional aide.

He later became a lobbyist and campaigned heavily for Ronald Reagan in 1980. He served briefly as deputy administrator of the Veterans' Administration under Reagan.

In 1982, he left the VA to become co-founder, director and president of Collins, Hagel and Clarke Inc., an international consulting, marketing and investment company involved in cellular telecommunications. In 1985, he became co-founder, director and executive vice president of Vanguard Cellular Systems Inc. and chairman of Communications Corporation International LTD.

Hagel's success in the private sector made him a millionaire.

He served as president and chief executive officer for the World USO from 1987 to 1990.

Hagel and his wife, Lilibet, have two children, 16-year-old daughter Allyn and 14-year-old son Ziller.