NE-Sen: Hagel is out

It's official.

Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, a thorn in his own party's side when it comes to Iraq, announced Monday he would retire from the Senate and not seek any elected office in 2008.

"I said after I was elected in 1996 that 12 years in the Senate would probably be enough, and it is," Hagel said.

It's now Democrat Bob Kerrey's seat to lose. And while we run the threat of having another Lieberdem in the Senate, Kerrey is actually a pretty solid Democrat aside from the war and social security.

Below I have Kerrey's 1998 interest group ratings. In parenthesis, I'm including Ben Nelson's 2004 numbers for comparison purposes. (Nelson replaced Kerrey in the Senate.)

Americans for Democratic Action (liberal group)
95 (65)

ACLU
86 (33)

AFSCME (labor union)
100 (86)

League of Conservation Voters (environment)
100 (67)

Concord Coalition (fiscal conservatives, pro-balanced budget)
86 (81)

National Taxpayers Union (conservative anti-tax group)
22 (34)

Chamber of Commerce (conservative pro-big business group)
56 (81)

American Conservative Union
0 (52)

Christian Coalition
0 (83)

Kerrey was one of a very small group of senators to vote against Clinton's welfare reform bill, voted against the anti-gay "Defense of Marriage Act", voted against a flag burning amendment, and his Supreme Court judgment was excellent -- he voted for David Souter and against Clarence Thomas.

All of that, from a Senator from Nebraska.

If Kerrey can avoid the impulse to attack the party from within (the main reason he is a borderline Lieberdem), he would be far better -- issues wise -- than our current Nebraska Democratic senator.