this was in a book an interview that you gave to aaron david miller. and you said, i've always argued against some of the dumb things they do, because i don't think it's in the interest of israel. here's my problem with your position at this point. you have corrected the term jewish lobby. and i assume now the correct term would be israel lobby or israeli lobby. do you still stand by your statement that they succeed in this town, that they succeed in this town because of intimidation, and that it amounts to us -- causing us to do dumb things? because senator, you are here today as a potential secretary of defense, and it would seem to me that however you characterize them, you have suggested that there is an effective lobby out there, whether you call them the jewish lobby, the israeli lobby or israel lobby and that they succeed on doing dumb things through intimidation and that u.s. policy has been the wrong approach, because the intimidation has worked. so when you talked about the jewish lobby, were you talking about apack? minor pack? christians un

aaron david miller, you know, there was no foreign policy this week, and he called mr. obama the extricater in chief, a praise i rather liked, but other than that, i really found the commentary westbound quite dreary about a quite uninspiring and effective speech. >> the point is most liberal like these things. there's nothing in this particularly liberal. and it's gotten to the point that if you're a liberal you have to like every idea that barack obama has. and since 1980, i don't understand, like, why are-- the economy is turning around now and he wants to talk about raising the minimum wage? i mean, it just isn't-- this is not an inspiring reaction to what's going on. >> jon: cal. >> i wrote in a column this week, a higher authority to. and the president, the recycling old ideas. the guys are so deep in the tank with this guy if he came up they'd suffer from the bends. he didn't call the president a liar, but came close to it said all of his claims were fantastic. he mentioned head start. he wants pre-k, 3 to 4, and head start has been shown to be a failure. >> like

the individual to whom chuck hagel used the words jewish lobby and aaron david miller who has served as secretary of states rs and ds. it's the old case of get beyond the headline, go deep on the substance, and when you get there, there's no there there. did he do well in the hearings? no, he didn't. he could have been stellar in those hearings, they're offended by the fact that he's willing to serve this president. >> and rachel, to a lot of points made here, this is a vietnam vet, you heard john mccain complement him when taken on by ted cruz here. they believe he will be confirmed and they believe that the republicans somehow will pay for this with public opinion. what do you think there? >> i think there's a little bit of a question at this point about what the end game is for republicans, what do they hope to achieve at this point? are they really trying to kill this nomination? because at this point it does look like we're going to move to a volt, there's a question about whether this will happen after this recess or whether it will happen tomorrow, it could happen quite soon,

aaron david miller is vice president for new initiatives at the woodrow wilson center.as an adviser on the middle east to both democratic and republican secretaries of state. and joe klein is a columnist for "time" magazine. gentlemen, buzz feed pointed out that there seems to be a new and unfair standard being placed on chuck hagel as bush era nominees weren't pressed on their foreign ties. quote, condoleezza, donald rum feld, paul o'neill, and henry paulson all had connections to foreign entities that paid them. chevron, on whose board rice sat, even named an oil tanker after her. yet these nominees weren't asked to make the same kind of disclosure that is are being demanded of hagel. joe klein, what's going on? >> i think it's about what "i"s, israel and iran. the republican base is not very happy with hagel's moderate, realistic positions on those issues, and so the senators are reacting to that. >> the hearing wasn't pretty, but nor was it really effective in torpedoing his nomination. do you agree? >> i thought it was dreadful on all sides. it was just an embarras

that's why during the armed services hearing i asked senator hagel about why he told author aaron david millerhat the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here and that he always argued against some of the dumb things they do. let me make this clear: americans who come to washington and advocate for israel do meaningful work and advance a strong sovereign and democratic israel, america's closest ally in the middle east. mr. hagel did not defend his comments at the hearing. instead he blamed his statements on a poor choice of words. i'll say. congressional action such as tough iran sanctions and greater military cooperation with israel are not the products of intimidation. to suggest otherwise challenges the bipartisan judgment of the men and women elected to serve in this chamber. when questioned by senator graham during the hearing, senator hagel could not name one person in congress who had been intimidated or one dumb thing that congress had done because of the pro-israel lobby. one or two troubling statements might not be disqualifying when taken alone, but all of the positions take

aaron david miller is vice aaron david miller is vice president