and if the republican candidate, for example, was chuck hagel i would have no hesitation in supporting chuck hagel. >> so on iraq your strongest feelings. >> i think the iraq adventure is a profound misadventure. who was hoisted on this country by demagoguey from the top down. it involved basic misjudgment of what was needed and how to go about pursuing what was needed. and the consequences are visible to all. our credibility worldwide has been shot. our legitimacy has been undermined. and last but not least, global respect for our power has been much reduced. >> i want to go back to the videotape from 1989 and what you had to say about mr. gorbachev and the soviet union. >> i don't have to dif resht between mr. gorbachev the human being and the fate of the policy he's promoting. he certainly is a very intelligent person. he makes a very good impression. that's why he's so attractive he stands in such contrast to those who proceeded him. his policies which are based on two russian words which have come to be well known. are designed to promote a reform of a system that he recognizes ha

with that, i would like to turn the podium over to atlantic council chairman, senators chuck hagel whowill say a few words and introduce dr. ackermann. i will not give you his entire resume, but i think it's important to note that aside from being a decorated soldier and seasoned statesman, he's also an accomplished entrepreneur and businessman. this week, if you don't mind me saying so, senator hagel, we are particularly proud of the role you played on memorial day remembering the vietnam war when you introduced president barack obama in a ceremony that highlighted the tremendous of the vietnam veteran including yourself and your brother and his country's continuing obligations out of their service. on the hatch for, before representing nebraska term in the u.s. senate, senator hagel worked in the private sector as president of mccarthy & co. investment banking firm in oman. he also served as chairman of the board of american information systems and before joining mccarthy u.s. president and chief president and chief executive officer of the private sector council in washington. he's

i would like to turn the podium over to atlantic council chairman senator chuck hagel who will say a few words and introduced dr. ackermann. i will not give you his entire resume, but i think it is important to note that aside from being a decorated soldier and senior statesman, he is also .n accomplished business anman we are particularly proud of the role you played on memorial day remembering the vietnam war when you introduced president barack obama in the ceremony that highlighted the tremendous heroism of vietnam veterans, including yourself and your brother, and this country's continuing obligation to honor their service. on on to parricide -- on the entrepreneurial side, he worked in the private sector as president of mccarthy and company, an investment-banking firm in omaha. he also served as chairman of the board of american information systems. before joining mccarthy, he was president and chief executive officer of the private sector council in washington. he has been a steady and moderate voice of all of the core issues from dealing with to thenuclear ambitions future ro

ronald reagan, jeb bush, bob bennett, bob english, chuck hagel, mitch daniels, mickey edwards to name a few of many are plenty conservative and not extreme. now i'm going to suggest that a party can be extreme in three ways and i will discuss each. tactics, ideology and rhetoric. first tactics. i should emphasize tactics do depend on context. i posit that the gop has adopted a set of parliamentary tactics in a nonparliamentary system in a way that is unlike any we have seen before. underscoring some of jeb bush's points, purely oppositional and obstructionist disdaining problem-solving, defining its partisan adversary as the enemy and opposing positions often because of who is supporting them, not because of what is in them. now the first evidence comes from the filibuster, let me put up a chart. which is now being applied in a fashion unseen in all of previous american history. i don't have time to go over the history of the filibuster. much of it is in the book. did i mention it makes a great holiday gift? but, let me say that in the past filibusters were used rarely for an issues o